Enjoying fall

We've been spending a lot of time outside enjoying the wonderful fall weather. A couple of weekends ago we went back to the gardens to let the kids run off some energy.

Audrey sticking her head through the bridge watching the fish and turtles

Chuck thought it'd be funny to join in. Such a dork, I know. :)My monkey swinging from a branch
Carter's been wanting a fire since we got home from WI this summer. It just doesn't get cool enough at night in the summer here to have a fire. So, we kept telling him he had to wait for cooler weather. On the way home from the gardens he reminded us that "it's good campfire weather now." Of course we roasted marshmallows with our fire.

Enjoying his ooey gooey s'more.

Making cookies

Now that the weather has finally cooled down and it's feeling like fall, it's the perfect time to make cookies with the kids. Carter wanted to make pumpkin cookies and picked the leaf cutter for Audrey.

They did a good job cutting the cookies out

Of course they have to put sprinkles on themThey were very particular about covering the entire surface of the cookies :) I just had to take the pan away after a while

Proud of the finished product. Yes, that's flour all over Audrey's sleeves yet :)

Where to?

I know we've been confusing a lot of people as to where we are going to take the next job. This post is to explain where we're at.
We have narrowed our choices down to Milwaukee, WI or Grand Rapids, MI. We were a little bummed to find out that Milwaukee with be starting to cover the Marshfield hospital. It's 3 hours away so Chuck would be away from home for a few days every couple of months.
Because of that, after our interview with Grand Rapids we were really excited about that possibility despite that it's the furthest of the options from home. The practice set up is very enticing and we were pleasantly surprised with the city. We both really thought that is where we would end up. I came to terms with the distance, fell in love with a gorgeous house and truly started to get excited about our move to Grand Rapids.

Then, the other week Chuck returned from conference where he was able to brain storm with a lot of people in different stages of their career. This made him realize that even though it stinks that he will have to help cover in Marshfield, he really needs to be at an academic hospital (Grand Rapids is private practice). The contract with Marshfield will probably only be for a couple of years and the positives of being in Milwaukee far out weigh that negative. So, now we think we are going to be moving to Milwaukee :)

Nothing is set in stone and we haven't signed a contract yet. He has his second interviews with both hospitals in the coming weeks. He'll receive the contracts then for us to review and make our final decision.

This is the short explanation of where we're at but I hope this cleared up some of the confusion with some of you. Stay tuned. We're still on track to make it official by Christmas!

Yoda pumpkin

Friday Carter had a decorating pumpkins with dads activity at school. Chuck was in Boston for work so I filled in. We had a special snack, decorated pumpkins, read a story & received a gift from the kids. It was a nice morning and Carter handled Chuck not being there well.

Carter and his yoda pumpkin. He really did help me put it together. He glued the hair on, did some of the painting & stuck the ears on.

Happy to have his pumpkin home.

Early b-day

Chuck was post-call last Wed and surprised us by coming home in the afternoon. He brought home my favorite strawberry cake from Edgars and a bouquet of giant calla lilies. My b-day wasn't until Sat. but he had to leave the next day for a conference in Boston.

Audrey wanted the princess candle on the cake and Carter picked spiderman. :) They sang so nicely then blew out the candles for me.

Yumm! Digging into the delicious cake

My beautiful calla lilies

Transportation fair

Last week the kid's school had a transportation fair. They had all different cars, trucks, etc for the kids to look at and explore. It looked like they all enjoyed it and the weather was perfect.

Audrey and some of her classmates

Carter's entire class posing with the race car

The 4&5K classes also did a trike/bike-athon for St. Jude hospital
Here's Carter's class lining up to start

And they're off!
Carter didn't do too well. He got nervous riding that closely to others. We'll just have to practice more with him to get him more comfortable.

Botanical Gardens

The other weekend it was so nice out we went to the botanical gardens to let the kids run off some energy before the Packer game. They love exploring all the different areas. I got a couple cute pics too.

Such a little miss look

My handsome little Aaron Rodgers

Too cute! Love my munchkins!