September

One of the great moments of the year was finding this crayfish in the river by one of our favorite places to bike, run and play. Frida is potty trained!! So we often take a potty along if we're going out for a while. What a perfect place to put your crayfish!!

 

Daniel made a tasty batch of grape jam from our grapes and Jack's (the neighbor). We love to munch on the grapes, but when they suddenly ripen to perfection we can't eat them all fast enough!

Fishing became the obsession of the summer. Earlier Lukas was catching minnows with a net and quite good at it! Then Papa made these poles with the boys for an excursion on Grandpa's new boat:

And we took those poles for a try at our favorite fishing spot (Lake Hiawatha). Here a week earlier, we saw an elderly woman with not a bit of English pull out fish after fish as we sat and ate our picnic one hot evening. She and Lukas chatted non-stop for almost 30 minutes. The words were not understood on either side, but they became fast friends that day.

This day was a bit cooler, with blankets required for the picnic, but by the time we took to fishing the sun warmed us a bit:

Magnetic shape tiles and animals were the name of the game for most of the late summer. Of course now, in early November, we haven't seen either of those out in a while. Surely they will re-surface at some point.

We have visited Madeline Island many times, but this was the first time we camped there. I asked the Lord for 2 things: friends with whom Lukas could ride freely around the campground, and for the rain to hold off until the last day (it was predicted mid-trip). God did both! Lukas had a GREAT time biking around like a free man, and Theo was brave enough to join him some of the time too. They did a great job looking out for one another, and very effectively used the walkie-talkies to communicate with us :) And the rain started right at 12:01 a.m. that last day, so we had lots of nice fires.

Grandma's been inviting us to the apple orchard near her house the last few years but we are usually too busy during apple season gathering apples and pressing them. This year we finally went, and had a great time! She took the kiddos Friday and we did again Saturday.

And I didn't get any photos of the cider press events this year (as usual, we're too busy to stop and take photos!) but these are the different varieties that went into it. No pears this year, must have been an off year for the generous pear-sharing neighbor's trees.