Philadelphia 2010

What one year old doesn't want to celebrate their golden birthday with the Liberty Bell, Valley Forge & Gettysburg?!

Well, Haven didn't really have a choice but we spent the past weekend at Philadelphia taking in the sights. The "City of Brotherly Love" has been on our "Top 10 Cities we'd like to visit someday" and thus, with a long weekend in a sight due to P/T Conferences, we decided to make the most of it. My hubby took incredible pictures...here's a few!

Enjoy the views as the autumn colors were gorgeous this time of year & Pennsylvania is quite a lovely state.

**warning: LOTS of pictures below!***


on our way to Independence Hall in downtown Philly

the Liberty Bell

Independence Hall & the signing room-where both the Declaration of Independence & the Constitution were both signed & debated

yummy Philly cheese steaks!

Betsy Ross' house

the Delaware River...this is the general location where G. Washington & troops crossed in his famous "Crossing the Delaware" painting to surprise the British at Trenton

fortifications at Valley Forge

Gettysburg Visitor Center & military park

on the way Gettysburg & way back to Philly, we loved seeing the Amish of Lancaster, Co.

back at Valley Forge

she's one!

getting a little exercise at the Philadelphia airport

ISU Fall Party 2010

We hosted the ISU kids on Friday night for what has become an annual Fall party...this time, no baby was born a day after. :) Haven had quite the night with constant entertainment, attention & "things" to watch...she cheered & yelped right along with the gang as they bobbed for apples, loved watching the students carve pumpkins, was quite entertained as they played a few word games with her word cards & loved listening to the beautiful singing as she fell asleep. It was also considered her Halloween night as we will be out of state next weekend so we dressed her up as a fairy-she was quite fascinated with her wand.

a few others also decided to dress up...Tori came as an old lady, Clayton as a "modest" sumo-wrestler, Aaron was the bunny & Derek was a ninja.

the Frank sisters & Haven

Jason (our stellar Pres & also purchaser of the bunny suit), Brandon, & Clark

carving pumpkins in our garage...we got some GREAT pumpkins this year!

Clayton & Allen worked for EVER on the below pumpkin but it turned out quite impressive...they however, did not finish in our time allotted & thus took a steep penalty, putting them out of the race for best pumpkin!

Tori was the winner of the pumpkin carving contest with her below entry of an empty tomb, a cross & the glorious resurrection!

Haven cheering on the bobbers!

Dustin (above) & Derek (below) tied for winners of the apple bobbing...they both retrieved 11 apples in 30 seconds...and boy, were they drenched!

Everyone always asks us "where do we put everybody?"...well, wherever they fit! :)

Friday's Funny & Minister Potluck

Last night, we had the distinct privledge of hosting our Gridley ministers for Pastor Appreciation Month. Right before they arrived, I mentioned to Arlan how I still didn't have anything scheduled for this week's Friday's Funny for my blog; "Maybe something will happen tonight...ya never know with this group." :)

Boy was he right...mere moments after the first carload arrived, I heard this loud bang as I saw Elder Earl walking up our entry & there he stood...bewildered...with pie all over his shirt!

Muttering our glass entry door was "too clean!", he made his way in with a rescued banana cream pie & his now banana creamed dress shirt.

The best part of this story...his wife, Dixie's, reaction...

"Oh Earl! Did you ruin my pie?" she questioned.

"Your pie is fine my dearest....and so am I!"

Oh, you can't make up stories like this :)

pumpkin festival memory

Haven attended her first Pumpkin Festival in Morton last Thursday [before we headed out of town to WI]. Imagine Artists [operated by a good friend of mine, Taryn Kaiser] here in Morton was running a special, so we couldn't help but capture the moment-great job ladies!

a day at Tanner's

Ahh, now that it is officially Fall, I waited a mere one day before I packed up Toodlebugs and headed off to Speer to visit one of my favorite places in Central IL, Tanner's Orchards. It was an unusually warm, windy day but Haven, myself and "Aunt" Holly had quite the time nonetheless!

Our little Punkers amidst the Pumpkins...this is how she got her nickname as a mere 10.5 months ago, I thought I was doomed to deliver on Halloween night, thus we called her Pumpkin & then I turned it into Punkers...to this day, Arlan's really not a HUGE fan of the nickname :)

Punkers thought she was quite "big-stuff" playing on the playground with the big kids.

Haven wasn't necessarily a fan of the goats, as we arrived fairly early and these trained goats got very excited (aka hungry) to see visitors.

Haven in the funny mirror...she thought this looked more interesting than the goats!

"Aunt Holly" and Punkers