Fall highlights...

With the notable exception of today, (which has brought 45 degree rain that has settled into our very bones and wrought fear of the coming winter...) October has gifted us with an inordinate number of blue sky days. I've been increasingly busy at work as the end of the quarter approaches and tests and deadlines pile up in the midst of all of the challenges of blended learning.  All of us have been very tired this week, just worn down by these weeks of early mornings and too much time on screens. But no matter- we've still been heading outdoors whenever possible.  We can catch up on sleep and housework in January. 

Bike club continues, but has been remamed "the Forest Hills Girls" as their activities now include feeding ducks, exploring nature, rolling down hills, playing on playgrounds, eating snacks and occasionally riding bikes.... Grateful for these sweet girls and their families who help them spend this time together. 

Our little doggo has been busy showing, earning 6 points in a weekend earlier this month.  We have been instructed to use her snood on a more regular basis to protect her ear hair from damage.  We may end up using it just for comic relief!  

Thinking of hair....

This one cut a little bit off!

After much back and forth, she decided to donate this flaxen mop of hair to Locks of Love.

I've always liked a bob with a side part on her...

We are trying valiantly to spend more quality time together.  Its become so very easy to let our family drift off to our own preferred screens every evening, allowing the kids to turn their brains to mush while we get things done... or veg out ourselves.  Taking a walk after dinner is one small step we are trying.  The kids are not eager to join in but so far they have rallied each time and by mid-walk they are considerably more pleasant and interactive.  Being outdoors and moving about is so good for the soul.  Here's hoping we can stick to this new habit even when the weather is not so sublime.  (If today is any indication, this is going to be a challenge..no walk for us in that 45 degree drizzle! )

A busy Saturday!  Shopping at Aurora Farms (and feeding ducks and mending broken fences too because that's just the sort of thing we do when we get places 15 minutes before they open...)

Gorgeous weather like this calls for squeezing in an hour at the lake with my mom and the dogs....

...and then off to Corn and Pumpkin weekend at Lake Farmpark!  Our first time here since the pandemic and it was both lovely and melancholy.  So much the same yet so changed...  no wagon rides or Well-bred shed or greenhouse...

But there was a corn maze! 

And time with friends!

And as if that weren't enough for one day, Ivy got some teal tips done that night...

Baby's first semi-permanent hair dye!  Such fun!

Sunday-- picture perfect fall! We skipped our Sunday morning routine in favor of a drive out to Hinckley Reservation.

We explored the magic of Whipp's ledges with friends... and rock climbing gear!

Grateful to our generous friends who shared equipment and time to allow Ivy to experience rock climbing "in nature..."

Despite a few moments of paralyzing fear, it turns out she's hooked!  She must have liked it to put up with the tight climbing shoes without complaint...

Jack, ever himself, was hesitant to engage in this new thing with new people around.  We didn't force the issue.  If we join our friends again I imagine he may finally be ready to try... 

The Forest Hills Snack Association strikes again!

Fall sunset city skyline....

Fall sunset city dog...

(she's off to another show this weekend!)

Got the Halloween decorations up and I must have been jonesing for holiday decor because these light up pumpkins make the house feel downright cozy. 

Heading into holiday season in the midst of this strange new world... it's something. Like so much else right now I feel like I am just going through the motions.  We always put up the Halloween decorations at this time, so that's what we did.  We are working on a costume for Ivy even though we aren't sure she'll have any place to wear it.  Apparently trick or treat is a go but who knows what it will be like.  We are walking the line between trying to temper the kids' expectations and also let them have anticipation and excitement and joy.  I don't want all this madness to steal that from them. But I don't want to lie to them either. And I am struggling, even as I arrange the fake cobwebs, to muster my own joy and anticipation for the holidays.  I am scared of the increased isolation, the lack of anything to do once the weather turns.  I am scared of the virus that is surging again.  Cuyahoga County is back in "red" again as of today and there is still so much unknown about this disease.  It's our first fall of this pandemic and no one knows what that will be like.  Yet we carry on.  I go to work every day, teaching kiddos with my mask on, telling them to "foam in" and "keep a safe distance" like its all normal and ok.  Going through the motions.  Looking for my joy.  Hoping the sunshine and warm weather sticks around a little longer...

Adventuring in spite of it all

The past two weeks have brought us into October and into fall. The days are shortening but the sun is still brilliant. Our lives are increasingly busy yet with time and hours enough to get it done.  I'm back to teaching in person, 3 days now- and despite it being not at all normal, it feels surprisingly... normal.  The structure of driving to work each day and fitting activities in the hours leftover-- feels like real life again, for sure.  Real life, now with masks.    And our weekends?  They are still for adventuring. 

A tour of Lake Metroparks on a sunny Sunday...

Painesville Township Pier....

