Miller Farms and Westernaires Horse Show

My friend, Erika, has told me many times about Miller Farm but I have never been until this year. We had school off for parent conferences and with 5 kids at home all day for an extra long weekend- I knew I had to find something to do with them or be driven crazy! So, my friend Michelle, suggested Miller Farms and I was in. It took about an hour to get there. They have this awesome "junk yard" with old airplanes and cool rubber pits that the kids can play on- my kids all loved it, especially the boys! They could have played there all day. Admission was a bit steep but since there was a big group of us they gave us the group rate of $8 per kid picking 1 bag of produce on the farm. Since I wanted a bit more produce, I paid $15 for myself and I got to pick 5 bags of produce. 

So altogether it was $55 for 10 bags of freshly picked veggies. 

 We headed out on a tractor and spent the next 2 and 1/2 hours in the fields picking veggies. they drove us to each field and stopped (maybe about 4 times) while we all got out and picked. 

It was extremely hard work to get all the veggies out of the ground. 

We were tired, thirsty and SOOO dirty! 

But a cool experience nonetheless about where we get our food. 

This particular farm was pesticide free and all organic which was pretty cool.

The work didn't stop there. Once we got home, we had to organize, clean and sort every piece. Which took a while. It certainly didn't start out looking as pretty as the picture below.

Then I processed it. I blanched the corn, green beans and beets and then froze them. 

I cooked the 7 pumpkins and pureed them. 

The whole time I was working I was thinking of how beautiful a picture of the gospel this whole process was. We are so covered and dirty with sin and its hard to see our true beauty of who we were created to be. But God starts the process of cleaning us up here on earth and will some day restore us and all of creation and we will see how beautiful we were meant to be- not marred and dirtied by sin but completely whole and perfect before the Father! Pretty awesome stuff! 

Who knew gardening could be so spiritual:) ha! 

 We did save 5 pumpkins to carve- 

The kids did a great job and the squirrels ate them the very next day. 

 Another great highlight this fall, was being given free tickets to the horse show! It was amazing!

 Thanks to Collaborative Foster Care for the free tickets! 

Elitches, Roxborough State Park, and Mini Golf

 Every year, the library gives out free Elitches tickets for all the kids for reading. This year, we went and it rained after an hour, so they gave us tickets to come back. We ended up saving them till September and we were able to enjoy a full day at the park with minimal people there.
No long lines- It was a blast! 

 We met up with some friends at Roxborough State Park to see the fall colors- but the leaves weren't really changing much. Still was fun. 

 We were able to provide respite for another foster family by taking their 12 year old girl for a bit. The twins were SO happy and we all went mini golfing- good times. 

Catching up

Life is busy and full in these parts. We are enjoying being part of the Foster Care family and I look forward to writing a post soon about just Foster Care. It's been a crazy ride full of hard times (and good!) and times for us reflect on our own weakness and cling to the cross for grace for this journey! The kids are growing as well in this!

Dress like a pirate for free donuts

Ella has a few extra curricular activities that she has been enjoying- she played soccer for a few weeks for our school. She did great- she has hustle! Ella also is in our school choir and art club after school and she enjoys playing the violin. And she still REALLY, REALLY loves babies.

Elijah has joined the Boy Scouts this year. He loves all the activities and his den is da' BOMB! They are so organized and its been great! He is looking forward to summer camp! 

He also lost his first tooth last month! 

 Arianna has really been into baking and she has learned to make the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls- YUM! A crucial life skill that all young girls must master! She also started back up with her piano lessons. 

Middle school has been quite the adjustment this year- They have tons of homework, grades are hard to keep up with and the amount of independence they stress in middle school is good but crazy. 

It's good to see them really start growing up.

Sophia loves to keep her hair short and has enjoyed taking guitar lessons once again. 

The kids also have been very into building forts- ALL. THE. TIME. 

It's cool to see them use their imaginations but the mess drives me up a wall. 

I've had to let go and be messy! 

Sola church celebrated another baptism this fall. It's been amazing to be part of this body and do life with these people. The support they have given us, especially in fostering is amazing. 

I am still working for Pillar to Post Home Inspectors. It has been an amazing job that allows me to work from home and is extremely flexible! I am so blessed to have it. I have really stepped back from the PTO this year to concentrate on foster care.
I'm still at the school occasionally and I got a haircut:) 

Me and CJ- oh, the rolls! Just love him!

Mark started a new job for Tempas Nova, a google migration tech company here in Denver. He works from home Tues/Thurs/Fri and goes into the office Mon/Wed. Changing jobs and being out of work for a month and a half was totally scary but I know it was from God's hand. His new job has been SOOOO much less stressful and just having him around more has been undeniably the best thing for our family as we are fostering. We celebrated his birthday on October 8th and our foster kiddos birthday was the next day on the 9th! It was fun celebrating.