Fall Love

This time of year is absolutely incredible.  We have not experienced a real, cool-weather, color-changing autumn for probably seven years! 

To say I was excited for the season is a vast understatement.  Every single time I get in my car and start driving down the street, I am in awe of all the beautiful colors.  And it just keeps getting better!

   

Cody was a little concerned when he saw that I’d been taking pictures while driving.  If you know me, you know I take a picture of just about everything.  After all these years, I think I’ve finally figured out why.  Sometimes it is purposeful, but most times I think I’m trying to capture the feelings I’m having in that moment.  In this case, I always want to remember the sensational first autumn back in America. 

 

One particular morning, the lake near our house was as smooth as glass and the sky as blue as it can probably get.  Although we had a busy day, you better believe I took a pause to pull over, get out of the car and capture the beauty of that moment.  I still get excited when I look at these pictures. 

 

In addition to the changing leaves, I’ve wanted to experience all the other things autumn has to offer… caramel apples, apple cider, apple cider donuts…

 

...apple picking, pumpkin patches, corn mazes…. you know, everything.  Moms in our ward get together for playgroup on Tuesday mornings.  One week we had an outing to Alstede Farms with our little ones that aren’t in school. 

 

Having a day out on the farm with my little Ridge was an absolute ball.  We started with a hay ride to the apple orchards.

 

I picked apples while Ridge picked up sticks and threw the fallen apples like balls. 

 

 

Then the tractor came back and took us to the pumpkin field (not so much a patch).  Everyone else headed home at this point.  But us?  No way.  Look at all those glorious pumpkins!  I hadn’t seen such a wonderful site in a very long time.  We were getting out to capture the emotions of the moment, even if I didn’t have a free arm to carry a pumpkin home! 

 

Ridge thought it was great fun to play in the pumpkins.

 

And to ride them. 

 

Our trip to the farm ended with a climb on the giant hay bale, because of course a little boy would want to do that.

 

 

We were also planning to go to a farm as a family, so we went to Tranquillity Farms a couple weeks later.

This place was perfect for the little kids.  Aaaand for parents, actually: all the children’s activities were free.

 

They had a cute, little hay bale maze set up.  Jade was proud she could get through it the first try.

 

Ridge, on the other hand, came to a dead end.  His solution?

 

Simply climb on top!

 

Then the kids tried out the corn box.  I don’t know who thought of this, but it was a huge hit with Ridge. 

 

Jade played in it for a couple minutes, then moved on to explore the other areas.  I think the giant tube slide was her favorite.  That thing was shooting the kids out so fast! 

  

Meanwhile, Ridge was quite content to stay playing in all that corn!

 

We finally broke him away to go through the corn maze (which had seen better days, but hey, it was free so we weren’t too bothered).  Jade wanted a turn taking the picture this time, hence Cody’s missing arm. 

Next up were some great photo-ops.  I thought the backdrop to the tractor was absolutely perfect. 

 

 

We (as in Cody) couldn’t pass up the punkin chunkin.

 

After seeing Daddy try it, Jade wanted a shot too, of course. 

 

 

This time of year is so much fun! I am so grateful we get to experience it!