Goodbye, Summer. Hello, Fall!

Last weekend was the last one for summer. We spent part of Saturday at Adventureland. 

It feels like it was just yesterday when we were there for our first day of summer.

We shopped at Costco, and the Queen of TP posed on her throne.

We've been doing this for four years...

Charlotte asked me, "Hey Dad, why did you take a picture of me wearing a costume and practicing the piano?"

I shrugged and replied, "Just because. Why are you wearing a costume and practicing the piano?"

She shrugged and replied, "Just because."

Summer is great, but I'm not sad to see it go. I'm not a summer-at-the-beach kind of guy. Shorts are fine, but I like it when the temperatures drops, and I can wear jackets and jeans.  I'd rather see breath puff from my mouth than have humidity blast me in my face. I don't like to shovel the driveway, but I also don't like to mow the yard. So that's a draw. Sure, I'd like to be home with my family, but we all need a break from each other. I'm fortunate that I have good friends who work at UHS, and I like the students in my classes. 

Fall is my favorite season. It runs from Sept. 23 to Dec. 21. During this time, we will have our anniversary dinner, Halloween candy, Thanksgiving turkey, and the cherry on top is that fall ends on the first day of winter break. Christmas will be hiding around the kitchen corner holding a plate of frosted cookies. There will be corn mazes, apple orchards, and pumpkin patches, too!

There is so much fun heading our way. 

Fall is Here!

I enjoy not being at school, but I'm not really a summer guy. I'd rather wear a light jacket than a swimsuit, and I'd rather walk through a pile of leaves than beach full of sand. 

Last Saturday was the first day of fall, and boy did the weather cooperate. At noon it was 60 degrees and sunny - a perfect combination.

We started the day at the Art on the Lake Festival. This was our first time at this event, and it was cool, "The festival is a family-friendly event that is free to attend & features music, food, kids’ crafts & over 50 local artists." Copper Creek Lake Part is also a beautiful area. We didn't buy any art, but Char liked the sno cones and popcorn.

Next was the Living History Farm's Fall Applefest. Air bobbing for apples is not as easy as it looks.

Home made apple fritter on a cool, autum day? Yes, please.

Char, can I have a bite of your fritter? 

I guess not.

Char went fishing for toothbrushes after lunch. I'm not sure why, though.

When you tour the history farms, the tractor ride drops you off at the 1700 Native American Farm. You then walk to the 1850 Pioneer Farm and finish at the 1900 Farm.

Char got to pick some corn at the 1850 farm.

This is called Bloody Butcher corn because of its red color. That has to be the coolest name ever given to a vegetable.

Thirteen and a half hands. That girl is growing like a weed.

Here Charlotte tries her hand at shelling corn. I wouldn't want to use if to shell a crop of corn, but the sheller is an ingenious devise.

Despite the great weather, we couldn't stay outdoors all day. Char has swimming lessons in the afternoon. Eventually we'll get back to pool weather, so we have to get Char ready for that. 

I grilled on Saturday night, but I think it's about time to dust off the crock pot. 

Chili, soups, pot roasts, stews, mashed potatoes, pumpkin-everything, fresh baked bread... there's a reason autumn ends with mmmmm.

It Must Be October!

It is freezing in the HyVee store, and there are pumpkins on our porch!

It felt like it was 45 degrees inside the grocery store yesterday. All I had in the car was my old hoodie, but Char wanted to wear it.

What a poser. It is so hard to get Charlotte to give me a normal smile for pictures anymore. I think those smiles bore her. 

Anyway... Yea! Let's hear it for my favorite month! 

Fall is Here, and The Farmers' Market is Gone

October 22 was our last visit to the Downtown Farmers' Market, and it was our first time to try the Local Yocals' poutine. We went with a small, traditional poutine. 

If I get chance to order this next season, I'd top it with the fried egg. The meat and fries were great, but the gravy was too thin to warm the cheese curds. I think the egg would have helped with that.

It's hard to beat the fall colors. Even a colorblind guy like me can appreciate them.

That's not a muzzle on Maggie; it's a Gentle Leader. It's a type of leash that prevents Mags from pulling too hard on walks. Every time she pulls, the Gentle Leader turns her around. She can eat and drink with the leader, so it has nothing to do with her mouth or teeth. It's too bad some people mistake the leader for a muzzle and assume Maggie is a dangerous. Even Char can walk our 90 pound dog when she has a leader on.

