Grandparents rock!

We had and fun-packed and awesome 4 days with my parents! They flew into St. Louis where they were greeted with big hugs by Gabe & Mike & I and then fed chick-fil-a for dinner on the 2.5 hr ride back to good ole' fort lost-in-the-woods. They got to experience our new little cozy house (they had to sleep on the couch) and enjoy Missouri in the fall! We spent the days playing with Gabe, walking, going to the park and doing anything we could outside in the gorgeous weather...including swimming in the Big Piney and Lake of the Osarks!

Doesn't the water look inviting? My mom was our naturalist and found all sorts of gross-looking creatures under the rocks in the river.


The bonus was Nulkie had this whole week off between EOCA school and Sapper! Yay!

Check our those eyelashes!

Gabe plopped right down in the water! He loved it! "He put his hiney in the piney"

Mom found a crayfish and Nulkie caught it





These are the two unfreindly ponies at this "expericene fall" farm. It turned out to be a total flop. The advertising was very misleading. We arrived expecting apple cider and cider doughnuts and lots of animals for Gabe to pet. There were only 2 ponies and a few goats. they didn't have any apples anywhere. The "pumkin patch" was little pumpkins they scattered on a cleared field. But Gabe still had fun petting the old horse Michael found.

Cutest cowboy in town


The fake pumkin patch



Happy Grandparentals

After the lame fall farm we headed to the Lake of the Ozarks. At first we thought it would be a bust since the beach was closed, but it turned out awesome! We rented a pontoon boat for a few hours and toured the lake, swam and had a picnic in a private cove and just basked in the sun! It was fabulous!


Then to top it off, a family of ducks strolled by as we were packing up to leave. Gabe's big into ducks and he was enthralled! I've never been so close to ducks before, so i have a slew of photos for you :)






My mom thinks they were the american black duck. Whatever they were, they were beautiful!



We stopped by the Arch before we had to drop my parents off at the airport. Gabe had a blast running around and growling at all the stuffed animals in the museum underneath.




The Tom Sawyer on the Mighty Mississippi....This is Mark Twain country

St. Louis

 Gabers cracks us up about as often as he drives us crazy! He's a total goof most of the time! Grammie Nulk gave Gabers this bucket last Easter. He found a new use for it...party hat! It's really hard to scold Gabe for misbehaving when he's wearing a bucket on his head and beads around his neck!
  The latest with us is were down to about 10 days till Michael heads to sapper school and I take off for New Mexico. My parents are squeezing in a visit  this week as well! I've been busy sewing, cleaning, walking and chasing Gabe! I'm super excited to see New Mex in the fall and see the Balloon Fiesta. Michael's been talking about me going since we started dating. I've already been forced to promise I'll send Nulkie a postcard! And stock up on Sadie's salsa (if you have taste buds left...yuck)



Look, I got bangs! And I chopped a few inches off my hair which feels amazing.  (I don't know what Nulkie's doing in this picture..probably stealthy flexing or something :)

St. James Fall Festival..aka the petting zoo

Michael and I were trying to decide what to do this weekend...in Leonard wood it usually means a lot of driving to get somewhere, which neither of us were in the mood to do. I was really wanting to go up to this St. James Winery and do the free wine tasting and pick up a few bottles. Turns out today happened to be St. James Fall Festival! So it was a lot of fun..and only about 45 mins away (close for FLW standards). After a delish bfast of french toast (prepared by the one and only Nulkanator) followed by cleaning up baby throw up (Gabe lost his whole bfast) we put on our cowboy boots and headed out. The first part of the festival it rained a bit....but then the sun came out and it was HOT! I went from looking for hot cocoa to ice cream. I felt my northeastern-ness coming out as i kept looking for cider doughnuts. I mean how can you call it a fall festival without cider doughnuts? Alas,the closest i got was a mulled cider candle. I had to settle for a hot dog and a ice cream cone :) Felt more like a summer festival to me but Gabe really enjoyed petting all the live stock.


My two cowboys...hopefully when Gabe is done with the braces we can find him a nice pair of boots!



He didn't want to look at the camera..but he was all about giving me kisses! I'll take it! :)

Gabe loved petting the cows


He LOVED the sheep. Walked right over and stuck his hand in to pet them. No fear at all.


Gabe did NOT like the pigs. It was hilarious...he started to cry if you put his hand near it. We don't know why, but he is not a fan of pigs. 

The bunnies were my favorite

As you can see, they let Gabe hold one! It was so cute, he just sat there like a zombie. He was very gentle though..i was a little nervous because i've seen how he pets our dogs...but he was good with the bunny. 


 
This is "B-2 Bomber", a 1200 lb steer whose the same age as Gabe. Apparently he's up for sale and will probably be steak tommorow :( He was a very gentle cow,  and the owner was super freindly too.

The farmer asked if we were interested...i told him i didn't think the army wold be too happy if we put a cow in our backyard on post!
  All in all it was a fun day. Right now Daddy & Gabe are napping after all the festivities. Hope you're all having a nice weekend like we are!

St. Louis Zoo

 We went to the St. Louis zoo today. Apparently since it's free and was Labor day, everyone in MO had to go. We ended up having to park about 3/4 mi away from the entrance and it was a MOB scene!! It totally would've been my Dad's worst nightmare. Needless to say, it was not our favorite zoo, but we still had a good time. I'd like to go again...on a weekday...when it's cold and kids are in school! It was a very pretty area though. We passed by this pretty pond and chapel. 


Gabe had a fun time petting the goats. He kept calling them "Bella" and wanted to chase after and pet them by himself. I don't know if you can tell, but Cheeky has a mouthful of food leftover from lunch. When he doesn't want to eat anymore he just keeps the last bite in his mouth so you can't shove more in. He'll refuse to chew that bite for over an hour at times. It's gross and frustrating. We hope he moves on to a new phase soon, like feeding himself and delighting in each meal i provide for him. Cross you're fingers!

Michael says chickens bring out the "farmgirl" in me. They liked me much better than Michael..i think he was jealous. These pics are for Grandma Fran who lovessssssss chickens!



The Butterfly Aviary was our favorite part of the zoo. Beautiful flowers...not too crowed...


Somebody was very tired by the end of the zoo trip. He earned himself a stuffed Hippo by saying the word "Hippo" now. :)