Pain Falls...

and Blair's landing....

Love that we have the treasures here in our backyard.  I've earmarked 8 more parks in the Lake County system to try to explore this fall... (just need a few more weekends of perfect weather to make it happen!!)

Celebrating having Monday off school with a campfire night. We had friends over who we've not seen for a long time and it was delicious to talk and laigh and catch up with them.  We are so lucky to have a wealth of wonderful people in our lives. 

Monday- a meet up with more friends at Penitentiary Glen.  Their Nature Play space is a gift. The kids played minigolf with their hands and a tennis ball.  It was a roaring success until we lost the ball in a culvert.

Ivy's Forest Hills Riders club is going along well.  Our girls have created rituals for themselves on our rides:  running fown the sledding hill, playing with touch me nots, feeding the ducks, riding loops in the parking lot. I love these little creatures of habit. 

Had this crazy weather night midweek, complete with rainbows and a strangely yellow sky.  Nat and I enjoyed it by walking the neighborhood and delivering Get out the Vote hang tags. 

And before we knew it, the weekend was upon us again.  This time, with even more adventure.  We decided, a bit last minute, to join our friends at a weekend camping event they go to every year.  Seemed like a grand idea when we booked it.  Less so when the week grew increasingly cold and low temperatures were forecast in the 30s for our nights in a tent....But we soldiered on and headed forth to Mohican Wilderness Campground.

Which is, as it turns out, absolutely adorable. 

It didn't hurt that our campsite was literally just over the "Bridge to Yesteryear"...

And it even had perfectly placed hammock trees. 

Ivy was over-the-moon excited for the trip -- a WHOLE weekend with her best friends!  Jack was intensely lukewarm.

But within minutes of arrival they were both helping to put up tents and nature and campfires and new headlamps worked their magic and before long even Jack was noting that camping was more fun than he expected. We had a lovely time at the "big fire" with Melinda and Will and their neighbors, family friends of her parents. Then we retired to our own campsite to huddle around a fire some more because it was getting COLD.

Continued to be COLD in our tents, despite down and wool blankets and body heat.  My icy cold nose brought back memories of camping in the high mountains n July.  Good memories, all of them. So I chose to see the memory-making in the discomfort. 

It might not have been the most comfortable and restful of nights, but we made it! Celebrated with pancakes and friend time in the chilly morning air.

Then it was time to start our day of activities.  The girls went off and got balloons and then we all picked pumpkins.

... and explored the playground and the property.  We gathered natural materials to decorate our brazier...

....and then headed back to our camp to carve and create.

...and eat walking tacos for lunch.

Our beautiful friends.

Our creation.  Hand tiled corn-kernel patio, log cabin and all.  We entered it in the contest, and though it did not win, one person took a picture of it.  So there.  We said goodbye and left it to its future of being burned....

Trick or treating!  We learned of this event one week ahead of time so it was a scramble to dig out the costumes and come up with something.  Ivy had been hoping to match L and N in their Star Wars garb but Princess Amidala's outfits were too much to recreate in one busy week.  So, a demon sufficed. And Jack insisted he was not trick or treating but we brought along the horse head anyways.  Good thing. 

Off they went...

... and back!  They got SOO much candy.  Turns out trick or treating in a campground is the way to go.  No space between the houses!

While the kids sorted candy and ate far too much of it, Nat and I enjoyed the improving weather with a a walk to the other end of the campground.  The swinging bridge was by far the best part. 

Afternoon hang out time...

We started up the campfire in the evening light and cooked hot dogs on sticks because camping.  Jack paused for a moment to gaze at the pink-blue sky and remark on its beauty, and how he really likes camping because you get to just be out in nature.

Worth the price of admission, this face right here. 

Smore's and Halloween spirit at our campsite (we got really good at the 1 mile drive back and forth...)

... and then another fire at Melinda and Will's because there's a long time between dinner and 9:30pm and the night promised to be cold again...

Finally it was time for the big event.  Pictures don't do it justice.  This is the wagon loaded with our carefully crafted braziers.  They drove it right into the middle of the river, then proceeded to spray each one with kerosene and light it up in the water.  

Off went the little lights, gently into the night.  The crowd cheered for big flames and sighed with disappointment when a brazier flipped over and it was strange and exciting to be in the midst of a shared experience with all those strangers, masked up out in the chilly air.  Nothing like chanting "burn that s**t!" together to unify a crowd.

Night two was much more comfortable and despite their appearances in this photo, everyone got a good night's sleep.  It rained at about 5am, just enough to dampen everything and make packing up a lot more moist than we might've hoped.  But we made short work of it and headed home at 11.  Camping was a great adventure but wow were we glad to be back in our creature comforts.  A bed!  Indoor plumbing!  Heat!  It's the little things, really.