Fall is just about the best time of year to be outdoors, and as such it’s also the time of year for some of my favorite outdoor traditions, such as the Applejack Festival in Nebraska City. The Johnson Family had a fairly busy weekend in store, so we didn’t have time to spend all day picking apples as we usually do this time of year. We did stop by for the pancake breakfast at the firehouse, catching our usual batch of flapjacks from the Pancake Man (while getting snapshots of the kids sitting in firetrucks as we waited in line). We stopped by the library afterward to check out their dinosaur exhibit, which included animatronic dinosaurs from the Omaha Children’s Museum and dinosaur crafts upstairs.

There was a massive traffic jam on the way back thanks to an accident at the Kimmel Orchard exit, which put an end to any hopes of picking apples before heading back to Omaha.

That afternoon, we went to Washington Park in Bellevue to say Happy Birthday to Rachel. The Rietjens clan was there, along with Aunt Jessica and a whole bunch of Rachel’s little friends from church, school, and elsewhere. There were at least there other birthdays going on at the same time in the park, so the place was fairly busy with little ones.

We also got to confirm with Pastor Drew and Teresa that they will be leaving our little Twin Valley Church to move to Clear Lake, Iowa and take over a new ministry there. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye, and I’m not sure how we’ll break the news to Hannah that she own’t be able to play with her little friends every week after church anymore. Thank goodness she doesn’t read my blog.

On Sunday, we spent the afternoon with the kids at Gifford Farm for the fall festival. They got to see some of the animals and rode some ponies. We also hit the hay rack and got our obligatory photos inside and around the hollowed-out tree. Vivian stayed to help Donna with the cookies as Hannah and Aaron rode in a canoe and played with a xylophone. Of course, there was also plenty of sliding into hay, and Aaron made me proud climbing up to slide on his own down the big slide with no prompting whatsoever.

It was a fun, busy weekend, and much better than staying indoors watching some college football team lose again. Happy fall, everybody!