Stop...Drop...Roll!

I think I should practice this with my girl! Tonight, while doing laundry the smoke alarm went off. I checked the oven, the dryer...nope....in fact, the smoke alarm in our kitchen is unhooked completely from the wall and has been since we lived here. I stuck my head out in the hall and everyone was coming out and leaving the building...ALL The alarms were going off. I came back inside, switched the clothes over and minded my own business...a couple minutes later it was STILL going off so we also went and left to see what the deal was. All three buildings around us were outside...it was the lady's apt from ACROSS THE HALL. She was at work but all the fire trucks, police officers came- it was chaos. They had to break into her place to see if there was a fire. Everyone was fine and we eventually went back in...but Vaughn was INSISTENT on going into her place and checking out the drama. I think I should start talking about fire danger. :)

I am packing us up this week...for Wisconsin, for our move....I HATE packing. HATE IT. This trip will be bittersweet. I am SO excited that my brother is getting married to a girl we love and who fits right in with our family. Its sad because my ex husband was supposed to be a groomsmen---standing up with all of us, he was supposed to be my date, my travel buddy, my HUSBAND still. I feel like I do really well until these sorts of things come up, and then I feel like a teenager, traveling with my parents (God bless them for allowing us to crash their vacation too and ride the whole way in the car with a 4 year old jabberer). Its a strange strange feeling and I dont like it one bit. I dont like doing things "alone" in the sense of not having a partner with me. I hate it. I am SO very excited to see family from all over, hot tub, swim with VE, and just have some time away. I cant wait to celebrate the love of Matt and Maria and am so excited to see it all take place. I am pretty close with my brother (and have gotten pretty close with his fiance) so it will be emotional for me, I am sure. They are a great, sweet couple and have done so much for me over the past year or so. LOVE them. LOVE weddings. Love LOVE.

Dancin' Queen...See that Girl...She is a Dancin' Queen

ooooh yeeaaah!
Vaughn comes from latin routes and shares her dad's love of dancing. I on the other hand, was born with the moves of a donkey in a burlap sack. Ve took a summer dance session for four weeks this past summer and loved it. So now, she's started tap and ballet. These are the pictures. Her dad has her most fridays so dance is either the transition where I drop her off and we both watch her or where he takes her and I go watch her....either way- she loves that we are both there. There is a two way window that we get to watch the kids through once per month, so thats where some of these were taken (sorry if its blurry). She thinks she's big stuff.

 I think she is too:)

Its Apple Picking Time!

Disclaimer: It was not supposed to be 100 degrees today....not after the fall week we had last year.

Today, we visited a new orchard in the area. It was sooo much fun. We have been to lots of different ones in the past years and have without a doubt had a blast at all of them...but this one. Wow. This one blew the others out of the water! If you live in the DSM area, and have children, you MUST go to Center Point Orchard. We were there for over 4 hours and could have easily spent another 3 there. Easily. I didnt realize it would be soo hot today and the website said they had food so I didnt pack a lunch (plus I thought we'd be there an hour tops-not 4) so we had to eat an apple cider donut and apples off the trees....healthy. See the pics to see the fun! There were only about 10 other kids there (but the place is SO Huge that you felt like you were completely alone.)

Check out her face in these. She thought this cow milking was TOTALLY GROSS and weird.

this poor little dude had a bunch of leaves trapped in his horns and he couldnt see....I was too scared to help clean them out!

haha hahah hahaha.

What is more fun than a corn pool?? Corn Angels, jumping, covering herself with corn. She was COVERED in corn dust at the end of this but it was her favorite part of the day I think!

Even almost 4 year old girlies need to hold mama's hand sometimes!

This was a jumping pillow! HUGE and she loved it!!!

This slide was amazing.....maybe 300 feet long...HUGE! You can see the whole thing in the background of another picture! She LOVED it!

We went through a cornmaze. My first ever. I always wanted to do one. Never again. I was FREAKED OUT. It was over 4 acres and frankly, I was terrified after about 5 minutes. They gave you this little card that had pictures on it and then drop you off. At some of the dead ends there was a wooden "picture" like a wooden pig, hay bale etc. and a paper punch to mark that you found it. We only found 5. We started out in good spirits. The guy said he'd be back in a half hour and if we were not done then he'd be back later to check..I should have taken that as a sign. Lunch time. Hungry. Thirsty. Hot.  Nap time. Tired. Corn Maze.....hmmmm....smart move. #momfail  After a bit I started getting VERY claustraphobic. And scared. I could hear the tractor but couldnt see a dang thing and had no cell reception (thought about calling 911 to come get us out.) and I couldnt see how long we'd been in there because my phone was being weird. I swore it had been hours and hours. I was near tears. VE was hot and tired and she'd say "I want out of here." and then I'd whine and say "you know what? Me too. Im hot, tired, hungry, thirsty, my feet hurt, this corn is itchy and there are bugs. Dont whine to me." poor thing. We finally found our way out (obviously, since Im blogging) but it was not a fun time. I thought for sure we were bound to be in a lifetime movie..."lost in a cornmaze." I kept thinking for sure someone would come along but because it was on a monday morning it was dead there (kinda like I thought we were gonna be...dead) so no one else was in the cornmaze. I kept thinking "no one even knows we're here....I didnt tell anyone.....we'll never be found....ever." We got out and the guy who dropped us off there took the tractor back to the front so we could get food (donuts?) and water. He could tell we were miserable and angry. See the progression of faces on the pics. I can laugh now....then, I was so mad.

After the ridiculous maze experience, we got a bite and drinks and headed to pick apples! This was fun, relaxing, in the shade...nice! We even ate a few. ;)

This is what happens when you look up at an apple tree to long...they fall off and hit you in the face. Poor girly!

grabbing our pickers!

first apple picked!!

this is the face of a girl who has played HARD!