Fall Leaves

Fall is one of Chris M.'s favorite seasons. I enjoy the change of the colors of the leaves, the smells, the change in the temperature, and, really, the cycle of life that ends in the fall.

One of the most obvious signs of the change of seasons are the piles of leaves that cover just about everything -- the roof, the driveway, the grass and even out into the street. One of the things about this home that we really liked when we looked at it was the fact that it had a lot of different types of trees surrounding it -- both in the front and the back.

The trees provide a lot of shade in the summer, but due to the way the sunlight comes in, we get a lot of light in the morning and the late afternoon. Chris J. really enjoyed that streaming in light! Of course, the light increases in some ways during the winter, as the trees shed their leaves. Even though the days are shorter, the lack of leaves allow more of the light to get through.

One of the results of all of these trees is that there are a lot to rake! Using a combination of the leaf blower and the rake (and even the snow shovel!), I collected up all of the leaves in the front yard so that the composting/recycling people can come and pick them up this week. The result looks a little like the piles of snow we had last winter around here. Luckily these leaves are much easier to move around, and it is not nearly cold enough for snow ... yet ...

Painting the Nursery

In our "adoption book," we had a picture of the room we plan to use as the nursery, saying we were going to paint it a creamy yellow. Chris J. is now in the middle of doing so. He took a paint roller to the walls last night.It's a color from Home Depot called "Summer Moon." They always make the colors sound so fancy...

We think the yellow will be easy on a baby's little eyes!

Chris J. has been painting quite a bit lately. He also did the upstairs bathroom, right next to the nursery, that a child would mainly use while growing up. That's a nice bright off-white with a fun, polka-dotted shower curtain. And he painted the guest room upstairs a couple of shades of green. We actually could make that the nursery instead if we wanted.

The Meeting of the Moms!

Last week our mothers met for the first time! We drove from Illinois to Nebraska with Chris J.'s mother. It was a long drive -- about 12 hours with all the little stops we made along the way. We got to Chris M.'s mother's place around 9 at night. She was excited to see us, and she and Chris J.'s mom talked for several hours after we got there.

The four of us spent the next day together. After a fairly lazy morning spent playing with Mrs.M's golden retriever Bailey, we went for a ride, with Chris M. taking Mrs.J. to various sites from his childhood -- like his elementary and high schools, the church he went to, the store where he had his first job as a teenager, and the house he grew up in.

Later in the day, Mrs.M. was nice enough to make dinner for everyone -- a nice chicken dish with rice and broccoli. Chris M. said he had it a lot growing up, and it's one of his favorites. After supper, Mrs.M. surprised us by taking out an old video of Chris.M. playing the piano in high school, and an even older tape of him in a play in elementary school. Then we wound up watching a recording of Chris J. in a play in high school. We both felt slightly embarrased, of course, but our moms both wanted to see the tapes, so we went along with it!

The next morning, we took Mrs.J to the airport so she could fly home, and we stayed with Mrs.M for another few days. We actually did quite a bit of yard work for her, like spreading mulch, as well as some household chores -- Chris M. is especially handy with that sort of thing!

Before long, though, it was time to depart -- and now we're happy to be home in Maryland!

Riding the Wildebeest!

We just started a road trip to Illinois and Nebraska, and yesterday we spent the day at Holiday World, an amusement park in Indiana where Chris J. used to go with his parents, sister and grandparents growing up. Holiday World is in a town called Santa Claus, and as you might guess it is very Christmas-themed. In fact, the amusement park's original name was Santa Claus Land.

The main section of Holiday World is divided into four areas -- Christmas, Halloween, Fourth of July and Thanksgiving -- each with rides and other attractions that somehow involve those holidays, for instance a Tilt-a-Whirl where the cars are giant turkeys. There's also a water park called Splashin' Safari, with slides like the Zoombabwe. We weren't sure why the water park isn't holiday themed as well, just to be consistent, but it was still fun! We went on a Wednesday in the last week before schools in Indiana start again, so it was pretty crowded, but not insanely so. There were lots of families there with children of varying ages. One mother and her young son sat with us when we rode on the newest water ride, the Wildebeest, which they call a "water coaster." They sure liked it! Although Chris J. rode in the front seat of the four-person "water sled," which was a little scary. We also rode a bunch of other water slides, and went in the wave pool and lazy river. It was a good time and at a pretty reasonable price!

One cool thing about Holiday World is that they have free soft drink stations and free sunscreen, too, which we'd never seen before at the few other such parks we've been to. Usually they try to rip you off for soda, not offer it for free, and forget free sunscreen -- who has ever heard of that? Even the food we got there for lunch wasn't absurdly expensive, like you'd see at a ballgame or something.

All in all it was a very fun day. At the end, tired, we drove on a couple hours to the house in southern Illinois where Chris J.'s grandparents lived and where his dad and uncle grew up. Chris J.'s parents are there for a week, and we've joined them for a few days. Then we'll be driving to Nebraska to see Chris M.'s mom. So far, it's been very hot but very fun!

Visit with our friends Mike and Betsy and their daughters

This weekend we had a great treat when Chris J.'s friends were traveling through the area, coming back from visiting some family. Besty and Mike, stopped by on their way home, to spend the night, and also to hang out and visit for a few hours. It probably had been about 9-months to a year since we last visited with them, so it was fun to hang out.

When they arrived, both girls were snoozed out for the evening. Their parents carefully took them up to bed and tucked them in for the night. The adults headed downstairs and watched a little TV before we went to bad (Chris M. first!). Unfortunately we saw some documentaries on "How its Made" that were a little too gross!

The next day the girls were up early, and Chris M. was up not too much later. Chris J.'s schedule has him up later, but he also got up "early" for him so that he could hang out with his friends. Although Betsy and Mike and the girls had to head out, we were able to spend a little more time with them and headed out to a park that we had never visited. The cool attributes of this park -- only a few miles away from our house -- were a restored vintage carousel, and a small narrow-gauge train. The girls got to go on both attractions, as well as hang out in the different playground areas, try out the swings, slides, and other fun playground equipment.

After the fun playing at the park, we can back home, made some lunch, and chilled out for a little while. Too quickly, it was time for us to say goodbye to Mike and Betsy and the girls. We were happy we could visit with them again!

Oh, and the picture at the top of this post was Mike playing a video game on the Playstation 3 and getting a little help from his youngest daughter. Aww!