The Case of the Enormous Sweet Potato

So...in our farm share this week we received the largest sweet potato we have ever seen. 

This is Dan's hand in a fist. 

Sarah's hand fully extended.

No joke...this sweet potato was over 10 inches long and 12 inches in circumference.  AMAZING!
This is going to make sweet potato fries, mashed sweet potatoes AND whipped sweet potatoes!!!

The leaves are a changin'

This past weekend, we decided to get out of the city for a while.  Unfortunately, you normally have to drive to a different state, or to the other side of this state to get away from the city.  Sarah suggested going to the Arnold Arboretum and it was amazing!  It is a 265 acre arboretum and it did not disappoint us.  

We saw a ton of different trees: oak, pine, spruce and most notably cork trees - but I won't bore you with all of those pictures.  The highlight of our trip was the bonsai exhibit.  Some of the trees were close to 300 years old!  We started thinking more about that and realized that AT LEAST six people would have had to dedicate the better part of their adult lives cultivating this trees.  Imagine what amazing things humans could do if we all worked TOGETHER and with respect for the work the previous generations had put in, toward one goal for hundreds of years "hint hint" Christians out there.  Amazing things only take time and care. 

Here are some of our favorite trees:

Normally, after 300 years, these breeds of trees would be enormous (!) or dead.  The different shaping techniques that we could see up close were amazing.  Anyway...I know this isn't the best post, but I wanted to update something:)

Colorado...for 43 hours

Well, when we first decided to fly to Colorado and back in less than 48 hours, I convinced us both that we would get plenty of sleep.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.  When you visit family for only two days, you have to pack in a lot of stuff!  The flight to CO was fine, no bad weather or anything.  I (Dan) watched a movie and a few TV shows, Sarah tried to get some sleep.  We ended up getting to the hotel at 1:30am but, fortunately, we didn't have to be to brunch until 10.  After that...what does my mom do?  Put me to work. 

Changing out the old, leaky water faucet. 

After the work came the fun!  Our new niece...she is absolutely adorable!!!

She was just getting to know us:)

Cute.

That night we played some board games, made dinner (barbeque chicken, butternut squash and corn on the cob),  and went to karaoke.  In bed by 12:30.  The next day, up and at breakfast by 9am.  Back to the hotel to check out by 12pm.  My sisters got a little nostalgic (which is fine) so we drove up to Idaho Springs to visit the gold mine we had worked at with my dad.  That was 14 years ago!  The time has flown by...

This is the Flaherty, Draeger, Caesar, Deal, Jacobson family!

 Sydney is under the pink blanket, because it was only 50 degrees in the mine.  Ginger and Dave are on the far left, Jarel is in the middle, my mom to the right of him, then Sarah and I, and Ivory on the far right.  The boys (left to right) Jacob, Caleb and Kyle, then Dave's daughter Grace.  After the mine we went to a CO pizza standard-Beau Jo's.  We hung around the house the rest of the night before getting back to the airport by 9:30pm.  Our plane was delayed and we ended up arriving around 5/5:30am in Boston.  Thanks Tyson for picking us up!  That's Colorado in 43 hours.