Fall is in the air.

   We have had a huge temperature shift this week.  The leaves are changing, the air has that fall smell to it, and the rain just keeps pouring and pouring.  We only had two days last week that we didn't have rain, so we tried to make the most of them. 

   Our first fall activity of the season was visiting a local farm for a tractor ride and apple picking.  Hudson loved getting pulled around by the big tractor through rows and rows a heavy laden apple trees.  We were also able to go on a tour of the apple cider factory.  Of coarse Hudson was the one kid who stole an apple and touched things he wasn't supposed to.  His brain shuts off when he gets that excited. The fresh cider was amazing! We took a huge bag of apples home with us, and Hudson has been eating obsessively.

    On Saturday the clouds parted and the sun actually made an appearance. I wanted to take Jake to the apple farm, but managed to get us lost on the way.  I have a hard time navigating out here because the landscape looks the same in every direction.  As it turned out we ended up finding an amazing park in the town of Bellefonte next to an old train station.  The park had a river running through the centre of it that was full of enormous trout, ducks, and geese.     

Ellie was a little scared of the ducks. I couldn't figure out why until Jake let me know that every time I wasn't looking the duck would nip at her fingers.  It didn't take her long to get over it. She enjoyed antagonizing the ducks herself by chasing them around the park.

We were amazed at just how many huge fish were in the river.  It was fun to throw bread to them and watch the competition between the fish and ducks.

   We had such a great time that we made another trip back with our friends for a picnic between the conference sessions the next day.  The park is one of our new favorite places out here. I guess sometimes getting lost is a good thing!

The end of summer fun?

  As I look at the dramatic change in weather outside I wonder if the warm sunny, swim suit days of 2010 are at an end.  I do enjoy fall with the crunchy sound of leaves and the pop of smashed acorns as I ride my bike through the tree lined trails here. The leaves that remain are beginning to change to vibrant orange, yellow and red. I also, have to admit I'm already trying to figure out how I want to carve the pumpkins I'm sure will be purchased any day now.  As fun as these things are, to me, they can't compair to the fun of playing in the water with the warmth of the suns kisses.  Fall is great and all, but its sure no Summer!

    We were lucky to spend a few more days at Whipple dam last week.  We had so much fun building and smashing sand castles, swimming in the water, and catching salamanders.  Hudson loved getting to splash around with some of his friends.  We were so lucky to get another week with temperatures in the eighties!  We also found a cute little ice cream shop near by, and no one complained about that!



Ellie thought it was so funny to drink the dirty water. YUCKY!!!



    On Saturday we took the kids to a nature centre to see snakes, turtles, and birds of prey.  The kids enjoyed seeing the birds up close during the bird show.  Ellie was so excited and would shriek at all the birds so loud I was afraid she was going to upset them.  Nothing makes Ellie more excited then seeing animals.  Even a fuzzy caterpillar I caught on the trail outside sent her into of fit of excitement.  This all changed however, when we were at the snake exhibit.  The kids stood face to face watching the big venomous snakes encased in large glass tanks with interest.  Suddenly one of them lunged at the glass and sent them all into hysterical screams.  After the realization that he was safe, Hudson seemed to enjoy the snakes even more. He would run up to the glass and then excitedly scream with joy at the smallest movement from this new creature.  Ellie's couldn't get over "the attack".  She would scream with horror if we even went in the direction of the snake tanks. Suddenly even the turtles were terrible frightening creatures.  We had to take her outside to get her to calm down.  It was funny, but made me a little sad.  I hope she doesn't lose her love of creatures.

