Pumpkin Patch!

This weekend our friends Brian and Nichole and their beautiful daughters Payton and Allie came to visit us, and we all went to Didier Farms (a pumpkin patch place for those not from Lake County).  I had never been before, but Nichole and I knew we wanted to take the kids to a pumpkin/fall place for the day.  What I didn't realize is that Didier Farms isn't just a chill pumpkin patch with some ponies and some bales of hay, it is fall fun insanity!!  We got a sense of what we were up against when the police and state troopers directed us to our parking.  Whoa. 

Ryan and Brian were not too thrilled about missing the Bears game to pick out pumpkins amidst the pig stench, but I enjoyed it, and I know Gavin did too! The pumpkin patch did have pumpkins (as well as super delicious apple cider donuts...I'm glad I didn't know about these when I was pregnant!!), as well as a bunch of kiddie carnival rides, hayrides, a super slide, a train ride, pony rides, arts and crafts, you name it!

Here is Gav enjoying the wagon ride into Didier Farms

 We decided to check out the petting zoo.  Mommy immediately took Gavin over to see the pig, but Gav wasn't too sure about all these farm animals just yet.

I thought those animals looked familiar...

 Gavin quickly went from nervous to extremely confident...here he is yelling at the goats

 Looking cute in his flannel shirt

 Learning how to pet the animals.  Gavin's idea of petting the animals was one quick, light tap.  Then he would look up at me and smile.  What a sweetie!

 That white goat in the corner of this pic really liked Gav.  He kept coming up behind Gavin when he wasn't looking and Gavin wasn't a fan of the surprise attack.

 Posing with Mommy.  Mommy didn't anticipate going in a petting zoo this day and foolishly wore flip flops.  I've washed my feet twice since then and they still feel dirty!

 Come pet the babies!  25 cents for a handful of goldfish crackers to feed them!

 "Look Mom!!!"

 Gavin having a standoff with the chicken.  There is some great video of this as well, but of all the animals in the petting zoo, Gav liked this chicken the best.

 Time to pick out some pumpkins!

 Expert pumpkin pickers know you really have to get down and dirty to pick a winner.

 Allie lends a hand in the pumpkin selection process.

 Family photo op

 The Kutmi attempt a family pic as well. Two girls = twice the difficulty attempting to get everyone in the family looking at the camera at the same time.  This was as close as we got before we had some escapees.

 We had some tickets to burn after our adventure in the petting zoo, so Gav and Daddy played a fishing carnival game together.

 Gavin catches a shark!

 Our attempt at getting a pic we can take every year...Gav wasn't too interested.

Just something fun

On Friday during our Teacher Institute, we learned about a lot of "Web 2.0" tools, aka, cool websites to use with your students.

The pic below is a "word cloud" comprised of the most popular words that appear on Gav's blog.  The bigger the word, the more times it appeared.

Back soon with more pics of the Boog!

Another blog about the bog

Today I had a teacher institute, so I got off work earlier than usual.  Since it was such a gorgeous day, Ryan and I decided to take Gav back to the bog.  We Gillespie's are big bog fans, and Gav hasn't been since he was about 3 months old.  Back then, the only way Gav could indicate to us if he liked something or not was to spit up (and really, we never knew if that meant he was excited or annoyed!).  But now, these are the reactions we get:

Gavin and Daddy ready to take the 1/2 mile trek on the floating walk-way.

We would have taken more pictures of Gavin standing by this part, but apparently he thinks he can walk on algae so sitting with Mommy was safer.

Mommmy Mommmmmy  Loook!  It's the BOG!!!!!!!

Gavin and Daddy heading off on a great adventure.

Gavin is never too sure about nature.  He hates grass and only tolerates leaves... but these weeds were too exciting to pass up.

Smiles all around as the bog starts to close in around everyone.  You really feel like you're walking deep into a nature sanctuary at this point... and Gavin really wanted to play hide and seek in the bushes.  Slight heart attacks aside, it was a lot of fun.

Gavin accidently took a leaf off the bush and is trying to figure out how to reattach it.  Such a sweet boy.

Gav's got his Mommy, his backwards Cardinals hat, and all the birds, turtles, and beavers a bog can hold... what more could a 13 month old want.

