Its fall, right?

I was talking to my friend over at sugarcreekstuff the other day and we were discussing how the weather has been quite strange around here for the last week or so. I mean, it is November. We should realistically be having cooler temps and more wind and the occasional rain storm or two. What we are really having are temps up near 80, bright skies, and in her case, hail. Huh? Whats going on?

In my attempts to try to figure it all out(which did not last very long, mind you) I decided to just take it. I don't need to know WHY its nice out, right? It just is. Who am I to argue with Mother Nature.

In celebration of that, we decided to head to one of our local parks and take a hike, enjoy the weather, and savor the calming sights and sounds of Fall.

This is on the way to the park...Look. Fields. They stretch as far as the imagination can take you....and then some! These particular ones had just been cleared. The soil is still freshly turned.



This is how you can tell you are entering a park....see the trees? We don't have too many trees out in the open around here...we have corn and beans. So, once you spot the concentrated tree area....you know you are reaching something significant.


It is very pretty out here. The leaves are pret' near done turning and now they are beginning to fall. This made the kids very happy. There was lots of crunching and crackling going on.




I'm not sure what it is with boys and sticks....J was the first to grab one, then G, of course had to follow suit.



And then , not to be left out, Dad had to make his choice as well.



K and I, we don't need any ol' walking stick....we can manage just fine.



Although, later on K abandons that idea and decides that she does in fact need a walking stick. But not to be used for conventional means. She has dubbed this her leaf quicker picker upper. To that I say, more power to ya, little lady. Have you seen the amount of leaves out here!


Upon closer inspection, G realizes that he doesn't actually want that big bug to accompany him on his walk.



You cant have a hike without some good songs. Here's G belting out some kinda tune.



A little sibling bonding.



Some fungus among us.


And lets not forget snack time. Wait, when does the photographer get a snack?



It began to get dark as we were heading back. Luckily we only hiked half the trail or we woulda gotten stuck out there in the real darkness. Needless to say, after about 2 miles or so, G began to really S L O W down. His steps became smaller, less forceful, and very, very quiet. See? Hes dropping back....hes tuckerin out.



Reinforcements were required. And this my friends, is what we listened to for the hike back to the van.