halloween catch up...

Ethan & his favorite treat: a lollipop

Ethan was a dragon this year for Halloween and he really enjoyed trick or treating. 

We are preparing for a busy week this week! We have Ethan's birthday tomorrow. I cannot believe that he will be 2 already! We have his birthday party on Saturday and then we leave for North Carolina on Sunday- whew! I have so much to do!

fall is here!

 We enjoyed having my parents and grandma Karen up to visit us last weekend. We took a nice walk at a local park and then enjoyed the Shrine Circus later that afternoon.

 Ethan and Papa on the pony ride at intermission. Ethan loved the Circus and was so good the entire show! (3 hours)

 This weekend on Saturday, we enjoyed our annual apple orchard trip with our neighbors, Brent, Camie and Caleb. This year we went to Aamodt's Apple Farm in Stillwater. It was a great time, although I do have to say that it wasn't the typical weather for this event. In fact, I looked at pictures from last year at this time and we were in hats and mittens! We had temps in the mid 80s and it really felt like summer.

 Ethan really enjoyed eating his honeycrisp apple all by himself, juice dripping down the chin and all! 

Ethan and his buddy Caleb walking at the orchard hand in hand :)

Family picture at the orchard

 After the orchard, we headed to downtown Stillwater for some lunch. We ate at the Freight House and then browsed the shops along Main St. We also just so happened to be there for Stillwater's Harvest Fest, which included a giant pumpkin weigh-off.

Camie and I posing with the huge pumpkin 

On Sunday we went to the Twin Cities Harvest Festival and Corn Maze. It was too nice not to be outside. This place was a lot of fun, with many things for Ethan to do. As you can see we found more pony rides!

 Ethan was a little hesitant at first, but eventually we had to "bribe" him out of the corn pit. (it was a LOT of fun)

 Mommy & Ethan in the corn pit

What a wonderful start to our fall- my favorite season. We are looking forward to Halloween, Ethan's 2nd birthday next month and visiting family in Charlotte! 

LaBoR dAy WeEkEnD @ The C@BiN

This year for Labor Day weekend, the Krebs/Holloway family decided to "head to the cabin" for the weekend. We had not done a family vacation together in over 10 years, so it was about time. We rented a little cabin on Lake Hubert, near Brainerd and Nisswa, MN. Although we arrived with some very cool Fall air, we were able to do some boating, fishing and campfires. We ate very well all weekend long. We had an appetizer night, a BBQ night with ribs and chicken and ended with a fresh fish cookout thanks to our lucky fishing boys! Ethan made sure to wear everyone out playing baseball whenever he got the chance and thoroughly enjoyed the late nights and TREATS! We found a great little coffee shop in Nisswa called, StoneHouse Coffee, that I made a couple visits to in the short trip. All in all I think everyone had a great time and we were sad to see the weekend end. Thanks for an awesome end-of-summer vacation! 

checking out uncle bryant's big fish

ethan driving the boat with "papa"

krebs/holloway family pic

the big one

sunset on the lake

the holloways

pool time

Ethan LOVES the water!

Wow...I cannot believe that August is now over! With the hot summer we've had, we tried to get to the pool as much as possible. Ethan just love swimming like a little fish. He has even become really good at letting us splash him and putting his head in the water. 

I am back in the classroom this week getting everything ready for the new school year. We are also getting ready to transition Ethan to a new school. There is a new center opening very near our house and after looking into it we loved the program. (the distance was the one drawback to his current center). Anthony has now been at his new job for a month and he is really enjoying it. He has already done a lot of traveling, even if it was only to Oklahoma!

We will be officially giving summer its proper send off by having a long weekend at a cabin in Brainerd over Labor Day. My parents and brothers will be joining us as we have not had a vacation together since I was still living at home! It should be a great time...3 more day!

DeLene Visits!

snuggle time

@ underwater adventure

on lake minnetonka

Anthony's mom, DeLene, stayed with us this past week. We had so much fun doing things around the metro area and just hanging out at home. We planned an awesome menu for the week, showcasing some of Anthony's and mine own culinary skills. We also surprised his mom with a boat cruise on lake Minnetonka. We enjoyed some margaritas and fajitas and even had a little storm to keep an eye on while we were on the boat. It was over quickly though and the double rainbow at the end was spectacular. We also checked out Mall of America and toured Underwater Adventure. We spent one day in Stillwater along the St. Croix River, looking in all the shops. We tried coffee, ice cream and even dinner out at Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque. We were sad to say goodbye on Saturday but what a great week!