Warm Memories

I love fall! Who doesn't love fall? The temperatures are mild, the colors are gorgeous, the soups and baked goods start in earnest, and there's a wonderful coming-holiday-season feeling in the air. The boys are loving hanging out in the backyard lately--they come in with wet feet, covered in dirt and grass stains. Ollie keeps trying to eat rocks and leaves, and Henrik, as a good big brother, tries to teach him not to.

While we are enjoying fall, we're also reflecting on our warm summer memories. And before fall gives way to winter, I need to record our end-of-summer adventures.

When we lived in Columbus, we really enjoyed going to Alum Creek beach whenever we could. We missed that this past summer, so when Eric found out there was a beach here, he packed us up and we made the trip a few days before the girls started school.

I didn't love it, but the kids didn't seem to mind it. Eric even took them back one more time after school started (on a weekday right when he got home from work). The girls really enjoyed practicing what they learned during swimming lessons.

We also took advantage of time off during Labor Day weekend in September to go to the fair. I guess it's now a tradition since Eric and my dad took the girls there last year right after we had moved.

The kids had a blast. We went on all the rides we could, listened to a big band performance, ate cotton candy, wandered through the animal stalls...and got through Henrik's meltdown without attracting too much attention. We got to do almost everything we wanted before the big storm hit--we made it to the car when only a few raindrops had started falling.

We rounded out all our outdoor fun with some fun at home as well. I bought some water guns on clearance at Target, and we had a few hot days left after school started to justify pulling them out and completely soaking each other fully dressed!

And to wrap it all up, I ran my second 5k with one of the young women from church. My training consisted of running less than a mile one time the week before the race...so I was very happy when we crossed the finish line after running the whole thing without stopping! I was so glad to have a running buddy!

And after fall was officially in full swing, we still got some gorgeous afternoons, which we took full advantage of, especially on Sunday afternoons.

Our summer was filled with new beginnings and lots of warm memories as we enjoyed the first few months in our first house.