Autumn Saturdays

I have very distinct memories of autumn Saturdays as a child. Maybe it's because fall seems to be full of scents, crisp and clear. Raking leaves, apples, burning fields, the air in the morning ... I could go on. Something else I always associate with fall is the sound of a cannon. For a number of years we lived close to a university football stadium and the sound of the cannon with each point scored is directly tied to my memories of working and playing in the back yard during autumn. Last Saturday was one of those perfect autumn days. We skipped out on bike racing and just stayed home.

The kids caught leaves as they fell from the trees. I realize that from this picture it doesn't look like we have that many leaves, but don't worry just out of sight is a field of orange.

I'd been hoping to get up into the canyons for some family pictures before all the leaves were gone but this picture on the back porch might be as close as I get this year.

Naomi, our little monkey loves to climb and be in the trees. Gray has been a great teacher. As soon as the snow hits, they'll take to the pine trees. I have no idea why, but they only seem to climb them in the winter.

The kids and Benny.

When Kory got home from work, he and the kids headed up to the jumps and rode bikes. It's so much fun to have this stuff in our back yard. And even better, it's a common area for bikers to not only ride, but build anything and everything they want. We never know what fun new trails or jumps we'll find, but we always go check it out after we've heard lots of hammering.

Halloween

This year since Halloween was on Sunday, we did our celebrating on Saturday. We started with a 7:30 am workout. Since this was a special Halloween workout, families were welcome and the kids were not about to pass up a chance to do CrossFit. It was so much fun to have the kids there. Naomi spend some time on the rowing machine, calling us over to see that after 20min. she had rowed over 2000 meters!

Gray impressed everyone with his killer box jumps.

Naomi did lots of hanging on the bars and even threw in some pull-ups, she's got some serious upper body strength.
After our workout, we loaded up canning supplies and headed to Kory's parents house to make applesauce.
Honestly, fresh applesauce is so much better than stuff from the store. I have no idea how many quarts we did, probably somewhere around 40. Notice that Gray and Naomi are nowhere to be seen? They were glued to the tv, trying to make up for all the tv they don't get to watch at home. I attribute that fact that Naomi can do pull-ups and Gray can hang with the adults in a crossfit workout to the absence of tv in our home. Finally, we headed out the door ready for parties and trick-or-treating. Gray spent the evening with friends at a party and Naomi and I braved the rainstorm to do some trick-or-treating.

Kory met up with Naomi and I then we headed home for pizza and a movie. It was a fun day and we all had no problem falling asleep that night.