Oct 22: Glorious Fall Day in Boulder

We woke up on a beautiful Saturday morning in late October and decided to head to the mountains. By the time we left, it was almost lunchtime, so we started at Beau Jo's in Boulder, our favorite pizza place, and then headed to Chautauqua to play in the warm sunshine. The boys ran and ran.




And then we took lots of pictures.





















We had so much fun in the grassy field across from the trails, that the afternoon passed quickly and we almost didn't get to hike...but when we told Isaac it was time to go home and let Jonah nap, he was insistent that we couldn't leave without getting on the trails. We'd come planning to hike, and he wanted to walk our favorite loop.


So Jonah and I did a much shorter loop and played along the path while Adam took Isaac on our favorite trail.



And I got to play with my camera too.





Finally, we met up with Isaac and Adam's trail and stopped to wait for them. Jonah wanted to keep moving and was starting to get cranky - he was already about an hour late for his nap - but I pulled this phone out to entertain him a little longer.








And finally, we saw them coming. Isaac was tired, but he'd put in a great hike.


Time to go home.

Oct 11: Rock Creek Pumpkin Patch

We've had a regular Tuesday morning playgroup this fall with some of our favorite friends - Holden, Adler and LT, and Zack and Ewan too if they don't have school. It's a happy fall ritual around here to visit a pumpkin patch, so we planned a trip one morning in October to Rock Creek Farm, about 20 minutes from home.


We tried to get all the boys on pumpkins for a picture, but there were varying degrees of cooperation.


For once, our two sat for a few pictures after the others had moved on.



Pumpkin patches are so much more than just pumpkins now - this one also had a line of bouncy castles, a petting zoo, a corn maze and a little hay maze for the kids. When the other boys were ready to move on to the other attractions, Jonah was not. He sat and played in the dirt while I carried our pumpkin to the car. When I turned back to retrieve him, he was so tiny in that field of orange and cracked dirt that the only way to quickly locate him was to search for a flash of bright white - his hair.




Although I shuddered to see that tiny body dwarfed by the earth and sky and so far from me, he was happily playing when I reached him.


But he was also happy to drive down the rutted dirt road to the bouncy castles.



Here's Holden, one of Jonah's favorites and only five days younger:








And Adler, another special friend only 17 days older:



One bouncy house had a big slide, and Brandy kindly helped both Holden and Jonah up and then slid down with them.


They loved it.


I had to leave early to take Jonah to visit his new school, which he was starting the next day, so Isaac got to stay and play without me and then ride to our house with his buddy Zack. I think he felt pretty grown-up.