Fall Photo Shoot

Since it was such a beautiful fall day, we decided to get some pictures of the animal children. Here they are!

October Baseball

Last week at this time, we didn't even know if the St. Louis Cardinals would make it to the Major League Baseball playoffs--they started out September eight-and-a-half games behind the Atlanta Braves for the Wild Card playoff spot, and it seemed impossible that they would even have a chance. It came right down to the wire, but with the Atlanta Braves' loss to the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cardinals' win over the Houston Astros last week, the Cardinals made it to the playoffs! Greg and I were so excited that we decided to head to St. Louis on Tuesday for game #3 of the Cardinals vs. Phillies playoff series. The teams were tied 1-1 in the best of five series, and we were hoping to see the Cards gain a game on the Phillies.

We had never been to a playoff baseball game before, and the atmosphere was quite electric! The afternoon started with the Budweiser Clydesdales making a couple of laps around the field. They were so cool to see! The stadium was absolutely packed, and people were cheering about everything.

Here are the two teams lined up at the beginning of the game.






It was a perfect afternoon and evening for baseball, and the game was very exciting. They handed out Cardinals towels to everyone when we entered the stadium, so it was like a sea of white every time someone made a big play with everyone waving their towels. Unfortunately the Phillies had the biggest play of the night when one of their players hit a 3-run home run, but the fans stuck by the Cardinals until the very end. A squirrel actually ended up stealing the show by running out onto the field. It turns out that he even showed up again the next night! Unfortunately the Cardinals lost the game 3-2, but at least it was very exciting. And they ended up winning the next evening to again tie up the series. They'll be going back to Philadelphia for game 5 tomorrow, and we hope that they win! Our first playoff game was so much fun!

In other news, the leaves have started changing colors here, and it looks so pretty! Here is a picture of our condo from down the street with the beautiful yellow tree that we get to see every time we come and go. I love fall!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Today Greg and I did our favorite fall activity--we went to the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, Illinois! This fun tradition began in 2007 when Mom and I first discovered the Pumpkin Patch while I was going to graduate school. She and I loved it! Greg and I didn't make it to the patch in 2008 because that was when we were getting married, but we have gone in 2009 and 2010. It is such a fun, fallish place. The weather was a little gray and rainy today, but it felt like fall, and we basically had the whole place to ourselves, so that was nice.

Here is something they have not had before--the Great Pumpkin Patch version of American Gothic. I have named this picture "Pumpkin Gothic."







Here is the Wall of Squash. Now that is a lot of squash!








And here is the pumpkin patch. Look how misty and fall-like it looks! We also saw a lot of cute baby animals and pumpkin displays.






Here we are picking out our pumpkins.

















And here is the result of our pumpkin/squash picking. I think Big Spike approves. What a fun day we had! While we were in Arthur, we stopped at the Homestead Bakery at the Great Pumpkin Patch where we stocked up on all of our fall necessities: delicious jams, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, and fresh apple cider. And we, of course, stopped in Tuscola at our FAVORITE place to eat: Flesor's Candy Kitchen, home of the most delicious Reuben sandwich in the entire world. What a fun, fall day!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

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A Visit from the Atkinsons

We have had SUCH a fun week! We had a wonderful visit from some of our favorite friends: Angie, Matt and Ben Atkinson from Gettysburg. We had a great time visiting them last year in Pennsylvania, and it was so fun to see them again. I met Matt and Angie when I worked in Natchez. Angie was my supervisor, and her husband Matt worked at Vicksburg. They have been wonderful friends ever since then. They rolled into town from Chicago on Monday evening, and we had a fun time eating pizza and watching football before bed. On Tuesday morning while Matt was doing some research at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Greg was at work, Angie, Ben, and I went to the Lincoln Home. Growing up with two parents who work at Gettysburg, Ben knows a lot about "Yanks," "Rebs," and "Abaham Yinken," as he says. He was pretty excited to see Yinken's house, but a potty emergency cut our house tour a little short :-)

A visit to a local playground was more to Ben's liking than the house tour. We had a fun time playing at the park for a while before heading to Cozy Dog Drive In for a yummy lunch of corn dogs, hot dogs, and ice cream. This was Angie's first time ever eating a corn dog! It was a big hit. She and Ben also liked the Route 66 ambiance. That afternoon I tried to keep the dogs quiet while Ben had his nap, and then we all met up for a delicious dinner at one of our favorite restaurants: D'Arcy's Pint.

On Wednesday we stopped at Lincoln's Tomb where Ben got to rub Abraham Lincoln's nose. He thought he was being so funny! :-)









We then went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum while Matt was across the street at the library wrapping up some research. Ben thought it was fun that Tad Lincoln was about his same size. We even ran into a real woman portraying Mary Lincoln. Ben was a little scared of her, but after a minute he warmed up to her. He ended up asking her, "Where did you get your boys?" She smiled and said, "Well, the same place your mom got you." I suppose that will require some explanation at a later date.

That afternoon we all drove down to St. Louis for a Cardinals game. Angie, Matt and Ben are big baseball fans, just like us, so we had a great time. The Cardinals were playing the Mets, and during the Mets' batting practice, one of the ushers brought a ball that had been hit by one of the players and gave it to Ben. He was really excited and wanted to throw it back to the players on the field, but Angie told him it was a special ball that he needed to keep. We had a great game, and the Cardinals ended up winning thanks to a home run hit by David Freese late in the game. It was especially exciting since the Cardinals are a couple of games behind in the race for the playoffs--so every win helps! It was sad to say goodbye to the Atkinsons that evening, but Greg and I had to head back to Springfield for work on Thursday. Matt, Angie and Ben stayed in St. Louis that evening and flew back to Pennsylvania the next day. I don't like it when fun times come to an end, but we'll just look forward to the next time we can see the Atkinsons. We had so much fun together!