Fall

The rest of fall was mostly a blur of really good weather and soccer games and practices.

The weekend after school started we went camping with our church congregation up on the Flattops, very pretty mountains right up behind our town. Some people had spent two days up there roasting a pig for us to eat for dinner, and it was good! On Saturday a group of people went on a long four wheeling trip to some lakes and generously offered to bring Joseph and Caleb along. They had a great time.

 

Earlier that day, people offered to let us ride their four wheelers for some short rides, much to the boys' delight. Joseph managed to crash one that he was driving with Nephi and Isaac. Very thankfully, no one was hurt but it did do some pricey damage to the four wheeler itself (ugh) and hopefully terrified Joseph enough to last a long time. Four wheelers are one of the areas of my life in which I am apparently out step with most everybody else in America. (Other such areas include my feelings about dogs and Disney.) I deeply dislike four wheelers. I think they are dangerous and unpleasant. Am I unreasonable? I personally know someone whose father was killed on one, someone whose teenaged daughter was killed on one, and someone whose foot was completely shattered kicking one so it didn't kill his five year old son as it rolled onto him. To make things worse, they are a boy's dream; you don't even need to be the lofty age of 16 or have any experience to drive one, they go fast and can jump, and so many people here own a few. I can see how they would be useful for hunting, and Nephi and his hiking buddy used one to get to a few trail heads. I'm not unequivocally opposed. But the idea of a bunch of 15 year olds spending a weekend four wheeling for a scout activity or something makes me really, super nervous. If my boys make it through adolescence with no major four wheeler incidents I will be truly grateful.

One Sunday in October we drove up Grand Mesa to enjoy the fall colors, which always are so much more magnificent than a picture can capture. We met Nephi's parents up there and had lunch while the boys made a fort in the woods.

 

Caleb and Isaac both played soccer, which somehow added up to a lot of practices and games. All their practices and most of their games are in the park just a short walk across the street from our house, which makes things really convenient, although next season Caleb will move into the older age group and there will be a lot more driving involved. Isaac did really well, and Caleb was somewhat of a sensation. He is a competitive kid, and he had a real heartbreak when his team narrowly lost to their rivals. Experiencing things like that is one of the best reasons for competitive kids to play sports, I think.

 

 

And of course there were leaves and piles of leaves.

 

And towards the end of fall, we got out our boxes of boots and snow pants and gloves and hats and coats and got everyone outfitted. Ben was, of course, still in process when I took this picture.