race...parade...pumpkins

Oktoberfest weekend is HUGE here in little ol' Sidney!!  It is basically, a beerfest for three days.  For those residents who do not drink, there is a craft fair and farmers market at the fairgrounds for us to enjoy.  Jenni and I ventured over there this year and it was nice to see everything and get out of the house! 

Saturday morning I had a 5k race at 7:00 in the morning.  JoAnna and I have been "workout partners" for a while now and it was fun to run our second race together.  This picture is with all the 5am "gym rats" I see each morning! 

Laura, ME, Rachel, Amanda & JoAnna

JoAnna is MOVING at the end of the month.  Who is going to workout with me at 5am, FIVE days a week now?  She is awesome and I am going to miss her so much! 

Red faced and tired after our race!   I did better than last year, which I was happy about....but not happy that I didn't beat my personal best!  The weather was MUCH warmer than last year!  It was 35 degrees for the race and this year it was 46 degrees!  I REALLY missed doing the race with Maleia this year but I was so happy to have other girlfriends to run with!   

Is there a parade for the 4th of July?  Nope...but there is one for Oktoberfest...and it last for TWO long hours!  All of the boys were in the color guard for Pack and Troop 90.  Brayden was SO excited to have the chance to be in the parade this year as a Tiger scout!  Morley was able to carry a flag, which he said started to get REALLY heavy towards the end.  It was great to see Matt and the boys dressed in their uniforms presenting our flag!  Scouts rock!

Ella tried to stay warm while waiting for the parade to start.  The downside to sitting on the shade side of the street is the sun can't warm you when the wind picks up!  Once the parade started...and before the boys joined us...she was dancing around and ecstatic that she got ALL of the candy thrown her direction.

THEN...we headed out to pick our pumpkins!  We found a patch at a farm years ago...and they are cheap.  This year they were TWO dollars instead of ONE dollar per pumpkin.  The nerve!  Just kidding!  It is a great deal and the kids pick whatever they want.  The weeds were very tall and prickly this year which made the picking interesting and a little painful.  

Lovin' the flat lands



Morley helping Ella pick her pumpkin.  She was quite "picky" with her choice this year.



Can you see Brayden?



Little Miss had quite the meltdown on the way to the pumpkin patch.  Slobbery face, snot dripping, hysterical and screaming.  About??  No idea.  Hence...the red nosed puffy eye girl for the picture!  Good thing she still looks stinkin' cute in her new fall outfit!

still sportin' the ATTITUDE!

 Hooray, a good picture of the kids.  Does it matter that we had to take WAY too many to get one good one?  Oh well...one is better than none.  However...we didn't get out traditional family picture this year.  oops.

It was a long and busy day!  It was also General Conference weekend, and I am so thankful I had the chance to be spiritually uplifted!