Autumn is my favorite...

...And seeing as how I've already documented the many and varied reasons as to why this is the case, I won't go into it now. Suffice it to say, I'm thoroughly enjoying autumn this year. It seems to be lasting longer than usual, the color change and subsequent leaf falling taking plenty of time...almost as if they are savoring the blue skies and perfect temperatures as well and are in no hurry to give way to winter.

So it was that when we had a four-day weekend for Fall Break recently and Rebekah came home from college to spend the time off with us, I got it in my head that we must celebrate. Fall and family.

I have never been to Frightmares at Lagoon. So seeing that we had season passes this year, we headed over on Thursday afternoon. And it was delightful. Crowded...but standing in line in cooler temperatures rather than broiling in the summer heat was much preferable. The place was decked out in autumn and Halloween decor. And the trees...oh, the gorgeous trees! The Sky Ride was especially awesome gliding through those trees.
And because it was cooler outside, rather than summer sandals Lilian wore boots. And they had a bit of a heel on them. Which meant that miracles of miracles, Lilian was just tall enough to go on the roller coaster! It was the best. day. ever.

Friday after going to yoga with Julianne and coat shopping with Rebekah (and hallelujah, the girl actually decided to go function over fashion...Logan is COLD) we decided to check out the local hay maze.

 Last year was our first time and we were decidedly impressed. This year the thing was even more elaborate. And other than my claustrophobia moment when crawling through a pitch black tunnel with numerous turn offs and dead ends (and did I mention it was dark?) with visions of bales of hay overhead collapsing in on me (breathe, breathe, breathe) we had a great time and laughed a lot. Well, until the girls insisted we go through the tunnel for a second time.

Saturday involved stopping at a pumpkin patch and letting Lilian pick out some favorites to turn into jack-o-lanterns. (It also involved a yoga class and shopping for Brandon's church clothes and a date for Rebekah and a lunch with friends for Julianne and a temple shift for Bryan and then capped off with the adult session of stake conference. But I'm guessing you aren't as interested in all that...)

Also stuffed into Saturday in little pockets of time here and there, we got crafty. Rebekah had been wishing for some Halloween decor for her apartment in Logan and I had just seen some cute mason jar pumpkin type luminaries on Pinterest...so we decided to try our hand at making a few. They turned out pretty well, I thought.

Sunday we were late for stake conference. Late because we were frantically trying to make sure that not only was everyone ready in Sunday best but also that each had a change of clothes packed and also a picnic lunch. Stake conference was in Bountiful so it was decided that we'd make a trip up Mueller Park Canyon in the mountains above town after our meetings concluded. Though we'd spent our weekend going from one fall-like activity to the next, this was the first time all six of us had been able to participate together.

Ahh...family and fall. We done celebrated good.