Half way through the bog there's a nice spot to stop and take some pictures... Mommy was a big fan of the little bugs running along the water, and Gav was a big fan of the floating, bouncing platform.

The annual family bog picture.

 Once we got closer to dry land Gavin wanted to stretch his legs...

... and then immediately decided to ignore the sign and try to take a quick swim.

Gavin does not like... check that... despises grass.  He's okay walking on it.. but the moment he falls he attempts to keep all points of contact away from the horrible substance.  Here's a picture of him purposely holding one of his legs off the ground because the grass was touching it... it's amazing you can't see the whimper sounds coming from his mouth.

After running through the bog, we decided to let Gavin run around on a little safer grassy area... there was a definite melancholy feel to it as we watched our baby expand his boundaries and leave his parents behind.  He'd go farther each time, then turn around to make sure we were okay... then head out another 10 yards... cute and bittersweet at the same time.

 "Dad it's cool... don't look so sad... I'm one yearses old.. I can take care of myself!"

 Exploring by yourself is fun... having mommy toss you up in the air is THE BEST!!!

 Daddy was trying to fix the camera after letting Gavin play with it again and stumbled upon this really sweet moment / wonderful picture setting.  

"Time for home... I am bogged out!"



Weekend in Geneseo

This past weekend our little family headed out to Geneseo for a fun filled weekend!  Ryan and I joined Kyle and Allison and Andy and Shari for the Iowa v Penn State game.  We tailgated, we met up with friends, we got front row seats, and we ended up on ESPN!  (Check out facebook for the clip of us being, as my 8th graders put it, "famous" :)  Gav hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Gillespie while we were at the game.  They took him to the Niabi Zoo, where he roared at every animal.  And then they visited Uncle Bren at St. Ambrose and Gavin gave Bren a lesson in picking up ladies.

On Sunday, all the brothers and their wives/girlfriends got together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Shane and Karyn's baby!  It's a rare occurrence for all the Gillespie boys to be home at the same time, so we took a family pic:

The Gillespie bros and their girls, plus Gav, Grandma, and Andy and Shari

 Gavin is a lot more snuggly these days.  We get kisses when we ask for them, and he gives random, unsolicited hugs.  But this also means he wants to be picked up a lot more often, which means I see this pose a lot!

 The happy couple!  About 6 weeks left until we get to meet Gavin's first cousin, and Ryan and I become an Uncle and Aunt!

 I had to include a pic of CJ and Melanie's cleverly wrapped present!

 Gavin and Grandpa are the bestest of friends.  Its nice that Larry found someone who appreciates his jokes!

 I love this pic...our baby is all grown up!

 Having some quiet time with Mommy.  Like I said, he's a snuggler now!  We only had to wait a year to get a baby that likes to hang out with his Mommy and Daddy!



Gavin's portfolio

As I think I've mentioned in previous posts, Gavin is obsessed with all things technological these days.  That includes my camera.  And of course, none of these toys are any fun unless they're turned on, so Gavin spends a lot of time experimenting with all the different modes on my camera.  And short of resetting my camera to the factory standards, I have no idea how to fix it!  Sometimes Gavin finds a great combinations of crazy settings that take great pics, but other times we end up with some crazy blurry messes.  So the pics below are just some of the photos that have resulted from Gavin's experiments.

This pic does a great job of capturing the look of determination on Gav's face when he sees me or Ryan using a camera/phone/iPod/laptop/remote....you name it, he wants it, and he wants to figure out if it plays Yo Gabba Gabba!

 Pouty boy...

 A good example of a blurry setting Gav selected.  I kind of like this pic though, because it sometimes feels like our world looks this way...Gav in the middle of a spinning mess!

 Thoughtful Gav

 Checking out Grandma's iPhone

 Gav playing with his "mini-blankie," a Grandma Mayner creation.  Gav is obsessed with his blankie (we have 2 in case of emergency) so we bought and third blankie and Grandma cut it up and sewed it into 9 mini versions.  These are great for the car, the wagon, Miss Jeanne's...they are a lifesaver!

 This kid really knows how to work the puppy dog eyes.

 Getting ready to watch some Monday night football.

 Gav loved trying on Mommy's Bears beads....

...but he immediately wanted to take them off the minute we put them on!