A Beautiful Season

We have had such a beautiful fall up here in the Rapids!  I can't believe all the glorious colors - way more variation than in the twin cities area.  But the peak colors came and went very quickly.  It seems like one day they were abundant and beautiful and the next day the wind and rain tore it all down.  I did manage to capture some trees in our yard, though.



The view from our deck.



A side view of our house.

 Well, we are finally settling in.  The girls started school the day after Labor Day.  They both like their new teachers and have started making some new friends.  This has helped their moods tremendously (and mine as well)!  They seem to be settling in, learning the new routines, and enjoying their days much more.  Cooper also started preshool at Grace Bible Church.  He has a small class of 6 kids and a great teacher, Miss Heather.  He's having fun but complains about going to school once in a while because he'd rather play at home all day.  But he's learning lots of letter/letter sounds and is really progressing in writing.

Here are some pictures of the first day of school - these outfits were laid out in their rooms for at least 2 weeks before school started.



We live 2 blocks from school so the girls are able to walk/bike every morning.




Clare and Cate in front of Forest Lake Elementary.




Cate couldn't wear the hat in school so she gave it to Cooper to take home.

 Of course, starting school does have it's drawbacks.  The girls both have colds and a couple of weeks ago they both came home with lice!!  Arrggg!  That was very stressful for me.  Thankfully, I think we caught it fairly early in the process and we seem to have eliminated it.  I never want to have to deal with that again!

We also have all the kids involved in various activities which keeps our week fairly busy.  All 3 are taking gymnastics at our local gym.  That takes all of Tuesday night.  Cate has piano lessons on Wednesdays after school, and then all 3 go to AWANA on Wednesday evenings.  Scott and I take advantage of that hour and a half each week to go look at lots which the kids hate doing.  Then on Thursday after school Cate has dance.  With everything going on, it seems like our weeks just fly by.

We were able to go camping in mid-September at Pattison State Park in Wisconsin, near Duluth/Superior with our friends Brad and Jodi and Jodi's daughter, Grace.  We had a great time with them and took in the Duluth Air Show on that Saturday which was a ton of fun.

It was a crisp, cool night, just perfect for a campfire.

Thank goodness for camper heaters!  We all slept well and had a yummy pancake breakfast in the morning before breaking down camp.  They day warmed up nicely and we headed out to take a hike, enjoy the fall foliage, and have some outdoor fun.

At the bottom of the trail was this river.  We spent a lot of time just figuring out the best way to get across...and then back again.  We also scored some very nice sedementary rocks for the kids to take to school to show their teachers and classmates.

The following weekend I was looking for a place to go apple picking.  We have enjoyed that fall tradition ever since Cate was really little so I was disappointed and surprised to find that they just don't have much of that kind of activity up here.  I was able to find one farm that had pick-your-own apples but they were only open on Saturday mornings and I just happened to hit the last weekend that they were open.  So we went out, picked a TON of honeycrisp apples and 10 minutes later we were done!  Short and sweet I guess.  But the weather was beautiful. 

After apple picking, we drove around to view some newly constructed homes that were on the Showcase Homes Tour - similar to the parade of homes in the twin cities.  It was a good chance to meet some builders in the area and get a feel for how they do things here in the northland.

A few days after that, I put those apples to good use in a delish apple pie!  It was gone very soon afterwards. 

It's been nice being around on the weekends a little bit more.  We've been able to get some things done around the house, relax, and visit a few local churches.  Still haven't found "the one" but I'm sure we'll get it figured out fairly soon.  One night last weekend, after the kids took a bath, we decided to have a fire on our back patio and have a pizza picnic.  We looked up in the sky and saw the northern lights flowing all around us!  My camera isn't good enough to capture something like that (or I'm not a good enough photographer more like).  But trust me, it was specatcular!  A perfect night.

We are continuing our search for a lot.  We realize we're being very picky - 2 or more acres, wooded, no traffic or manufacturing noises, close to town, good resale area, southern facing walkout, easy to put in driveway, electric, well, septic.  But we're in a position to be choosy and we might as well take our time...even though I am chomping at the bit to get this whole building thing started!  We have found some promising lots that we might put offers in on, but we think we'll keep shopping for a bit.

This Friday I head down to Chicago with my girlfriends for our almost-annual trip.  I am very much looking forward to it.  I still haven't made any friends up here.  It's been okay so far, but I can tell I'm needing some girl time real bad.  So this comes at the perfect time.

We are missing all of our friends and family.  Scott's parents are heading back to Iowa this Wednesday.  It's been great having them so close.  We went up to our lake property this weekend to take out our dock and they joined us to help.  We won't see them again until Thanksgiving.  So please, comment on the blog, e-mail us, facebook us, snail mail or just give us a call (we have skype!).  We would love to hear from you!!

Take care!
The Schwakes