Monday, October 31, 2016

Leaves Are Falling All Around

One of my favorite parts about fall (besides . . . well, all of it) is the changing of the leaves.  The world is glorious and colorful and lovely and it just fills my soul with gladness to see all the vivid hues.  Plus, they're fun to play in.  Callie and Sam really got into the raking and jumping in the leaves thing this year.  We had some really good days at the park with big, stiff, crunchy cottonwood leaves that we'd kick into a pile (or Gregg would use a giant branch to "rake" them because we always forgot our rake till we got there).  At home, our leaves are a lot smaller and don't hold up as well.  But we had plenty of good leaf fun with them, as well.  We needed to buy a new rake (so we'd have more than one plus the one we had is sort of a hillbilly rake (missing it's front "teeth")) and Callie has insisted that the new one is hers.  She's getting pretty good at maneuvering it, too.  I love to watch her "work" and think it's play.  Let's keep that going for many more years, eh?  Below are all the leaf photos I took during October, from all around the valley.

10.7.16
(at the house down the street on the corner)

10.7.16
(fantastic!)

10.7.16
(on the way to the park across from the Hearthside)

10.10.16
(at the "library park" in Hunstville)

10.10.16

10.10.16
("downtown" Huntsville in autumn glory)

10.11.16
(at the Pineview Trailhead ("our trailhead"))

10.11.16
(Sam loves to "hike" by himself these days)

10.11.16

10.11.16
(what it looks like what you try to get a cute pic
of your kids and one of them chokes on his spit)

10.11.16
(happy momma heart this afternoon)


10.17.16
(on our street, across from our house)

10.17.16
(#dailystrollin in the crunchy leaves)

10.17.16
(our street - they're almost all down!)

10.17.16
(love my little "double" stroller)


10.18.16
(our neighbor's tree)

10.18.16
(walking to the park again - across from the
Hearthside)

10.18.16

10.18.16
(the line of cottonwoods at the park)

10.18.16
(a lovely red maple at the park)

10.18.16

10.18.16
(right by our mailbox - not really a tree, more of
a sapling, I guess)

10.20.16
(raking a pile on our front deck with "her" rake)

10.20.16

10.20.16
(I was so bad at remembering to get these
taken care of - we left the pile there for weeks
because we never use the front door/porch
unless someone happens to come over to our house)

10.20.16
(hanging on tight at the park)

10.20.16
(awesome* cottonwoods at the park
*I say that in the fall, but early summer when
the cotton is flying is not my fave)

10.20.16

10.20.16
(leaf angel!)

10.20.16
(my favorite sound)

10.20.16
(remember that tree at the very top? this is it
13 days later)

10.22.16
(back at the park pile again - this time with Dad!)

10.22.16

10.22.16

10.22.16

10.22.16

10.22.16

10.22.16

10.22.16


10.25.16
(trying to get artsy in our backyard)

10.25.16
(home sweet home - not many leaves left)

10.25.16

10.25.16
(our big, scary, leaning tree)

Ah, autumn.  How I love you!


Sunday, October 30, 2016

Pumpkin' Chuckin' + More Trick-or-Treat

Back to Logan we went on Saturday, the 29th.  The occasion was a special invitation by Grandma and Grandpa Elwood for Cal (and Sam, but we figured he was probably too young to really appreciate it and we'd all benefit more if he napped instead) to attend a Halloween Spooktacular concert by the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra at the Ellen Eccles Theatre.  It sounded like a super fun assortment of songs and special effects.  I think Callie liked it.  When I asked her about it, she said it was really loud.  (Ha.)

Since the concert started at 2:00, and we didn't have any real plans for the morning, we decided to check out the Pumpkin Chuckin' contest put on by the USU student chapter of ASME.  About ten big trebuchets were set up in the field at Elk Ridge Park, right behind my Grandpa Thornley's house.  (Yep, this is the same place they do the Pumpkin Walk each year, and the two are connected - they used pumpkins from the displays as ammo in the toss.)  We met up with my parents, H&T+G, my grandparents and Kylie, and parked our chairs on the path above the field to watch.  What a show!  It was pretty dang fun to watch the teams attempt to accurately place their pumpkins 150 feet down the field.  A car was parked in the middle and made a perfect target.  (And was left with many a pumpkin-sized dent and shattered windows and mirrors when all was said and done.)  After that was a candy pumpkin launch for the kids.  Callie had fun with that, running onto the field to retrieve her piece of candy that broke out of a pumpkin "pinata" as it splatted against the car.  The final contest was for distance, and wow!  Those pumpkins really flew!  The furthest ones (launched by team name "The Reaper") went nearly off the field, probably 375-400 feet!  It was quite the entertaining morning!





bonus videos!
(these were the first launches from each team, 
and maybe a couple repeat teams in for good measure?  I can't keep track.
But it was all the accuracy test.)



After lunch, Cal went to the concert with my parents, Sam took a nap, and Gregg and I went shopping for jeans.  (Party.)  Then, we took the kids out to see their great-grandparents and to show off our little shark and cowboy/scarecrow/farmer.  (Spoiler alert: it's a good thing we did this small trick-or-treating combined with the basement sweep at Grandma and Grandpa Blanchard's because by the time actual Halloween rolled around, Cal just wanted to stay home and read stories instead of dress up and go out for candy.  Ha!  Also, it's totally fine by me.)


Evy and family joined us for clam chowder in bread bowls to celebrate her birthday (that day) and my mom's birthday (on Halloween).  We finished off the evening with donuts and apple cider (as per tradition).





At last!  A good one!

Liquid gold, right there.  Oh yes!


Another fun day with the fam celebrating the Halloween season.  So many fun things to do at this time of the year!