Fall Fun

Hiking and pumpkins and picnics and... it's been a fun couple of weekends! The weather is cool again after a few days of summer-ish weather last week. So cool, in fact, that even with the windows all closed, I came into the study yesterday to find Matt wearing flannel pajamas (over a t-shirt), wrapped up in a blanket, with fuzzy slippers on the feet, and a wool hat on his head. Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite as cold as all that, but that's still what he was wearing.

Before the chilliness of fall hit us, we spent last weekend outside. First was the Orbital company picnic, which was not like any company picnics I've ever been to. There was food, of course, and some games. And then there were the rides. Moonbounce, inflatable space shuttle slide, laser tag (in an inflatable tank- like an army tank), two climbing walls, a spinny thing you get strapped into and then whirled around (yep, that's the best I can do), a high ropes course, and more. The kids seemed to enjoy most of this, but I think some of the adults were getting into the rides as the evening wore on. I had a good time meeting some of the folks Matt talks about from work (and realizing, of course, that none of them actually look the way I had pictured them). I also enjoyed the "art gallery" of art work submitted by children of employees- all having a space theme. There was even a category for children ages 0-3 yrs. Next year Henry will *definitely* be participating. :-)


The following day, we packed up and headed west out to Shenandoah National Park. Matt finally got some mountains! Although he might not identify them as such. Still, we picked a nice spot to go hiking and spent a few hours wandering about in the woods. Really we were following a trail, but there were very few other people on it and it wasn't a major trail, so it felt like more of an adventure. We decided that while it made for a nice walk in the woods, it was far from actual mountain climbing. For two main reasons.

1. When you climb a mountain, you start at the bottom and go up. This means that when you get tired on the way home, you have gravity on your side. In this park, however, you drive in on Skyline Drive, which is along the ridge. So most of the hikes seem to originate from the top and you walk downhill to your destination. Yeah... the way back is a bit more brutal that way.
   
2. On a real mountain, you can stop on occasion and see some great mountain views. Here, we could stop whenever we wanted and see... trees. Somehow not as satisfying, but still pretty.

On Sunday we stayed home to recover from our big adventure, and then had some folks from LifeTeen over for dinner. See, there was no LifeTeen meeting that night. Why? Oh, because the following day was Columbus Day. If you're from Michigan like we are, you might not see the logic there either. But Columbus Day being an important enough holiday here to close school on Monday, everyone goes out of town for the weekend. And so we had to cancel the LifeNight as well. Hmm... odd. We will also be off on Nov. 2, because all the schools are closed the day before elections... in anticipation of being closed on election day. Uhh... right.

This weekend, the outdoor fun continued. Friday night we took advantage of a great Friday night tradition and went to a high school football game. There are a bunch of high schools in the area, so we just picked one. It also happened to be homecoming, and I was excited to see that two of the girls in my LifeTeen small group were on the homecoming court. Yay! This was also Henry's first time being out in the "cold." We had him all bundled up, but his face was still exposed. I'm not sure he quite knew what to make of the chilly air on his face. He didn't complain at all, just sort of stared at us and sat pretty still. But we had a good time, and I think the home team even one. Which is how it should be.

Then on Saturday, we decided it was time to go pumpkin-picking. This should be easy, since there are a lot of farms in the area. However, pumpkin-picking has been turned into a very commercial event around here. You can find dozens of fall festivals and pumpkin patches and things, but they are nearly all these big events with rides and food and craziness. And entrance fees. (of course) So we just decided to do it anyway and picked the biggest, most fun looking one we could find in the area. And it was fun! We bundled Henry up again and took him on all sorts of fun slides, and to the goat farm, and face-painting (mine, not his... that would have been a mess), and apples, and pumpkins, and a hay ride that we didn't actually go on. Anyway, it was a good time. But the pumpkins they give you for free are teeny, so we just got a real one at the grocery store anyway.


So that's what we've been up to lately! I've got several sewing projects to keep me busy this week, as well as just normal household stuff that I need to do a better job of keeping up on. I'll get the rest of the pictures posted sometime soon, so check back later for that.