   The rest of the weekend left me on a spiritual high. On Saturday night the kids got to stay home with Jake while I went to a Women's Conference viewing with some friends.  I will admit that often times I don't go to these activities because I hate missing time that I could spend with Jake. I just love being with my husband!  I'm really glad I went though.  I enjoyed all of the talks, but as always it was especially good to listen to President Monson.  Sunday was even more of a spiritual feast for me.  I am SO enjoying primary!  I can't say that the sharing time lesson was anything extraordinary, but the spirit in the room was so strong I fought to keep my eyes dry most of the time.  A couple of the young men and women came to help out and they had that quality of power and beauty that only comes from truly knowing that you are a child of god.  It is the very thing I want most for my children. I'm thankful my heavenly father blessed me with a much needed refocus to that goal; especially after a week where I admit that I obsessively read the entire Hunger Games Trilogy. 
   All in all we had a wonderful week. The crazy con men moved out of our house and I think we escaped with only losing the lost rent, some garden hoses, and the unpaid utilities.  Which is actually a lot of money, but I am choosing to feel lucky that it isn't more.  Jake took a trip to DC for school.  He is really enjoying his classes and work at the University. We are all very happy.  The kids just keep learning and growing.  Ellie adds words to her vocabulary daily it seems. I was especially excited when she started requesting cheese by name.  At least we will have one shared interest, ha ha. She also finally cut her top molars, so I'm hoping for at least a little break from the teething grumpies.  Hudson can't wait for his birthday.  Well, in truth he can't wait for his birthday cake.  For as long as I can remember we have had daily conversations about the train cake he is going to be having for his birthday. I sure hope the one I make doesn't disappoint. Thats a lot of pressure! Ha Ha. Also, my cough is finally starting to go away! I was beginning to think it never would! Life is good. I'm so thankful for the people I get to spend it with!

We've had better weeks.

     This week has been full of sleepless night due to a nagging cough, a washer that decided to flood our kitchen and news that we were harboring criminals.

    I certainly wouldn't say this was the worst week of my life, but I've had much better ones.  It started out good with Sunday being my first week in the primary. I enjoy the cute kids and singing the primary songs; but I must admit the most enjoyable part was hearing the screams and fussing sounds of a certain little girl in the halls and not having to be the one wresting her.  Ellie and church have never mixed very well. In Heber, Jake taught the young men so I was left each week to walk the halls and fight the fight.  Knowing that Jake gets to experience the next five months of managing her until she can go to nursery puts sunshine in my soul. Ha Ha.

   Monday brought a not so fun surprise when we received word from Jake's mom that the wonderful people  we had found to rent our home in Heber were all over the news. A quick Internet search left me shocked as I found mug shots and lengthy reports of fraud.  I was stunned as I read the convicted and alleged misdeeds. It seemed surreal. We had felt so good about these people when we interviewed them about renting our home, and here they were on national news for scamming people out of large sums of money.  It is a strange feeling realizing that you have been conned.  It was scary to think that we could be stuck in a long eviction process with people whom were far from trustworthy 2000 miles away.  We felt like we had no control of the situation.

    Fortunately they moved out on their own. Even though I don't think we will ever see the rent they owe us, and now we have to pay a management company to rent our house, I really feel like this has been a good experience.  We have had so many friends and family go out of their way to help us through this.  What a blessing and comfort it is to have good people in your life.  In truth I feel really sorry for our renters.  The life they are living with all the deceit must be so full of pain and stress. I'm so thankful for the blessing of having a good honest husband, and for having a life that is governed by integrity. I'm so happy for the life that we have.

   Our week has been pretty dominated by the infamous renters, but we did take some time on Saturday to get out and go to Whipple Dam.  Its a tiny little lake that has sandy beaches and shallow swimming areas. We built sand castles and played in the water.  We hadn't expected it to be warm enough for swimming so we were unprepared without swim suits.  The kids didn't mind a bit. It was a beautiful warm day and we all had such a great time.  I would bet that many more days will be spent there.

Hudson spotted some small fish in the water. He was excited and scared at the same time.



 

We could not keep our little water bug out of the water.  She is such a little fish.   





I loved building sand castles. Hudson loved destroying them.









Ellie wore her first piggy tails this week. I was pretty excited that her hair was finally long enough!

As a side note, I have had an unrelenting cough for the last few weeks. I don’t feel terribly sick and I wouldn’t mind it so much except for the fact that it keeps me from sleeping. I have tried all sorts of night time cough medicines and sleep aides and nothing seems to help. One night, well early morning, just as I had finally been able to slip into sleep, I awoke to the sounds of Hudson crying and vomiting. He managed to cover every piece of bedding and his self. Jake bathed Hudson while I changed his bed. We tucked him back into bed and I began the long chore of once again trying to fall asleep. A few hours later just as sleep was once setting in, we awoke to the same unpleasant noise. Again he managed to soak every article of bedding possible.


