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!)

crunch, crunch, crunch

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

sam in a pile of leaves

10.22.16

10.22.16

saturday at the park

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!