More with Grandma Thompson

My mom has been gone for a week and a half, but I wanted to post a few more pictures from her week-long trip to Minneapolis. We had so much fun while she was here! Travis was in Utah for a few days for a couple of job interviews, so we were lucky to have her company while he was gone. We tried to soak up as much of Minnesota's beautiful autumn as we could, but it snowed twice! We played a lot: walked along Lake Harriet, went apple picking, went to the temple on a ward temple day (where the kids had activities so Mom and I could go), went to the Mall of America, discovered the Galleria (gorgeous mostly window shopping mall), went to music lessons, Mom did my hair with coaching from Elisa over the phone, played with our bunnies, talked a lot about where we might take a job, and just had fun. It was very relaxed and wonderful to not be painting and prepping a house for sale, packing, or unpacking!

Apple Picking

Something we really wanted to do this fall in Minnesota was go apple picking, and the timing was perfect when Grandma Thompson was here. We wish Travis could have been there. The weather was a little chilly--and it snowed the next day--but we had a lot of fun. We picked Harrelson apples and honey gold apples, which are a lot like golden delicious but bruise very easily. Sarah was very happy to take a nibble out of any apple she found (and our bunnies know where they are and make a beeline for the apple bags when they're out of their hutch). We also had to try Minnesota's famous Honeycrisp apples, available only locally. We ate a yummy dinner of pulled pork sandwiches and chicken dumpling soup with various apple desserts and hot apple cider. Then the kids played in a giant hay stack and we rode a tractor to pick our own pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. I'm so glad we didn't miss out on apple picking while we were in Minnesota.