Harvest Festival

Friday night was our schools annual harvest festival, a family fun night put on by the school. This year I was in charge of the meal for the event. We had a wonderful turnout and great weather. The kids love collecting as many prizes and they can and participating in the fun games and rides! The obstacle course inflatable was a favorite this year!

I thought the kids would love to ride the horse or pony. This wasn't the case, Elijah was the only one we got on one, with a little help from Auntie Ang! He wasn't exactly sure of the situation as you can tell by his facial expression. :) Guess we'll stick to 4-wheelers and Rangers at our house. :)

Anton was content to just hang out while Mark visited with other parents.

One of the first things Amelia did was paint a pumpkin. She LOVES anything "crafty"!

Ethan played lots of games! I'm sure he had a plan to maximize his prize winnings, he came home with a bag full of goodies! :)

Harvest at our house

It always seems that Mark harvests the field around our house when I'm not home or during the night when the kids are in bed. This was almost the case again this year. But I decided to skip out of a meeting to stay home and make supper for everyone and take a few pictures. I'm so glad it worked out for us to ride along! It's so fun to walk outside the house and hop in the combine!

Karl, Kristen and Ethan are combining in this picutre. This was the area were we had an awesome plot of soybeans last year. This years corn crop didn't have exciting yields, but thankfully we had a crop. So many farmers lost crops to floods this year.

Mark, Elijah and Amelia in the John Deere.

I didn't have my camera with me for Anton's first combine ride. So I asked Mark to pose with him for his second combine ride. Mark is pretty good about my sometimes excessive picture taking. :)

Mark's brother Kurt came up with a great way to put our name on the side of the semi.

Kristen and Karl helping combine.

Family Reunion

I am two weeks late posting these, but better late than never. :) Our Sunday afternoons have been filled with family gatherings the past few weeks and here are a couple pictures from the Boender Reunion.

Becky took a quick family picture for us.

Mark's cousin Aaron caught a huge grass carp in the pond. John was the only brave one willing to lay beside so I could have something to compare it with.

Family members enjoying a Ranger ride.

Fremont Hare Scramble

Last weekend Mark and his brother Kurt participated in a hare scramble near Fremont. They had a great crowd and nice weather! For those of you who aren't familiar with this type of race I'll give you a short description. At this particular race they road their motorcycles around a 6 mile trail through the woods for 2 hours. They try to get in as many laps as they can before the two hours is up. If they cross the check point even 1 minute before the 2 hours is up, they ride the 6 mile trail again, making it a 2 1/2 hour race, at least for Mark. :)

They had around 75 or so riders and started them in 4 groups, according to which class they were competing in. Mark and Kurt are in the back row in the middle. They rode the "heavy C" class.

Colorful bunch aren't they! :)

Mark is in the back row in blue, Kurt is next to him in blue and yellow.

Mark heading into the woods, we wouldn't see him for another 25 minutes.

Gideon, Ethan and Cody enjoying the race from the "girl" bikes I brought along. :)

They have to get a scorecard, which is taped to the front of their bike, marked after each lap. Here Mark is getting his card marked.

They can't ride 30-35 miles without running out of gas. Emily was their "pit crew" gal. While I kept the 5 boys we had with us under control.

Mark finishing strong! He ended up with second place and Kurt with 4th! Great job guys!