First Visitors

September 22:  Mom and Dad Tintle arrived just before midnight.
September 23:  We spent the morning showing them around our new home which they hadn't yet seen and eating omlettes that Nathan had made.
Dorian drew a whole stack of rainbows to give to Grandpa and Grandma. 

 Dorian and Levi have been making forts downstairs with chairs, tables and blankets.  :)

 Mid-morning we drove over to Dordt to give a tour of Nathan's office and the campus.

 Getting gumballs at daddy's office is a huge thrill for the boys!

 There was a performance at the Student Life Center that we watched for a little while.

We ate lunch at the Pizza Ranch and then spent the afternoon at our house.  The swings and slide hadn't yet been put on our new playset, so the guys put them up.  Nathan had a phone conference for a couple of hours.  Then we grilled brats for supper.  Unexpectedly, a crew of guys came shortly after we sat down to eat on the deck, to sod around the playset.  So it was quite distracting but fun for the boys to watch all of the action. 

In the evening, we had a birthday party for Dorian.  It doesn't seem real to me that he will be 5 so soon!  He loves chocolate so he had a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  I made it a rainbow cake because Dorian draws rainbows on everything and has been for many months.  :)  I love it!

Grandpa and Grandma gave him some gifts all related to bugs, which Dorian loves!  A bug game that has tons of facts about bugs and came with about 15 big plastic bugs to play with.  And a bug jar to catch his own bugs.  At the moment I'm looking at it and it's filled with some dirt, leaves and a worm.  And yes, it is sitting on the table in our office.  :)  Boys are fun!

September 24:  We ate pancakes for breakfast and the boys found some time to play with Grandma on the Lego table.

Then we left for Pumpkin Land mid-morning.  The weather was perfect!  First I told the boys that they could each pick one big and one small pumpkin.  I figured I could decorate the front steps of our house and eventually carve or paint them with the boys.

Then Grandpa and Grandma took the boys through the kids corn maze.  Dorian led the way and enjoyed that!

 Next the boys were able to each have a pony ride.  It was a first for both of them.

 Then we walked over to the petting zoo where the boys held some kittens and watched some goats.

We ate lunch at home and then drove to Sioux City to a miniature golf course that we'd been to once before.  Aren't my boys good looking?

On the way home from Sioux City we had to stop for Blue Bunny ice cream in LeMars.  We ate a late dinner at the Family Table and had some delicious Iowa steaks. 
September 25:  We were all up the next morning to say goodbye and we also got to watch the beautiful sunrise from our house.  I was excited to have them here to see our new home and our community.  We had a lot of fun.