snippets of our fall

 we have had an enjoyable fall season! hard not to though, when the leaves really show off their beauty, robed in shades of amber and crimson. 

here are some happenings at our house during September, October, and November (thus far!).

we watched the Kentucky derby... in September! so weird having a traditional May event in September, but we enjoyed it nevertheless.

our mint juleps were delectable and Ellie won, picking the winning horse Authentic! that girl has won many times... she needs to go to Vegas!

we are still doing church at home and we love, love, love it. one morning while we were waiting to get started I took a few pics to help us remember this special time. this month we started having sacrament meeting on zoom, followed by the sacrament ordinance at home. in December we will begin having youth and adult second hour meetings following our sacrament meetings, via zoom.

despite sports and school work, jack always has time for fishing. he looks at maps of the area, spots a pond he'd like to check out, and if they are close by he will ride his bike over to ask for permission to fish. he's also checked out the yards of most of the members in our ward and will call them up if they have a pond. chris told me the other morning that he's worried about jack's fishing obsession. I told him I thought it was better than a lot of other obsessions teenage boys could have. plus, as the wife of a Brower man, I realize that these types of "obsessions" are very typical for Brower men... guess Jack fits that mold.

one major plus for this hobby is that he is more than willing to take his siblings along for the fun.

our hydrangeas went from green, to white, to deep fuchsia this year! and the hydrangea bushes that don't bloom were full and lush one evening and the next morning they were gone! hopefully it was a delicious meal that filled some deer's belly.

all of these leaves have since fallen due to a big storm last week. it took us a solid hour to pick up all the branches strewn across the yard, but we will be able to have a fun bonfire because of it.

here's an arrow that jack shot into a tree this summer that Owen was able to knock out since the branches were bare.

Sunday walks and scooter rides are majestic in the fall!

this particular Sunday's walk took us to the cemetery because halloween was fast approaching. 

Owen found his name:

halloween festivities included:

wacky hair Wednesday 

beggar's night

our village does trick or treating, beggar's night, the Thursday before halloween. so DeLauna joined us for a spooky candlelit dinner of grilled chicken, spinach salad, rolls, and chocolate skull cakes followed by socially distanced (HA!) trick or treating in the freezing rain.

Owen was the Mandalorian, Ellie was a witch, Charlie a snow trooper, and jack was Davey Crockett. 

Owen was able to open an early birthday present: the baby Yoda he was hoping for! definitely needed that to complete his costume

mummy dogs!

we've had mummy dogs on (or close to, like this year) halloween every year since jack was little and it's a tradition that the kids insist on still. 

chris has a few awesome coworkers that make his job so much fun. he loves going to work, which makes him (and me!) very happy. one of his coworkers invited several families to come over on halloween for a fall party. there was a fire pit, we had lots of delicious foods, a zipline, bags of candy, glow in the dark capture the flag, great conversation, and probably the highlight was the wild hayride (I'll just say that Erin, Jimmi's wife, had to run out and tell him to take it down a notch lol)! we had so much fun!

a few other fun things from this fall were:

 

a visit to Hershberger Farms for fresh amish fry pies (they were still warm!)

our one and only YW activity since March (since they ok'd activities in September and then quickly cancelled activities), was carving pumpkins. we had the older girls meet in our garage so we could be spaced out and the younger class met at our class president's house. it was soooo good to not only see, but BE WITH my girls! and we lucked out with warmer weather, perfect for pumpkin carving.

our family carved pumpkins too

Ellie proved to be a carving master!

Owen is not a fan of the guts... too slimy!

Owen and I made a run to Lynd's apple farm as soon as they had Evercrisp, Pixie Crunch and Ludacrisp apples available... and maybe we got pumpkin and apple cider donuts too while we were there :) 

we typically make a few runs to Lynd's during the fall and one or two in the winter for apples. we eat A LOT of apples during these cold months.