Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We spent the afternoon at Grandma's house where we carved our pumpkins. This year Garrett got to carve his own pumpkin. Anna did hers with a little help and Sam really had no interest in carving pumpkins.

For about the last 4 years I have really disliked Halloween. It was exhausting. It was a battle to get everyone dressed, the kids were excited and I was yelling. Once everyone was finally dressed I would attempt the picture--I could never get a good picture and would eventually give up. I was mad before we left the house. We usually only made about 5 stops and then at least 1 kid was crying and Mom was exhausted and we had plenty of candy. I think we have finally turned the corner--Halloween was actually kind of enjoyable for me this year. I don't have to carry any kids or worry about dirty diapers. So here are some pictures of my darling little Trick-or-Treaters!

Anna the Mermaid.
My Mom is the costume artist.
Sam the baseball player.
Sam loves to play baseball so I chose his costume this year.
Garrett wanted to be something SCARY so he chose Frankinstein. It was simple so I agreed.
Here is the group picture I managed to get. I guess I had a little advantage this year since Garrett had a mask. That was one less kid I had to worry about having an open mouth or closed eyes.

Stilts and Pumpkins

Mimma & Papa came to visit over the weekend. Several weeks ago Anna decided she needed stilts. When you are 4 and really want something, what do you do? Call Papa. So, Papa made a pair of stilts for each of the kids. They had a great time.

Garrett got the hang of it right away.



Anna is one determined little girl. It did not take her long and she was walking around the yard without any assistance.

My kids love to go to the pumpkin patch. We may live in a very small town (pop. 197) in Central Kansas where there is not a lot going on but when October arrives there is a very cool pumpkin patch 1 mile south of town. In years when the weather in nice we might visit the pumpkin patch 2 or 3 times. So, this weekend while my parents were visiting we make our first trip of the season to Granny Mae's Pumpkin Patch. Interests have changed a little now that they are older. We used to only do the barrel train, play on the big round hay bales and get a few pumpkins. Now that they are older they have discovered the corn maze and some old fashion carnival games. Our one steady tradition through the years that the kids look forward to is having a bottled Root Beer and making S'mores over the fire.


Enjoy the next few photos from Granny Mae's. Sam was home taking a nap so I didn't take the time to get a picture of all the kids. I will attempt that on our next trip to Granny Mae's.



Anna picked her perfect pumpkin. It was just her size.

Anna gave Garrett a ride in the pumpkin wagon while we were picking our own pumpkin.
Then they traded and big brother did the work.

Colorado Vacation

OK, so it has been a while since I posted anything. So, I am playing catch-up now. Here are some pictures from a trip we took to Colorado in August. The occasion was a Thielen Family Reunion. We stayed at Mount Princeton Resort near Buena Vista. We all had a great time. Some of the family lives in the Boulder, CO area. Several of us came from Kansas and we even had a cousin come from Portland, OR.


Standing in front of the cabin we stayed in.


Before we left the kids played on some rocks.



We spent lots and lots of time swimming. The "cold" pool was 80 degrees. There were 3 other pools 90 and 100 degrees. We never took advantage of the spa but there was also a spa offering massages and facials.

The next 2 photos are of my brother-in-law, Matt and his daughter, Hallie, going down the slide. It appeared to be an old slide. There were rubber mats that we carried to the top of the slide and would sit on while sliding down. Sometimes those mats would get caught and you would slip off then it would not be such a smooth ride down.


Joe took Anna & Sam down the slide


Below is the cold pool with the mountains in the back ground. BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
Matt & Hallie having fun in the water.
Some of the Thielen family enjoying the water.
There was a stream that ran through the resort. Here Anna & Hallie took in the beauty of the mountain stream.

While some of the family went rafting we took the little kids up the mountain to the town of St. Elmo. It was a small ghost town that is being brought back to life. They are currently raising money for the project. The only life we saw in the area were little chipmunks that ate food from the kids' hands.

No trip with the family would be complete without a little foolery! I believe these came from a kids meal along the route to Colorado. Matt sported them during one of our many, Many, MANY bathroom stops.

Pedal Pullers

Garrett at the Czech Fest Pedal Pull.




Anna at the Czech Fest pedal pull.



A few weeks ago we made the pedal pull rounds in our area. Anna got 2nd place in her age group at the Russell County Fair. This was her first competition and she hopped on and just about ran over the toes of the man helping run the pull. She pulled the full distance and then was in a "pull off" with 2 boys. Our little farm girl came in 2nd place.

