FreeFalling

What an absolutely gorgeous fall we have been having. The weather has been unusually mild and dry. My morning runs have been fantastic, running through the leaves in a t-shirt and running capris. It is pretty amazing for me to be able to still do that this late in the year. As a matter of fact, I just turned on the furnace for the first time this past weekend. Usually I've got that baby fired up mid-September. It really has been an amazing fall.

Amazingly busy, as well. We still haven't made it to the pumpkin farm as a family yet. And I haven't had any time to get our traditional annual Packer picture of the kids or our annual fall family pic either. Could it be that I'll have to skip a year?  Yikes! Good thing I like our last year's family pic so much. I'd hate to cover it up with another picture anyway.

I've already talked about how busy we are with football but that isn't all. Last weekend was the youth hunt. This year Tommy got to join in on the fun for the very first time. To say he was excited would be a massive understatement. He talked about it for months and finally his time was here. 

This was Joey's last year on the youth hunt and Tommy was happy to have his big brother along. I think it made it much more fun. Unfortunately, Tommy did not see any deer. However, Joey did manage to get another deer for us. Good thing too, because our freezer has been bare for months. It was a bit of a bummer for Tommy but I had to remind him that Joey didn't see anything on his first youth hunt either. Perhaps it is good luck, because Joey is the only one in our family to have gotten a deer for the last two years.

Tommy kept a good attitude and a wonderful time was had by all. They had fairly mild weather and stayed warm in their hunting blinds the entire time. Tommy was with Todd and Joey sat with his uncle, but on Sunday morning Todd took both of his boys out together for a few hours. Proud papa had to snap a quick pic. I think the hunting blind will be a smidge tight when Ben joins the hunt.

While they were up north hunting I tried to give Ben (who was a little heartbroken at not being able to go off with the older boys just yet) and Grace a good time as well.  We jammed our weekend full of goodness. We went to their favorite children's museum, we went to the movies, we went out to dinner and picked out a small toy at Target. But mostly, we spent our time outside. 

I took Ben and Grace to one of our favorite places to walk in the fall. We haven't actually been there in a few years. I had missed it. It was a lovely day to take a walk in the woods and enjoy the smells and sounds of fall.

And though we haven't been able to get there with the whole family yet I took Ben and Grace to the pumpkin farm/apple orchard too. This may have been their favorite activity from the whole weekend. They spent a loooong time petting all the sweet animals. The donkeys and chickens became overly attached to Ben. It was kind of funny. The chickens would follow him all over the property and the donkeys just sat by the fence waiting for him to come back.  One goat took a particular liking to Grace as well. My kids are such little animal whisperers. 

Of course, before we left, we had to stop in at the store and get a big bag of apples, apple cider, raw honey, and a few little gourds. Ben had seen this cute little picture of dressed up gourds on one of my magazines and wanted to do the same. So, when we got home we dressed our gourds too. 

It was a great weekend. I forgot how easy it is with only two children. But we sure did miss having our whole family with us and we were SO excited when they got home. Together again.

This past weekend we finally all got a chance to go up north. With all the football games and crazy activities going on I didn't think I'd be able to get up north and enjoy the most beautiful time of year. The leaves were a little past peak but it was still gorgeous. There were far more leaves on the trees than I had expected for this time of year. It was a cold weekend (high of 45) but beautiful.

Molly and I took off into the 40 acres across the road a number of times. It was just so golden and glowy in there that it was difficult to leave. It almost felt like a fairyland.

Todd took Ben to the 80 acres for the day as they harvested some dead trees for firewood and prepped a few more deer stands for next month's hunt. It was nice for Ben to have a little one on one daddy time and we all had fun hanging back at the cabin. Todd finally showed me how to use the four wheeler (I think that thing is older than I am!) and I had fun tooling around while the kids fished off the pier.

When Grace and I needed a warm up we went inside for a bit. Grace washed the dishes for me and I read a little bit of my book.

Then it was back outside to enjoy more fall beauty.

I am trying to enjoy every second of these last beautiful weeks of fall. The colors and sounds and smells and adventures. It is such a beautiful time of year.

I hope you are able to enjoy this beautiful fall too.