The next day I began the task of laundering the enormous amount of soiled pillows and bedding. We played trains in Hudson’s room while the first load was running in the washer. After quite a while I went in to change the load thinking it was done. What I found was water pouring out all over my kitchen floor. Judging by the amount of water, it must have been running for a long time. I used every towel we brought to try and get the water mess under control. It was such a mess. Thankfully my awesome husband was able to fix the washer the next day.

Niagra Falls and the "not so" Sacred Grove.

    On Friday afternoon we decided to make the most of our weekend and go see some of the sights.  As soon as Jake got home we jumped in the car and made the four hour drive to Palmyra, NY.  Ellie must not have wanted us to waste a minute of our weekend, as she made sure to wake us up all through the night by screaming. She was also sweet enough to wake us up at dawn to insure we would have the whole day for sight seeing.
   The first place we visited was the sacred grove.  Oddly enough, we were the first people there that morning. It was such a beautiful morning!  The visitor center was not open that early so we decided to take a walk through the grove until the center opened.  As we walked into the thick forested grove we joked that it was the "not so" sacred grove with our noisy kids running along its paths.  However, the spirit there was so strong that Ellie and Hudson couldn't even detract from it. As we stood surrounded by trees I knew without a doubt that something amazing had happened there.  It felt like we were in the celestial room at the temple.  I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus appeared at that spot in answer to a young boys prayer. I feel so blessed that I got to be there to feel it for myself.  It was powerful and even thinking of it now brings tears to my eyes. 

Hudson had been complaining of a stomach ace all morning. We think it was due largely to the fact that he ate an enormous amount of cherry tomatoes the day before. 

Unfortunately, before we got out of the grove "cherry tomato's revenge" struck Hudson.  We ended up having to wash him up in the rest room sink near the entrance to the grove. We were quite a ways from our car so Hudson had to hang out in one of Ellie's Diapers.

This might have been the last time this very tired little girl smiled all morning.

She did cheer up when we found a "Kitty" on the trail.

    We found some new shorts and shoes for Hudson and took the tour of the Smith family farm then headed down the road to the hill Cumorah. At the hill Cumorah we toured the visitors center and climbed the very steep hill to the top of the monument.  Both of the kids were beyond exhausted by this point.

This was the last of the complete breakdowns that Ellie had before both kids slept the full two hours it took us to drive to Niagara Falls

    When we got to Niagara Falls we took a boat ride on the Maid of the Mist. It took us up right to the base of the falls.  The falls were so SO amazing! I loved it! It was something I have always wanted to experience and I am so glad I did.

Hudson loved his blue coat.

On Board the Maid of the Mist.

It was so surreal. I wish the pictures could have captured it better.

We had such a fantastic time getting sprayed by the waterfall on our boat ride.

     It was the Niagara Falls Blues festival as well so we walked around town and listened to music for a while before heading home. What a wonderful day! I wish the kids were big enough to remember it all.  At least we have lots of pictures.  More adventures to come, I'm sure! 

The stroller Incident

    Well, Friday the 3rd after the kids woke up from their naps, we took our trip to the pool.  I took my camera so I could get some video of them swimming.   We were having lots of fun and enjoying the sunshine. Ellie enjoys pushing the stroller around when she gets tired of the water. She pushed it around and then climbed on my lap as I floated on a tube in the water. Hudson walked over to the stroller and began to push it. He stopped as our eyes met. Without a word being spoken I knew exactly what he was planning to do. "Hudson do not push the stroller into the pool". He flashed a huge devilish smile at me. I jumped to my feet, nearly dropping Ellie as the stroller entered the pool, launching not just my camera but also my phone into the cool, chlorinated water. I put Ellie down and retrieved my stroller and electronics from the bottom of the pool as quickly as I could. Being too angry to speak, I strapped a screaming Ellie and terrified Hudson to the soaked stroller and headed for home. Moments later we arrived at our apartment. Ellie still screaming and Hudson repeating "I sorry Mommy" in hushed tones. Hudson climbed off the dripping stroller and rushed into the house and locked the door behind him, leaving Ellie and I stranded on the porch. My requests for him to unlocked the door were ignored.  Being trapped in my wet bathing suit on the porch with a screaming baby did not help my mood! I decided to give the back door a try and to my relief it had been left unlocked. When I got inside Hudson was hiding under a pile of pillows. He got to spend the rest of the afternoon in his room.

