September Recap

September :)

I'd have to say that on the whole, usually it's a toss up between September and October for my favorite month. But since Mark is in the field most of October, I'd have to say that September is most definitely my favorite :)

I mean really, who doesn't love crisp air, the gradual changing leaves, PUMPKINS, pies, being able to bake again without heating the entire house up, and the rest of the magic that Autumn brings?

This month was a pleasant change from the hectic summer we've had, and we finally were able to settle in a little more. However, that doesn't mean that we didn't stay busy!

We began the month with doctor appointments (my 2nd prenatal and Kendrick's 2 year well child check) and then a fairly laid-back Labor Day weekend. (recap here.)

The rest of the month followed the pattern of working for the weekends. The weeks were relatively low-key (may I even say, boring?), and the weekends were full of fun fall activities.

• Jackson Kite Festival and Reinbows Fall Festival and Kids Rodeo (September 12)
• Sunday in Humboldt (September 13)
• King Turkey Day and Ocheda Orchard (September 19)

We also switched out our sliding glass door in the kitchen and changed up the window treatments, which, at least in my opinion, is a MAJOR change. Next up will be our flooring, but if you want a full recap of our selections for our small kitchen renovation project, check out the post here.

We were so saddened to hear of the loss of our good friends' 11 year old niece, who had been battling cancer for the better part of a year in the middle of the month and attended the visitation with some mutual friends. There's just never a good time to say goodbye to such a young person, much less a sweet little lady like Olivia. She was certainly wise beyond her years and I think she taught a lot of people more about life in her 11 years than many learn in a lifetime.

Mark and I enjoyed a wonderful anniversary weekend away to Alexandria, Minnesota for two nights that we SO enjoyed. A full recap is here.

Looking Ahead

Harvest is starting soon, and I'm doing my best to stay positive about it. The boys have both been SUPER owly lately, and especially destructive in completely ridiculous ways (a steak knife to the loaf of bread, anyone? Or how about we just let it rain legos and puzzle pieces all.over.the.house?), so I'm sure it will be interesting to see how we make it through the next month. I've found the key seems to be trying to keep a sense of routine, but also to stay busy enough that by the end of the night they are ready to go to bed willingly. Let's hope we all make it to the other end of it unscathed!

We have the big gender ultrasound scheduled for October 13 and hope Baby Johnson cooperates! We will have plenty of projects to tackle once we know the gender, including a good chunk of purging as well as rearranging bedrooms again so that Cashel, Kendrick and the toy room are downstairs, and the nursery will be where the toy room is currently, and Mark and I will be moving back upstairs to be near the nursery. Hopefully we can get the boys used to the changes (and sleeping through the night more regularly once Kendrick gets those last 2 molars through) well before baby comes in March.

Beyond that, we have family pictures scheduled with the fabulous Heather of Red Barn Photography in the middle of the month, and then my 34th birthday and Halloween at the end of the month, so we're sure to be busy!

I'm planning a weekend down to see my Mom at the beginning of November with the boys while Mark is hunting back at home, and by the month's end we will be celebrating Thanksgiving again. The holidays are creeping up on us and will be here before we know it! I think I'm one of the only people I know who actually get excited seeing Christmas decorations out in September ;)

Anniversary Weekend in Alexandria (September 25-27)

I feel like I should break this recap into two parts:

1. The part where I felt like crap.
2. The part where I felt pretty darn good.

The problem with breaking the recap into two parts is that the part where I felt great was sort of sandwiched in between the two parts where I felt like crap, so it'd be a little hard to keep anything sort of together there :)

But I digress...

Mark and I were so blessed to be able to slip away for a weekend together to celebrate our 9th anniversary together, and we did really have a nice weekend getaway :)

We had a much-too-busy afternoon Friday trying to get out of town (packing, dropping the boys off in Worthington, visitation for a church friend who recently passed away, and packing), and I wasn't feeling the greatest on the way up, but thankfully a good night's sleep remedied that, and I felt good the next day.

We didn't really make any big plans for Saturday in advance, just wanting to play it by ear and see how we felt. We enjoyed breakfast at Northwoods Cafe, a little locals cafe.

After breakfast, we made our way down to Menards to verify that the wood floors we had previously picked out were, indeed, what we wanted to go with (and they WERE!) and picked up a few other odds and ends.

We had scheduled a tee-time for 10:16am at Geneva Golf Course, so we made our way over there and had a wonderful couple hours golfing together.

It was my first time golfing...ever...and while our scores weren't all that great, we had a pretty awesome time together :)

Afterwards, we made our way back over by the shopping center for lunch at Doolittle's, which was EXCELLENT!

I enjoyed the roasted pear and chicken salad and Mark went with the Applewood bacon and smoked cheddar burger.

After lunch, we made a couple returns and shopped for a bit before heading back to the hotel to rest for a bit. After our naps, we went to explore the beautiful grounds around our resort, which was on the NW shore of Lake Darling. It was BEAUTIFUL!

We found this zip line and had to give it a try :)

After exploring a bit, we made our way back to our room and got showered up and ready for supper. We decided at the last minute to try Tennessee Roadhouse, and it ended up being a pretty good decision. It had a pretty honky tonk atmosphere, and I think staring at the delicious looking margaritas about did me in, but we enjoyed our food, and I'm still drooling over the mustard sauce!

Mark went with the pulled pork sandwich and I had the Cuban, and both were excellent. We'd certainly go back for that awesome mustard sauce, but be prepared as it's a little spendier than we were thinking it might be considering the atmosphere. We went with more inexpensive items on the menu, and our total was still almost $40. Had we done a steak or shrimp or something, it would've been closer to $60. (And that's without drinks.)

