October 21, 2012

 Fall is upon us in all it's brilliance and variety.  Icy mornings, baking afternoons, and crisp colors everywhere.  I find myself often just staring out my window at the beauty.  I'm more tempted than ever to simply rip my cabinets off in my kitchen that block my view!  This week we had fall break which gave us two days off from school.  The weather was gorgeous so we decided to head to the mountains again.  We took our extra entertainment money and bought our lunch (Panda Express orange chicken and Little Ceasers Breadsticks to share) and drove up the canyon.  The leaves were covering the ground in brilliant thick carpets.   It made everything seem so bright. 

After lunch the kids went exploring and we had a good time just playing in the mountains.  The above picture is terrible but shows our most exciting find.  Two trees probably 50 ft. apart that had fallen over and met in the middle in such a way that the kids could (carefully) climb from the ground up one tree and down the other to the ground again.  Capriel did it (while I held my breath) over and over.

 

Landen also found an old overturned rotted stump (probably 6ft high) that made for an awesome target practice for spear throwing.  We all took our turns with the homemade javelins though Landen was the only one who seemed to be able to get that satisfying thud that proved that the target had been hit. 

Later we hiked a bit up Spring Hollow to the point where the spring came out of the mountain.  The colors were so vivid, brilliant green moss, blinding yellow aspens, and white alpine water.  It felt like a fairy world. 

Oh, Capriel also has a black eye from hitting her eye on the trampoline.  I'm starting to fear that the school may call CPS!

Here's a shot I took when I realized how happy and individually interested my children were simply be the beautiful earth.  Talia was creating a dam, Landen was throwing spears, Rhyse was playing in the water, Breck was sitting observing and thinking, and Capriel was just moving.  As always, they tended to balk at my idea of hiking, but their ruddy faces and skips told me that they were enjoying themselves.  I was proud of the kids for doing their service (cleaning windows for Gma Pete) and playing second.  They are really good kids who have a lot of fun together. 

We have finally picked all our apples.  We have boxes and boxes of apples, and are trying our hand at applesauce, chips, crisp, carmel, etc... They are a lot of work, but I love to see the climbing and hanging  in the trees and bringing me each "beauty" that they find. 

Breck has been taking lots of photos lately.  Here are a couple she took while Capriel was waiting for dance.  I'm beginning to see a lot of similarities in look between Breck and Capriel.