    The rest of our weekend was slightly more peaceful.  We received church callings. Jake is in the activities committee and I get to teach CTR 4. Monday was our ward picnic at the park. Jake signed me up to bring a dozen cinnamon rolls. I used a recipe that said it would make 18 and ended up with 60!!! I'm still not sure how that happened. It was our own version of loaves and fishes!!! HA HA It was fun to meet more people with young families in our ward. State College is the #1 singles city in America. I feel like the only time we are around people with kids is at church activies. I can go to Walmart and have the only children in the entire store. Its really strange.
    I swore we were done with the pool, but as Tuesday rolled around my heart had softened and we were ready and excited to play in the water again. Sadly when we arrived at the gate we found it locked with a sign that read "pool closed for the season".  Hudson was heart broken.  Big sad tears rolled down his cheeks all the way home. I felt so bad I almost cried as well. Part of me wanted to tell him it was closed because of the stroller incident, but I decided that was just too mean. Instead I told him we would try to find a new pool somewhere in town.
    On Thursday we hiked Mt Nittany with some of our new friends. Well they call it a mountain, but it looks more like a hill to me. We climbed 600 vertical feet in .7 of a mile. Hudson fell about 600 times in .7 of a mile as well. We planned to have a picnic after the hike. We underestimated just how long it would take to hike with our little ones and ended up picnicking in the moon light.  It was still a whole lot of fun.  This is really a beautiful place. We are so excited to explore it.

Week two and whats new.

    This week has been good except for the fact that we have all had colds.  None of us have been feeling very good. I think we are all past the worst of it. I'm sure looking forward to a full night without the sound of coughing echoing through the house. To recap our week:
    Saturday Jake got to go to Stake Priesthood meeting. It was an hour away, so he was gone most of the day. They fed the men ice cream, so Jake was happy with the outing! While he was gone, I took the kids into town to buy a web cam. While there, Ellie stopped my heart by finding a way to lock herself in the car with my keys. Thank goodness my wonderful Jake had a key attached to the bottom of the car for just such an occasion. Did I mention Jake is awesome!!!
     On Sunday we stayed home so the kids could get lots of rest and keep our colds to ourselves. Hudson was really sad that he didn't get to go to church and play with his "new friends".  We set up the web cam and the kids really enjoyed being able to see and talk to some of our family members on Skype.
    On Monday Jake slept for 14 hours straight. He was in some sort of NyQuil comma. The kids and I have settled into a pretty good routine. We get up, have breakfast, get dressed, and get out of the house before it gets too hot. Hudson rides his bike and I push Ellie in the stroller up the hill to Tudek park behind our house. The park is huge and we can do lots of fun things there. We wear ourselves out riding the trails that run throughout the park. Hudson says "good morning, I have a yellow tractor bike" to every person we pass by.


   
    The park also has a large butterfly garden that has walking paths running through it. It is full of flowering plants that tower over our heads. Hudson gets so excited when we spot butterflies. I love sharing the activity with him, since I have such special memories of hunting for butterflies with grandma Mabel.

     Ellie loves the park because we always see "kee kee's" (Ellie's word for just about any animal). We always see lots of people with dogs, but the thing the kids love most of all, are the hoses that live at the park. Hudson loves to feed them. Ellie gets so excited and goes crazy trying to touch them. Today we were in a hurry to get home, so we passed by the horses without stopping to visit. Ellie, was not pleased. She gave me the business most of the ways home.
    The other thing we do everyday is go to the pool.  Its a little stressful trying to keep both of them from drowning, but they love it so much its worth the stress.  Hudson is getting so dark and tan, and Elliie is still white as can be with her fair skin. This week has been so hot and humid in the middle of the day, going to the pool is about the only thing to do outside.
    All and all things are going really well. We have made a few friends and are getting more comfortable here. We are really happy, but I think we would be happy anywhere. Our life is just so great and we are so blessed.

"I snug Elmo"
This week Elmo has been Hudson's best friend.

 My baby is getting so big.  Ellie is a funny girl. She doesn't crawl at all anymore.  She definitely has a mind of her own and she isn't afraid to let you know how she feels. Especially concerning her brother. If Hudson touches her when she doesn't want him to, she lets the whole neighborhood know it.