Not much order to the following pictures, but we got to go to my folks last weekend to soak up some color and revel in the fall air. 

Henri spotted a balloon on the trip up

Not peak yet, and of course I didn't begin to do justice to the gorgeous color there was, but I tried getting some shot out the car window regardless. 

There is no rhyme or reason to how these loaded. But, backyard of my folks.

I was trying to get a decent shot of this gorgeous leaf. She was more interested in twirling it. 

The horse waited patiently for his apple but Doppler ended up stealing it to play fetch with. 

The old milk shed

Apple picking. Aunt Sharon and Gram have been working hard to bring the old apple trees back to fruiting, and they are really sweet this year.

So. Much. Color!

Changing top down

The drought has hit pretty hard. Neighbors' wells are empty, and the pond is completely dry.

#nofilter

We watched the tractor parade in Charlotte on Sunday

The boys made their daily appearance, much to the delight of everyone. 

He was a grump getting there, but the minute he saw his first tractor he was enthralled. 

Lots of leaf throwing

Moms teeny tiny crab apples

Our near-death experience of the weekend. Hiked Sunset Ledge with the kids, everyone in just vests and no hats. Felt very cold, it was super windy but we figured we were just being wimps. Got back to the car, 35 degrees. So grateful the kids didn't get hypothermia, it was pretty miserable. 

Hudson was a trooper. He loves to rock climb, and at this size almost any incline is a climb. 

We turned around right before the ledges. Still had the whole hike back, and the kids were shaking. 

Tuesday I hauled everything but the beds out of the kids room and went through everything. Threw out 3 garbage bags, donated 3 Ikea bags worth of stuff. Felt great.

Sheep at Drumlin Farm

Mother Val (sadly currently on hospice) turned 60 on Thursday so we had a small birthday party for her

And then tonight we gathered up a group of friends, descended on an unsuspecting friends house with pizza, and headed over to watch Clemson play soccer. The boys loved it. 

It's been a fairly typical week here despite the holiday on Monday. Playgroup on Tuesday, Drumlin Farm on Wednesday, birthday party on Thursday, helping our neighbor with his meds and playing with his cat today. Hudson and I go to the gym daily except for playgroup days. Unfortunately the permanent teacher for his gymnastics class wasn't a good fit (read; she had no control over a group of very ill-behaved kids and I'm not paying for chaos) so we won't be attending BUT the Y has Tikes gymnastics for half the price so he'll take classes there starting in a few weeks. I don't think I'm gaining any health benefits from attending the gym (actually, I'm gaining weight, oops) but it adds some structure to our days and I think will be really nice to have once the weather turns nasty. Looking forward to a very low-key Saturday. Maybe the kids will sleep past 6???? Ha.