Fall Traditions

I'm not big on picking a "favorite" season, but their are distinct moments in each season that make me giddy beyond belief.  For fall, it's the golden hour of sunlight in the afternoon reflecting and brightening the yellows of the hayfields and fall leaves against a brilliant blue sky.

It's the crispness in the air requiring a sweater and hat (and cup of coffee) but the bright sun that warms your face.  Though these days are getting few and far between we've had some great ones recently and have been busy exploring some of the best fall events Bozeman has to offer.  First we headed over to the Hay Maze.  We didn't make it last year (the maze actually caught on fire filling the city with tons of smoke before we were able to go) but we had enjoyed it in the past.  This time Matthew was big enough to tackle the maze (with help of course!) and we met up with some friends for the afternoon.   Matthew mostly had fun running around and over the bales with his friends but I did convince him to pause for a picture or two:

This was about as cooperative as the kids got for a photo.  The rest of the time Catherine was busy licking her pumpkin and Matthew was watching the train behind him.  In fact, he was pretty disappointed when I didn't get the train in the picture.

Matthew was a little intimidated by the corn bin at first but as the place cleared out, Matthew decided to brave the bin, and then got even braver:

Last weekend we had quite the Saturday.  Matthew went to his third swimming lesson.  His recap was "I didn't cry and mommy be happy."  Matthew hasn't taken "swim lessons" since we took the parent-tot lessons two years ago.  

Swim lessons are one of the few lessons that I place a high priority on, especially at this age, so it was time to man up this fall and make time to do it.  The 3-4 year old classes do not involve parents.  Matthew has been great in other lesson situations thus far and started out pretty excited. Our first lesson went okay.  Matthew participated a bit but kept coming back to me and there were a few tears.  The second lesson pretty much drove me to drink.  He wouldn't participate and wouldn't even watch from the sideline without crying/screaming.  It was rough.  For our third lesson we went early and I got in the pool with him.


I ended up staying in the pool with him and gradually backing away as he participated with the teacher on his own.  Not ideal but there was no screaming and he got some swimming in.
Catherine is between taking 1 and 2 naps and the times vary wildly.  She just happened to take a crazy long morning nap so we got a late start heading out to pick out our pumpkins.

"Who Me?"

The whole faux pumpkin patch thing cracks me up as we take a hayride out to a field where a truck drops off pumpkins and spreads them out which seems like a very odd business model.  However, it sure is fun if not a very odd and off-base way to show kids a "farm".  I mean, there was a (delicious) crepes and gelato food truck there :-)  Catherine didn't want any photos taken of her dining though:

Here we are on the hayride:

 Matthew was pretty jazzed about using his (I couldn't make up half the stuff that comes out of his mouth if I tried) "big muscles and skills" to pick out pumpkins.

Catherine was in charge of watching the pumpkins as Matthew collected them:

And practiced standing: 

And falling for a while:

 Matthew meanwhile picked out another pumpkin:

 And when we finally convinced him he had to stop, he took to running through the pumpkins:

 Afterward we headed back to play in the hay bales and hay tunnel:

 Catherine wasn't nearly as impressed with the tunnel:

 But enjoyed the ladder and climbing around on top:

 If only to keep up with her big brother who has all of a sudden become Mr. Daredevil.

 Turns out we need another pumpkin for preschool this week so Matthew may have another opportunity or two to use his "muscles and skills" soon.  In the meantime they've been put to good work raking the yard and helping with other house projects to be shared soon :-)

And, if you saw this picture I shared on facebook it has been confirmed that yes, Uncle Matt and I were likely fighting over the pumpkin lid in this adorable picture:

Now I'll let you go back and guess how many of the photos in this post were taken just before a toddler fight :-)  I'm sure its higher than I'd like to admit!