We were both stuffed to the brim by the time we left the restaurant, but decided we didn't want to turn in right away for the night, so we took advantage of the complementary putt-putt course they had on the grounds and did all 18 holes (although the back half was pretty much entirely in the dark). We had a lot of fun with it, and it made me think that the next date night we have in Sioux Falls (you know, all of about once a year), we should do Thunder Road :)

The next morning I woke up feeling pretty rough again. We had a BEAUTIFUL breakfast buffet at the Lake Cafe right on the premises (they seriously know how to do a brunch buffet!), but I wasn't feeling super awesome about halfway through, so I didn't really get to enjoy it as much as I probably would have normally. I also didn't bring my phone, so you'll have to use your imagination, but I would HIGHLY recommend the buffet! The only complaint I had at all was that, since I wasn't feeling my best, it would have been nice to have simple stuff like toast or english muffins to sort of pad the rest of it.

We barely made it back to our room again before I got relatively sick again, so while we had all these great aspirations to do things like do the putt-putt course again in the light...or go to the pool...or just for a walk...we pretty much sat in our room watching some really weird movie until it was time to check out. I was still feeling pretty uneasy at that point, but I made it to the car. After my morning experience, I was actually feeling a little hungry, but was uncertain if I should go all out and actually eat anything, so we just stopped by Caribou and I picked up a decaf vanilla latte, which seemed to settle my stomach enough, thankfully.

I was a little bummed that we didn't get to make it to some of the scenic lookouts or do any of the hikes, thanks to both being a little more winded than usual due to this baby and all the stomach issues, and the places being about 30 miles north of where we were staying, but we were rewarded with these incredible views along the way home, which was good enough for me!

We made it home a little earlier than we anticipated, which was nice, as we had a little time to get unpacked, start some laundry and make it to the gym before heading down to get the boys from Grandpa and Grandma's in Worthington. Reality had set back in before long for sure, but sometimes a little getaway is all it takes to learn to appreciate the normality of life.

It was unfortunate that I was feeling so crummy for so much of our trip, but I'm so grateful that we had such a wonderful time on Saturday. It was just the break we both needed to give us a chance to breathe a little and rest.

Lately in Windom

We started the month with a 3am breakfast thanks to a preschooler who hadn't napped the day before and fell asleep without supper at 5pm the previous night. Oy!

This little cutie had his 2 year checkup!

I got to meet one of my best friend's new baby boy :) They have such a cute family :)

You're allowed to be completely jealous of the new shelves that Mark made me. I'm in LOVE! (And for clarification, I'm in love with both the shelves AND the man who made them) ;)

Making cinnamon rolls with my boys

These guys love their Great Grandma Vi, but we can never get them to sit still enough to take a decent picture with her!

Kendrick was so super hungry while I was making supper one night that he couldn't wait any longer and decided to take matters into his own hands.

My baby started preschool this year ::sniff sniff::

A new door for our kitchen! We also replaced the old blinds with some new curtains. We LOVE the change!

These goofballs decided they wanted to eat their bread on the patio, but you can't keep them still for anything!

Even with a full mouth, he's still the cutest 3 year old I know :)

LOVING the cooler weather, as it lends to meals like this :)

So.Many.Bubbles! The boys loved this at the Jackson Kite Festival.

These two are just peas in a pod. Cashel hadn't eaten lunch well, so he was "so hungry" and needed popcorn. Kendrick decided Cashel should share, and Cashel didn't want to. As soon as Cashel would scoot down a bit, Kendrick would scoot down right next to him. Oh the joys of little brothers :)

I LOVE this sweet family :) My sister is such a jewel, and we love her to pieces!

We had a lot going on this particular day, but part of it was celebrating this little lady and her 5th birthday.

One of their favorite parts of visiting the farm: Riding in the cop car and eating apples fresh off the tree.

Relaxing on the swing while the kiddos play with their cousins.

This little guy was so tuckered out that he passed out in my arms before even drinking any of his milkies. I absolutely took advantage of the snuggle time :)

The boys don't get to see their Grandma Ruth nearly as often as their other grandmas, but aside from being super busy playing with their cousins, they love to snuggle her too, even if they are a tinge rough sometimes.

It isn't often that I get to see my Aunt and Uncle from Tennessee!

The boys had to check out the fire trucks at the Turkey Day Pancake Breakfast. It was really, really hard to get them back out!

My boys would probably choose Aunt Jessica over ANYONE else...besides the Easter Bunny. She is definitely a Johnson boy favorite :) (Sorry to pretty much ALL other family, but they like who they like)

Yum! We hadn't been to the pancake breakfast before with kiddos, but the boys did great! We brought along the double stroller, and pulled it up to a shorter table and they did pretty good eating without getting *too* messy.

They could NOT get to the jumpy houses fast enough!

...And...we're off to get some apples and pumpkins!

Both boys were great helpers, but unfortunately, the good apples were at the tops of the trees. There were tons of rotten or wormy ones down lower.

We're all eating apples no nobody's business right now, but this kid ended up eating 2 full apples and was wanting more...in ONE day.

Pumpkins are hard work!

The pumpkins were HUGE! I mean, when they're bigger than both our heads combined, we're talking HUGE!

Cashel was WAYYYYY more interested in finding a grasshopper for preschool than he was about finding a pumpkin. We found him a cute one anyway.

This giant, inflatable turkey was the boys' highlight of the parade.

My favorite seasonal mix!

We don't do flowers often at our house (I guess you could say we're both pretty cheap), so this was a sweet surprise for our anniversary :)

We had a totally romantic anniversary lunch at Hardee's, saving the festivities for the weekend :)