Okay ladies, it's time to say goodbye to the farmers' market. We'll be back in 2017.

Fall Guy

When I was a kid I thought of the summer months as one huge weekend. June had all the freedom of a Friday night. As the sun lazily dipped into the horizon, you'd be too busy chasing lightning bugs across the yard to even think about the confines of school.

July was a carefree Saturday afternoon. July smelled of chlorine and tasted like sweet corn. School was only a rumor, not a fact to be believed.  

August was like watching TV on a Sunday night. Every commercial celebrated the return of school, and your mom kept telling you that bedtime was going to be early. Each reminder made you wince like you do when you see the needle in the doctor's office...

I still like the long weekend analogy, but I don't dread the return of school like I did when I was young. My first day of school was in 1974, and I've gone back to school 41 times since then. I pretty much know what to expect, but if it wasn't for the Iowa State Fair, I would still list August as my least favorite month. 

Thank goodness the calendar turned a page, and it is September. Fall will be here soon. I look forward to the change in temperature and color. I like wearing jackets in the morning, and it's kind of exciting to turn on my car's heater for the first time in months. It is football season, and there is a smell in the air on a Friday night before a game that's hard to explain. I think it is a mix of cut grass, cool air, and anticipation. 

Also, October follows September, and guess who is already thinking about Halloween?

How 'bout Them Apples? Center Grove Orchard Revisited

As I mentioned in my last post, we took a trip to the Center Grove Orchard last Saturday morning. It was a bit cold, but that just thinned the crowd, slightly. The place sure is popular.

This will be our third year to visit this farm, and you can see how much Char has grown from the first time we were here.

2012:

2014:

2012:

2014:

2012 (name this movie):

2014:

It's strange, but looking at these pictures makes my heart hurt a little. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because my little two-year-old girl is gone forever. 

Oh man, just typing that makes me tear up. But that makes no sense. Four-year-old Charlotte is funnier, more flexible, and more independent than the terrible two version of herself. So what's with the emotions? I can't explain it. Parenting does something to your head, I guess.

Oh well, on with the photo essay.

The corn pool is a neat idea. It's a large oval of hay bales filled with about two feet of corn kernels. The corn itself is surprisingly cold, and I bet it would feel refreshing on a warmer day. 

The sign says you can't bury people, but it doesn't say you can't cover 'em up a bit.

K'pow!

Of course you're gonna get kernels down your pants when you play in the corn pool, but the weird thing was that every time we thought Char's clothes were corn free, we'd find more. By the end of the evening Daphne thought Charlotte had smuggled home about 30 kernels of corn. I wonder how much lower the level of the corn pool is at the end of the season.

Also, It's all fun and games until you put your hand on someone's used Band-Aid. Gross.

We had lunch at the Feed Bunk. I appreciate that they use charcoal to prepare the hamburgers, but the real star of the show is the applesauce. That may seem silly, but wow, that stuff is so good. It's too bad they don't sell it in the orchard's store.

The orchard has live entertainment on the weekends, but when we were there the stage was empty. That is until Char climbed up to do some ballet moves for us. She's been running around on her tiptoes since she could walk, so this isn't a stretch for her.

The orchard keeps on growing, no pun intend. This year they added a second jumping pillow, one pillow for children under 52 inches tall, and the other for everybody else. On the morning we were there a slew of college sorority girls were having a social function, and a bunch of them were jumping on the big kid pillow, but I didn't take a picture of that. Sorry, Uncle Pervie.

Instead, here's Char catching some air.

And just like at the fair, Char stuck her head in stuff.

Here's Char and I on Daphne's favorite orchard attraction, the hayrack ride.

I keep reminding myself that grey hair is better than no hair. I suppose I could dye it, but I spotted one of the sports guys from channel 8 at the orchard, and even a colorblind guy like me could see he was sporting a dye job. You can't tell when he's on TV, though.

Char got an apple smoothie before we left.

Time to write the Center Grove Orchard a fan letter and see if they'll tell me how they make that applesauce. 

Link to 2012

48 hours later:

And you thought I was kidding.