The "Blues Brothers" & some hippie chicks! :)

The four of us (Steve, Melinda, myself & Jeff) got home yesterday from being gone since Monday for our annual Young Cooperators Dairy Association meeting. It's basically a time for all the younger dairy producers (I think it's for couples under 45...?) to get together and learn and talk about what's gone on with our co-op during the past year and just a fun time to visit with other younger dairy farmers and their wives. Jeff and I just started going last year to this particular meeting and have really enjoyed it so far. We've met some really neat people that we look forward to seeing again the next year. Since our last evening there fell on the night before Halloween, our dinner was also a costume party and everyone dressed up so it was really fun. Some people were really creative! Jeff and Steve were the "Blues Brothers" (it was more hilarious than this picture can begin to describe!) and Melinda and I were a couple of hippie chicks!

Some GROOVY chicks! :)
The president couple of the YC's this year had some different games planned for after we had dinner which were really fun. Here's part of the gang scrambling in a game of "Mix the Fruit". I was slightly relieved to have gotten out early on as I was afraid I'd get injured running into one of the guys! :) It was a really fun time.

LAST ones! :)

Can you tell I just had too many favorites to pick from so I'm posting lots! But this is the last of them! :) Here's Shelby with the pumpkin that she thought was "the one". Turns out her and Ryan both ended up wanting to get a bunch of the cute little ones as we already did the whole pumpkin carving event this last weekend. The little ones look very festive on display in our house. :)

Shelby wanted me to take a turn with one of these so here I am...
Photographer, Shelby, at work again. Ryan wasn't much into looking at the camera today- too many more interesting things to look at and take in!
Thought this was a neat one of "Fall leaves" that Shelby took while I wasn't looking.
This one was just too funny. I bought Ryan and Shelby both a cookie for the car ride home from the little pumpkin patch store. This was his face when he opened it... do you think he liked it or what?! :)

Happy Fall everyone!!!

Pumpkin Patch... Part 3!

Shelby was BEGGING to use my camera to take a picture so I figured I might as well let her take one of Ryan and I and she did a great job!

My little Pumpkins! :)
Shelby was persistent about taking more pictures since I told her she did such a great job the first time so here's Ryan & I on the hay bales... after she took this one I told her she was hired! She thought that was pretty cool!
On the pumpkin wagon...
... sliding down the other side of the pumpkin wagon- this attraction was quite a hit with these two!

Pumpkin Patch.... Part2!

Ryan & Shelby on the search for the perfect pumpkin!

Them (mostly Shelby) grossed out by the remains of a rotten pumpkin. Actually Shelby through it was "disgusting" and Ryan seemed to think it was kind of cool... typical boy/girl reactions. :)
Cuties!
Ryan at this point was more fascinated by the fork lift behind him in the field than the hundreds of pumpkins surrounding him!
Shelby, with the giggles, sitting on a pumpkin!

Pumpkin Patch... Part 1!

This morning, Ryan, Shelby & I headed to the PUMPKIN PATCH together! Ryan was sooo excited about it and has been talking about for days... almost weeks! Here we are amongst all the lovely pumpkins!

Here they are in front of the "How Tall This Fall" sign.... Big kids! :)"Ghost Shelby"
"Farmer Ryan"
Ryan was a little too small for this one, but since he saw it was a person driving a tractor, he was determined to put his head in there for a picture!

Hair cut!

This afternoon Ryan got a haircut! He did sooo good, sitting still. He gets better and better everytime we go!

This time we went a little shorter than usual and he looked so handsome when he was all done!
A view from the back....
a view of the cutie pie from the front...
and then one with that smile! With it styled a little different than he's had before, he looked SO much older! Such a big boy! :)

"Workin'" :)

Today Ryan got to go out for awhile and help Jeff mow grass for our FINAL cutting of grass for the year. (And what a beautiful day it was to be doing so!) Ryan was really excited to go help his Daddy and even better, he got to eat lunch on the tractor with him. He was in heaven! Here's Daddy with his little helper!

And they're off! Later when I picked him up he said him and Daddy "were workin' ". :)

Grandma's house!

After work on Monday, when I went out to my parents house to pick up Ryan, this is what I saw when I drove up. A little boy having the greatest time out in a mud puddle with his tricycle. He said "Mommy I got stuck!!"

Then he got himself out and kept on riding along... until it was time to leave and then he threw himself a little fit because he didn't want to leave. Ohhh, the life at Grandma's house! Fun stuff.... :)

How could I have forgotten to put the final result of our pumpkin carving event! Here's the regular picture of it...

And here it is GLOWING! Ryan loves to look outside in the evenings and look at his pumpkin!

Pumpkin Carving!!

Sunday evening we went over to my brother & sister-in-law's, Greg & Kim, to carve pumpkins! It was very fun! Shelby and my sister decided they'd try painting her pumpkin this year with some glow-in-the-dark paint. It looked really neat when we turned all of the lights off in the house and could see the design glow, but when they brought it outside, they realized that the light from the barn was too bright so they brought it back in and did it the old fashioned way with a knife! :)

Here they were in the designing process.... Ryan definitely wanted to be part of it all and was a good helper!
This is Austin, digging out all the "guts" of his pumpkin with an ice cream scooper which worked quite effectively! :) Most of the past years he's thought the inside was totally gross, but this year he was totally into it! Using his muscles!
Shelby & Ryan just had to take a little break from all of the excitement and decided to watch a little Mickey Mouse video. I think it was a Halloween/pumpkin patch one so it was very appropriate for the evening!
Then when we were all done they both said they were hungry so we got them some left over pizza from earlier at dinner and they ate it all up! Shelby was being silly in this picture, "posing" for me and Ryan thought it was hilarious... of course! ;)