Being “Thankful” All Year Round!

I am definitely a person who has always been frustrated by a lot of the holidays such as Valentine’s Day and Thanksgiving! I feel as though sometimes we don’t express enough throughout the year. Do I celebrate them?  I do, but I also make as much effort as I can all year round to show my love and thankfulness to my family and friends. I truly feel blessed by all of the wonderful people I am surrounded by!

Most of our weekends are filled with family fun and outings with our friends. Sandy and I both work from home so when we have time off we like to go. Fall in the Valley is beautiful. I have a hard time with the weather change, but I love how much the Valley has to offer. With Sandy’s big trip coming up we wanted to get out and have lots of family time.

Each year the kids love to go apple picking! We have tried a few different farms over the years, but this year we decided to go to Noggins! The apples were awesome! My kids all love Gala apples so we decided that is what we would pick! They were perfect and the kids had a great afternoon. We decided before heading home we would visit more pumpkin people since Noah had an agenda for us. He loves going to the pumpkin people on any of the hills. He doesn’t care so much about seeing them, he just loves any excuse to roll! The kids spent about half an hour just rolling and laughing. Sandy and I just laid there on the hill watching them. It was nice to have that time together and watch their excitement! I have had the conversation a few times with various parents over the years. I think sometimes people believe that I love all of the places we go and things that we do with our kids and lots of them I do, but there are also many places that I don’t enjoy. I don’t need to love the place though or activity, I enjoy my time when my children are enjoying theirs. Watching them smile, laugh, learn and just feel happy keeps me going no matter what we are doing!

We decided this year we would go to Windsor and watch the Pumpkin Regatta parade. It had been a few years and Noah didn’t really remember the big pumpkins. It is always a fun parade to watch because each pumpkin is incorporated into a small or large float. They also pass out lots of candy for the kids! Some of the floats were very creative this year! After the parade we went to the Trecothic Creek Mini Trains since it was there last day open for the season and we hadn’t made it there over the summer. The kids always love riding the trains each year.

It was such a great weekend with two family dinners as well and lots of fun! We decided since the temperature was nice and warm today we would head to the zoo! The animals are so active this time of year, but the highlight for the kids was a snake that was just wondering in the open space at the zoo! We ended our weekend with some family games! I really do love my children so much and I am so thankful that I am blessed to be able to spend so much time with them!