Happy Halloween 2018!

Aiden received his Bible at church on Sunday

Aiden did the scripture reading of Psalm 46.  He and one other third grade girl did the readings and he was very excited!

Annual pumpkin carving

We got some cool lights this year!!

Finn at a Halloween store, but the dog looks pretty realistic

Finn and his pirate costume.  He's wearing these creepy looking brown teeth.

Finn went with John to a Halloween party at John's work

Finn and I went to an open gymnastics place to play last week

Aiden started his last year of House level hockey on Saturday.  

Go #11 Aiden Carrithers!

The boys are excited about Halloween tonight.  We have our costumes ready to go.  As you can see in the pictures above, Finn is going to be a Pirate again this year!  He has a lot more pirate gear this time around since he also had a pirate birthday party over the summer.  I will keep everyone in suspense until next post to see the Halloween costumes for the older boys.

Hockey has started up again over here.  Aiden began his season on Saturday and he is super excited to be playing for the Vegas Knights, one of his favorite NHL teams.  He has some very cool uniforms.  This will be his final year as a House player and next year he will begin travel hockey as a Squirt which is what Luke and Liam are in this year.  Next year, Luke and Liam will move up to PeeWee hockey.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Iowa Weekend 2018

We spent one of our days out of school at another orchard.  It was a picture perfect fall day!

Hayride for Finn and two buddies

The gang (some of us were more excited to do a picture than others)

Liam's new lego set (more on Liam below)

Finn's first Iowa game and first college football game

Kin nick Stadium with Grandpa and the boys

Finn's favorite part was the train ride to the game

On their way to the game

Go Hawks!

Grandpa and the boys

More Hawks!

Finn is checking out some trophies and things

Luke's crazy hat

Beautiful day for football

The pig

Welcome to the updated Blog for the Carrithers Family!!  Yes, I finally had some down time over the weekend to update our blog header that was probably about 3 years behind.  When you don't do something for three years, it takes a bit of time and effort to basically figure out how to do it all over again.  Thankfully, I figured it out and we have new pictures that look a little more like the boys do.

We had two days off from school last week so we were able to enjoy another trip to the orchard with friends as well as a fun trip to Iowa for some of us.  John and three of the boys (Luke, Aiden, and Finn) drove to Iowa for the weekend to attend the Iowa vs. Maryland football game.  They had a wonderful time visiting with Grandpa and Grandma, Aunt Charlene, Uncle Tom, and several other relatives.  This was Finn's first trip to Iowa and he had a fabulous time.  The most memorable thing for Finn was getting to ride the train to and from the game.  It was a fun filled weekend with lots of activities including swimming at the hotel, playing at Tom and Charlene's, riding the train, watching the game, and staying overnight at the hotel.  The boys and John had a blast.

Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, Liam was battling a relapse of strep and was just very run down.  With hockey tryouts coming up this week, we opted to keep him home to rest.  And he pretty much did nothing all weekend, but he never complained about it.  He was quite content to watch t.v., read, play with legos, go to bed early, and eat lots and lots of popsicles!  He had a very sore throat, a cough, cold, and just felt very crummy.  We stayed home all weekend except for a trip to pick out a new lego set and grab some additional Tylenol.  We watched some great movies, went to bed early, and rested quite well.  We are hopeful he will be strong and ready for a week of hockey tryouts!  

Apple Jack's 2018

Trying to figure out the corn maze

Our annual picture on the tires at Apple Jack's.  Luke is already trying to take my spot on the tires when he passes me up in height!

Riding on the Cow Train

Corn pit

More corn

Dumping Corn

And we are still finding corn in the washing machine!

Aiden on the zip line

Liam shooting the apple cannon

On the bridge in the corn maze

Finn 

Luke and I are pretty much the same height.  His hat makes him look a bit taller here, but technically I still have about an inch on him (at least for another few months)!

We made our annual trip to Apple Jack's apple orchard last weekend in between the rain showers.  Our fall this year has been more like a spring in Minnesota.  We have had 11 solid days of nothing but rain and cold temps.  We do have some beautiful leaves on the trees,  but the weather hasn't been great for being outside.  When the rain let up for a bit last Sunday, we decided at the last minute to do the apple orchard because the next couple weekends won't be as easy to do this and the weather is quickly changing to winter.  We actually had some snow flurries this morning.  No accumulation, but seeing snow on October 14th is way too early!

We had a great time at the orchard with the corn maze (Luke's favorite), cow train, zipline, jumping pillow, apple cannon, and lastly picking out our pumpkins to carve in a few weeks.  We have been to Apple Jack's since Luke, Liam, and Aiden were less than a year old.  The orchard has grown a lot in recent years and a lot busier, but still very charming and fun for the boys.  Enjoy!

Fun Run 2018

Finn learned how to peel an apple at school and wanted to practice it at home!

Aiden is holding the class flag at the Fun Run for his school

Mom helped to mark laps at the Fun Run.  It was windy and chilly!

I went to snap a picture of each oft he boys before the race and here is Luke lined up with all the girls!

Liam and his buddies (left to right: Ben, Ethan, Liam, and Clay)

Clay, Ben, Liam, and Luke

Throwback to October 2010 when Luke also loved sitting with all the ladies!  He is behind the three  girls on the tire.  This was a trip to the apple orchard with our Twins group.  The two girls in pink shirts are twins and the one in the middle has a twin brother.

Luke, Liam, and Aiden completed their Fun Run this week at school.  The purpose of the Fun Run was to raise money for their school to pay for new computers, books, and other resources.  Thank you to many friends and family who made a pledge to each of the boys.  The goal of the Fun Run was to finish 35 laps.  Liam had 68 laps, Luke had 56, and Aiden finished 48 laps so we definitely exceeded the goal!  I helped in the afternoon while the boys were running and marked the laps as they ran around the course.  It was a chilly day, but the boys had an awesome time.  

Arbor Dash 2018

Finn ran a 1K Fun Run and did well.  This is a pictures of the 5-7 year olds.

Here comes Finn!!

The boys and their buddies getting ready to run!

Liam won his age group of 9-11 years with a time of 22:50!!  Super speedy!

Aiden won third place in his age group with a time of 28:42.  This was a big improvement from last year for Aiden.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Third place on the left and second place in middle, Liam won FIRST!

The boys did a 5K over the weekend and had a great time.  This is the second time we have done this race and we improved our times this year!  Its an easy race to run because its local and relatively small, but they have some fun prizes and things that the boys enjoy.  The proceeds from the race go towards the Early Childhood and Family Education Center.

Liam was particularly speedy!  He ran a 22:50 5K which is around a 7 minute and 30 second pace.  Not bad at all considering he did no training for the race.  He is in decent shape from playing hockey and other sports, but he doesn't do any running on a regular basis.  John ran the race with him and said he felt Liam could have pushed even a bit harder.  Liam finished first place in his 9-11 year old age group.

Luke also improved his time from last year and finished in 27:32.  Considering Luke isn't built like a runner (like Liam is), this was a great time for him.  He also ran hard and didn't stop to walk like he did last year.

Aiden finished third in his age group and was very excited to beat his time from last year.  Aiden finished in 28:42 which is a big improvement.  He was very tired and a bit sore that night and the following day, but overall it was a fun time!!