where's fall?

Fall is our favorite season of all, and we are missing


the reds,
oranges,
yellows,
dressing in layers,
fresh-picked buckets of apples,
big piles of leaves in our yard,
and crisp fall air

in Utah.

Fall in AZ doesn't feel like fall, it feels more like cool summer. You wouldn't be able to tell it's fall here, except maybe that grass gets overseeded with winter grass. Then you know the fall has come. The halloween decorations are out, and fall colors are out in the window shops. Last year around January/February we saw leaves actually turn colors here, and decided we have fall here, only it's 4 months behind. Then we skip winter and spring altogether, and go right into summer again (hey it might be cool to have some trees that turn colors and shed in our backyard).

The nights are much cooler. Kevin leaves our windows open at night to let the nice cool breeze in the house, and I wake up not wanting to leave our bed.

So what to do in the fall here? Yesterday we went to the farm. Of course I lugged my camera to capture the memories, the smiles on the faces of the kids.

We explored a corn maze, which the kids loved! Here is Collin and Maddie walking out of the corn maze.

We ate kettle corn (it was so good! I should have gotten a big bag to take home!), Allie and Collin enjoyed a bubble gum and vanilla snowie (who knew the combo was actually good?) - they couldn't decide on one flavor;

Kevin and the kids took a ride in a barrel train,
They had fun milking this fake cow.

No pumpkin patch but so much fun nonetheless. Worth our time with the kids there, I think. I know Maddie had fun. She just wanted to explore the corn maze by herself.

Maddie's face is priceless as Kev tossed her up in the air while we were in the corn maze.

I can't forget that.
She's learned to ham it up for the camera and says "Cheese" with a big toothy smile. Here she is saying Cheese!


I love this one of her!

I also want to remember Collin's smirky smiles - yup, he's in that stage where he has to ask me how to smile, if he's smiling alright.
Right before we left, Collin asked if he could ride the pedal cars. Of course! We couldn't leave without doing that, I said. You should have seen the excitement on his face as he pedaled the big pedal car around the little dirt track. His legs were just a tad short but he pedaled away and didn't bump into any other cars. Then he carefully "parked" the car on the side when he was done. He told me today that these work better than our KettCar - he said "it works in the dirt".
Allie's easy, she smiles and poses for the camera, thankfully over the awkward "am I smiling right" stage. She found this really colorful spider-looking bug on a corn leaf, and wanted me to take a picture of it.
After the farm Kevin and Chad went home to watch the BYU-TCU game while us girls went to pick up InNOut for dinner. It was lots of fun to spend time with Megan, Chad, Parker and Grandma Lorraine. Thanks for coming! Oh the benefits of living close to family.
I couldn't leave without taking a family photo or two. Evidence I was there.


Other fall happenings:

Flu shots on Friday. The kids got to pick treats after. No one cried.

Bake halloween sugar cookies.

Not sure how I got the flour off everything. All 3 of them, especially Maddie was covered in flour. We still have cookies left over, I think they had more fun rolling and cutting, and eating the dough!

Shop for halloween things. Maddie is in love with a certain light-up LED ghost. She lugs it around and wants it in her bed with her at night. I should go back and get another.

Another soccer game for Collin on Saturday morning. No pictures this time, but I wish I had taken a picture of him actually getting to kick the ball harder than he's ever kicked before, without anybody taking it away from him before he could kick it.

I can't wait for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas to come. Even though we don't get the fall here, this time of year is full of tradition for our family - starting with this weekend's Halloween festivities, Thanksgiving countdown, Maddie's birthday, shopping for Christmas presents, our 24 days of Christmas activities, the return of Timmy Doodle the elf, Christmas movies, getting the tree up after Thanksgiving dinner, wrapping presents, etc.

I love this time of year. Even without the fall colors.