The Changing of the Seasons

I've been suggesting for weeks we take a ride up the canyon to see the leaves changing colors. We've been told by many it's just breathtaking, but had yet to see the view for ourselves. So, this evening for Family Home Evening we finally made the drive up, and just in time. The colors were indeed beautiful, but I fear we didn't get the full effect as many of the trees were already naked.


But still, we saw colors on trees that my born-and-bred in Arizona self had never seen in person (atleast that I can remember).


We took a little stroll (actually Ava and I ran while Daddy and Jax chased us) through the canyon to our favorite waterfall, where the kids threw rocks and the mancub tried to jump in. Fortunately, Daddy caught him by his britches... literally.

Right before he almost tumbled in

Jax was euphoric surrounded by leaves, sticks, rocks and water and stopped several times for each.



He also took several breaks to lay on the pavement, I wish I could get inside his little head so I might understand where the idea came from and why he did it repeatedly. Ahhh, to be a kid. Passerbys thought it was cute, if I was laying in the middle of the pavement they would think I was weird. Such a double standard :)



Ava, of course, being the curious child she is was so interested in the varying shapes and colors of leaves and wanted to know what kind of tree each came from. Unfortunately for her, her Mommy is not well-versed in Dendrology. Regardless, we brought home a dozen leaves, all of which Ava collected. We also left dozens behind, much to her chagrin.

Sliding down a hill of leaves

My new favorite picture of the sister bear.

I just checked the 10-day forecast. It appears we chose a nice day to go. I think it may be the last "warm" (67 degrees) day of the year. Our next 10 days holds nothing but 50s for highs and I fear, it's only going to get worse from there. What a great way to celebrate fall and begin to hunker down and prepare ourselves for... BRRRR.... WINTER.