First Signs of Fall

Summer is fading away into fall. Off in the distance I can hear the kids practicing their music in band at school and their giggling and laughter as they pass between classes. I can feel the crispness of the morning telling me that summer will soon be a distant memory and the beauty of my favorite season will soon be here to beguile our eyes as winter creeps up on us. I found my first fall leaf this week to give me a sneak peek of what our autumn colors will be like.

Summer went by so fast with a vacation to South Dakota while taking the kids to Montana. We saw Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota which was under construction but still held a lot of charm.

                                                      Designs on outside of Corn Palace

                                                           This is all made of corn

Me acting silly

The family acting silly

We had a lot of fun there. Next we moved on to Wall South Dakota where we ate and spent the night and did a little window shopping. Everyone took pictures with the famous cowboy or sexy lady.

                                                                       Dani

                                                                      Devon

                                                                         Darrell

Me

Next we went to Mount Rushmore, which we were all more than stunned by. We could not believe the magnitude of the faces carved in the mountain. 

Darrell and the kids at Rushmore

We really missed having Alex on this little road trip with us but he had already started school so even though it was fun it was bittersweet. :( But the good thing is that during the summer we had lots of fun watching Alex ride his dirt bike as he races motocross with his dad and little brother Kellin. They are the mighty trio on those things. 

This summer we had the pleasure of watching Alex and Kellin race two races in Humboldt, Iowa. They were awesome! It is so fun to participate in the racing culture. You go to the races and set up a tent and are there all day. The run two motos( hopefully I spelled that right) and then they average out the heats to see the winner. Some of the more advanced racers can really jump their dirt bikes high.

                                                                      Alex

                                                                    Alex in action

Coming around the corner

We also had a family reunion this summer on the Martin side. I had not seen this side of my family in over 10 years so it was a great pleasure to get to see these people and get to catch up and hear old stories. We had an enjoyable afternoon with the family.

The Martin siblings. My dad is on the right side

We had a visit from my sister in law Trudy who I bonded with like a real sister. I have always wanted a sister so I finally got one after 38 years off life. We had some fun times with her hanging out talking, going on drives, visiting a cemetary, looking a Iowa sites, talking about God. It was really a great time.

                                                               Awesome headstone

Darrell and Trudy

Our summer was packed full of fun adventures going to all of the town celebrations and seeing parades and spending time together as a family. I really loved this summer more than any other because I was close to my family.

Labor Day Parade

One of the many charming pleasures of living in a small town is that there is always something going on in one of the surrounding small towns if not in your own. For Labor Day, Kanawha had a parade which was a lot of fun. My husband, son, sister in law Trudy and my parents all went to enjoy the event in the neighboring town.

There were people lined up on both sides of the street anxiously awaiting the start of the parade which always begins with the police and the Vets carrying the flag.  All the surrounding towns put their fire trucks in the parade so if there is a fire I don't know what would happen. lol. Seriously it's only one of them. Many churches have floats and inspire people to get on fire for the Lord.

But you should see the bag of candy my son brought home. He got so much candy. They throw candy from almost every entry in the parade and it is a big deal to get this candy. If you wave at them and are super friendly, you can leave with a lot of loot so of course I put on all my charm so my son can have all kinds of candy. (just what he needs)

Some of my favorite parade entries are the old cars. These old cars run better and look better and are safer than the cars we have out on the road today. I love old cars. So does my dad.  I love listening to my dads stories about his old cars back in his prime.

I love small town life. There is always something going on and the people are so friendly. Communities still get to gather to celebrate and know one another. When I lived in the city this did not happen. In fact I rarely knew my neighbor let alone celebrated with them.

God is so good.

God Bless!
B