A few days later we went to the pedal pull at Czech Fest in Wilson. Anna took 2nd in her group and Garrett won his age group. He also pulled the full distance in his first round and then had to have a "pull off" with 2 other boys.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

We took a vacation to Des Moines, Iowa. We had a great time staying with our friends, Wayne and Marlene. In fact, the kids wanted to know when we get to go back, which might have something to do with our outing to Incredible Pizza. While there we did drag the kids to a few boring sites.

TRAIN--we went on the Boone, Iowa Scenic Railway. The town of Boone is NW of Des Moines. The train ride was 1 hour and 45 minutes. We decided to ride the caboose which did not have a bathroom. This was a bit of a gamble on our part as Sam has just been potty trained this summer, at that age, when they gotta go, THEY GOTTA GO! The gamble was worth it. We were the only ones in the caboose so the kids got to climb up to the top seating and they could look out of the caboose and see to the front of the train.

AUTOMOBILE--Of course we drove the blue mini van on the trip but I thought this made for a much more exciting automobile. It is amazing what kind of FREE entertainment you can find. We drove by a Dodge Dealership and saw this sitting in front so we stopped and got a free ride in the back of the monster truck. The kids loved it, although I'm not sure you can tell from this picture.

PLANE--On our way home we stopped to see a distant cousin of my late father-in-law. He has a couple airplanes. We opted for this plane as oppose to his stunt plane. I wasn't sure a stunt plane would be good for the kid's first airplane ride. It was great fun. We flew over Lawrence. Garrett told our pilot Nick who happens to be a KU fan that it smelled when we were over Lawrence. We also went over The Plaza, Arrowhead and The K. This was the first airplane ride for the kids. They didn't even need the barf bags I brought along.


Anna, loving her first airplane ride.

Garrett enjoyed the ride as well.


Sam was not quite as into the plane ride as the older kids.


A farmer can't drive through Nebraska and Iowa without checking out the corn.

Incredible Pizza

Incredible Pizza

Yes, more Incredible Pizza

We took a quick self guided tour of the capitol building in Des Moines. The dome is covered in 23 karat gold sheets. It really is pretty, inside and out.

Inside the capital.

Inside the dome.

More inside the dome.

One final story of our vacation: The night we arrived in Des Moines we were on the back deck visiting with our friends. The kids were playing in the back yard. I don't know about everyone elses kids, but mine can not stay away from water. Anna and Garrett were lying on their stomachs reaching into a very small fish pond. We told them they could not play in the water so as Anna was getting up a rock wobbled and she went into the pond head first. I looked soon enough to see her slither into the pond with a splash and her legs kicking around. As we lunged for the pool it seemed like it took her a long time to come up out of the water. If it would have been one of the boys they would have been crying, but not Anna, she came up out of there "madder than a wet hen." She marched into the house saying, "I did not like that." Of course we kept teasing her about going swimming with the fish and how she got to go swimming more than the boys on our vacation. I'm not sure she thinks it is that funny but we sure got a lot of laughs out of it. I'm sure glad my kids have a good sense of humor.

Memorial Day in Dorrance

This is where it all starts in Downtown Dorrance, Kansas. Our town population is less than 200 but we have an amazing crowd for Memorial Day. The festivities begin on the street in front of the American Legion. Bicycles, strollers, dogs, ATV's of all shapes and sizes and those walking on foot gather for the parade led by American Legion members and Sons of the American Legion. This year we were lucky enough to have Sam & Stan Langhofer from Topeka play the bagpipes. I just LOVE the sound of bagpipes. We walk from the legion to the city cemetery. The parade is amazing, there is no candy thrown and hardly any spectators, we ALL walk or ride in honor of those who served our country.


Garrett is ready to get the parade started with his decorated bike.



Anna has recently learned to ride her bike without training wheels so she loved showing off her new skills in the parade. Please notice the yellow bicycle horn on Anna's bike. My Mom thought that would be fun for the kids. I am wondering what I ever did to deserve the pain of listening to 3 kids honk bike horns non-stop.



This is some of the family walking in the parade. In the stroller is my newest niece, Avery. This is the first of many Dorrance Memorial Day parades for her. On the right you will notice Jody's "baby bump," next year she will also be pushing a stroller in the parade.


This is Garrett entering the cemetery.



As we arrived in the cemetery we were greeted by a flyover of a WWII replica bi-plane that was built by a local Dorrance resident. Thanks, Tom for the special treat.


The ceremony includes a firing squad made up of Legion Members and Sons of the Legion Members. My brother-in-law is the one wearing the sunglasses.

Sam and his Grandma listened to the ceremony. Sam's Great Aunt, Mary Kay is wearing the red shirt.


This was our scheduled flyover by a KC-135 tanker out of Forbes Field, Topeka, KS. We really are lucky to have local connections to get these things lined up for our small town.



Sam also had a sweet ride for the parade.

Anna and her cousin Hallie in the cemetery.