Super September

 So I always feel like I'm caught up on my blog, but then when I look back, I realize I'm about a month behind and then I make super blog posts.  So here's our Super September post!

In the beginning of September, we went camping.  We had gone in July with Laura and Chris Coons and family, and despite Kelsey's high fever and our little sleep, we had a good time.  So we tried again.  Here were some of the negatives:

• I forgot Joshua's jacket, so he wore mine.
• Our pump ran out of battery about halfway through blowing up our mattress, so we kept rolling into each other all night.
• A huge gust of wind literally picked up our tent (even though it was pegged down and everything) and tried blowing us away--even while all you see was inside: kids, me, pak-n-play, airmatress, everything!  We almost packed up and went home but we REALLY wanted to camp!
• It was FREEZING!  Kelsey woke up a dozen times just cold and Josh climbed under my covers with me halfway through the night.

Despite all of these things: we had a BLAST!  It was so fun, we had pop tarts for breakfast and enjoyed our time out of Chicago.  Our kids slept the 2 hour drive back.

Kelsey is learning to pick out her own clothes.

 The kids have really been into music lately.  Josh is always surprising us with Primary songs that he knows and we love it!

Sibling love--though I think Josh really was just trying to get her away from the gate.

 Mid-September we had a really, really good Chicago day.  Lately, we've been seeing the negative things about living in a big city, so it was nice to have such a good weekend!

Our first adventure was renewing our Brookfield Zoo passes.  They easily pay themselves off over the year, so we went the day that we bought them.

 Our favorites are always the big cats!

My little slug

 At the zoo, there is a very peaceful walk around a little lake.  We loved the nature walk.

 That same day after naps, we went to Oaktoberfest--held in Oak Park.  It was a short little walk for us to downtown Oak Park and they had festival food, homemade rootbeer, music and some fun things.  Here Josh is holding a little baby chick.

 I was terrified that Kelsey was going to strangle this poor little chick, so the lady plopped it on my head instead.

 Mmmm....corn on the cob.  It really was a fun festival!

 Joshua and Kelsey love to watch for dad when he comes home.  We look down to the left at the street and sometimes we actually get to see him pulling in!

 New clothes!

 Lindsy Hartsock introduced me to leg warmers.  She taught that it is way cheaper to buy women's knee-high socks, cut off the toes and sew them under.

 Fall clothes!

Snuggles with dad--she does her best not to let this blankie out of her sight!

 We also had a lot of friends come to play on various days in September.  This is Jae and we adore him.  Because Josh has so many friends, he calls them all his "Best Friend", depending on who he is playing with at the time.  What is entertaining, is sometimes he calls them by the wrong name...