Fall Photos

Fall is still in it's full glory, and I wish I could pause time and just stay here forever. But, as I've been watching the weather, I'm unfortunately aware that next week there will be snow, so we're coming up to the end of it. Knowing that, I took full advantage of fall today and I took waaaay to many pictures, so we're going to try and whittle these down... Corey was ahead of me the whole ride down - you can see him ahead on the on the bottom left. 

I kept stopping to take pictures! Cause it was just like CRAZY GORGEOUS all around! Red on the ground, red above! Blue sky! Yellows, greens, oranges, it was an overload of beauty wherever you looked, and I loved it. Sigh ~ But I'll limit it to one - the rest are on my nature blog.

The elementary kids didn't have school this morning, so after getting the older kids off to school, I woke up Sophi and put her in charge of Katharine, while Corey and I left for a ride. 

Katharine looked like she was able to babysit herself. 

Might be good if that's how Sophi's gonna watch you. But then Natalie jumped out of bed and they decided to do 30 min shifts, Natalie went first, Sophi crawled back into bed.

You ready for this, baby Katharine? We'll be back in 90 minutes or so (maybe...)

Corey and I went on a ride up the canyon: 93 minutes, 1488 elevation, 11 miles, it was so great. I love love love fall, and I've come to love this steep and hard ride up the quarry trail. I hated it before (as in two months ago...) I thought it was just self inflicted torture, like Clark's trail at CC. It was all uphill and no fun, but as I've grown stronger I've come to appreciate the hard climbs and technical parts. It's grown on me and I love it now. And I do like that the trees here are taller than at Corner Canyon, and it has the added bonus that we can just ride there, rather than drive 20 min each way. I love CC too though. They are both just heavenly all around. And we had more of heaven waiting for us when we walked back inside with sweet children being good helpers and taking care of each other ~ Sophi bringing Katharine back to me.

She's just hanging out and chillin'! Aww, she's just the sweetest!

She was perfect (cause she is perfect!). We went up for more time in the mountains after Lily came home from school - the younger kids asked to watch a movie but Lily said we should go outside. She's right! This is the last day of good weather! It was supposed to rain tomorrow, and snow is coming on Sunday, so we need to go!! Let's go on a hike! We loaded up and headed up the canyon. Before we got out of the neighborhood, Lily and I saw a monarch flying in the front yards of our neighbor's house! We slowed down the car and tried to watch where it was going and if it landed so we could maybe catch it - Lily and I both cried out "Nooo! What are you doing here?!?!? Run!!!" Not that I know anyone else going to St. George right away, but we could keep it safe inside. It flew into someone's backyard and we left. I hope it wasn't one of mine! Darn it! That poor guy is gonna freeze! Oh well, what can ya do. I guess I'm glad that we intervened with nature and shipped most of them to St. George. 

So, we drove to Lisa Falls and walked around enjoying an adventure in the woods. Natalie and Daniel's shirts matched the leaves!

We took a few group photos - 

Climbing rocks... 

And the kids were collecting leaves like crazy - you'd think they were in a store on a free shopping spree - they were grabbing everything!

We didn't stay on a well made path but found our own way through the area. I knew if we kept going south, we'd find the bike path and the creek, and we did. "Your dad and I were riding up here this morning!" When we were at the creek, we took some portrait photos, way too many, but here's one of each kid - Lily -

Ok, two of Lily. She had the most portraits taken. (Lily, if you're looking for more, I'll text them to you)

(Sophi was gone at a friends house) next: Natalie - 

Owen - 

Daniel - 

Peter - 

Katharine - (we got her sucking her lip!)

(Lily calls that Katharine's "chipmunk face") More leaves....

"MORE!!!"

Katharine was wondering when we were going to leave and eventually gave up on us. I don't think she's ever fallen asleep in my arms, so I was loving this - 

And the kids came home with a plethora of leaves and after we got home, I showed them how to placing them in books to press them

We're going to have a lot of leaves. I don't know what we're actually doing with any of them, but who cares - "IT'S FALL!!! I can tell you all about it! I can't imagine a more beautiful thing!" (stealing that from the "It's Corn" song, haha)