Fall Fun

I always said that I wanted to get married in fall, because fall is so incredibly beautiful around here.  Fall is always such a whirlwind in our busy lives, but if you stop long enough to notice you'll see that everything else is winding down.  It's like all of nature takes a collective sigh after a busy season of growing and starts to revel in the beauty of what it has become.  It's somehow very relaxing to me.

This time last year, I had a one-month old newborn and the heavy knowledge resting on my shoulders that a major surgery was looming just ahead.  I was pretty exhausted and pretty sick, albeit pretty darn happy.  I was so consumed with soaking up that perfect baby and I reveled in it.  I still do.  Our usual fall activities were a bit toned down though, to say the least.

This year, we decided to get things started right with a visit to a local apple festival last Sunday.  (It would have been our second apple festival of the year if rain hadn't kept us away from the one we'd planned to visit the week before!)  I'd gotten tickets on sale through one of those group-share sites, so I figured it was worth checking out.  We were so happy we went.  It's expensive if you don't get tickets on sale, but all of the activities were so very perfect for the wee ones.  We had a blast.

These slides were a major hit.  Both girls cracked up non-stop while going down.

Trying her first caramel apple.  Why is it so fun to give babies new foods?

I created a whole line of people who wanted to take the same picture with their kids after this.

Again with the cracking up.  Daddy is super fast!

There were just lots of fun and random little activities to do, including mazes, playgrounds, slides, a petting zoo, toss games...all typical little "fair" activities.

One activity random skeeved me out, and that was the straw barn.  True-blue country fall fun, of course, but for a celiac?  Yeah.  Straw is made from wheat stalks.  I was trying not to breathe and didn't let Sweet Pea stay for long.  The funny part was that she really didn't like the straw!  She kept crinkling up her nose!  Her anti-gluten-radar must have been going off.

Ewie!  Gluten!

Sorry for the poor photo quality.  My iphoto/computer/sense of self are all acting up and Blogger won't load my edited photos.  That's ok, now we all get to look at that confused guy in the first photo.  Hey, guy!  But if only for a little saturation on the last photo so those precious orange shoes would pop better!

We have another crazy weekend ahead.  I always pack us way too tight, but there's stuff to be and do, man!

Share