grandparents galore!

because jack was turning twelve at the end of the month, both grandma and grandpa Brower and grandpa Dave made a visit in October!

bart and Janie were able to come for a month and spend time at each of the sibling's homes! we had so much fun spending time with cousins and grandma and grandpa multiple times throughout the month!

one day we headed up to Sugarcreek OH to visit a family that bart and Janie met while serving a mission and had become good friends with. they are an amish family that joined the church a few years ago and they are incredible. it was very neat to meet them and visit their furniture store/deli. the kids went on pony rides and we ate fresh baked soft pretzels with a sweet jalapeño cream cheese dip. Brother and Sister Weaver were so kind and their children sure know how to handle those ponies!

on our way back, we stopped at an apple orchard and picked Evercrisp apples... YUM! they are a cross between a honecrsip and a fuji and last forever. 

grandpa, Chris, and jack were able to golf a few times and grandpa bart was also able to show jack what a good shot he was with a bow. jack was impressed with his accuracy! the adults stayed up late talking most evenings and it was so nice to just chat and be together.

grandpa Dave arrived the day after jack's birthday to spend the weekend with us!

he spent most of his time building bows and arrows for the kids out of sticks from our yard and the kids looooved it!

grandpa Dave was able to go to Ellie's only lacrosse game of the season. even with pajama pants on under his jeans, he was frozen by the end of the game just like the rest of us haha!

 he was able to spend a lot of time playing with Owen, since the older kids were at school and even was able to visit for part of Owen's preschool class on Friday.

jack stayed home from school one of the days to spend some one on one time with grandpa. they went to a little archery shop to buy a real bow that jack has been saving up for. he's hoping to make it on to the school's archery team, which is quite competitive.

they had a great experience at the little archery shop. it is owned and run by an old woman with a walker. they were a little skeptical at first, but she proved to really know her stuff! never underestimate an old lady in a walker!

after that, grandpa took us fishing. we had to go all over Granville to find some ponds, but nothing proved fruitful. we still had a great time though. and Owen especially loved it and threw a giant tantrum the whole way home because he did not want to stop fishing. its in his blood.

we took grandpa Dave to the orchard for some more of those evercrisps and sent him home with 30 lbs to share with cousins and grandma in Florida.

I forgot to take a picture, but one of the reasons why bart and Janie were here is because our niece, Madeline, was baptized. she asked jack and cousin Kate (her sister) to speak at the baptism. Grandpa Dave was here, so he was able to hear jack's talk too which was pretty cool. both kid's talks were so good, to the point, and allowed the spirit to testify of the truthfulness of what was taking place. plus, the baptism only lasted 29 minutes with two kid speakers so that was a bonus!

grandpa told us about some wings he had from a store on his drive up from Florida, which of course made everyone want wings :)

after grandpa left I asked each of the kids what their favorite thing was that they did with grandpa. there were a couple that said carving pumpkins, jack said learning so many pointers about shooting and going shopping with him, and Charlie said watching Rhett and Link when Link learns how to be manly. we all laughed so hard, but grandpa laughed the hardest and it was a fun night for everyone!

we all felt so lucky to have grandma and grandpa and grandpa come for a visit. saying goodbye wasn't easy, but it was so worth it to have them with us for a short time. thank you so much for making the trip to spend these precious moments with all of us!