A Fall Picnic

"Don't you just love [Utah] in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies."

I love fall. I love the smell of the crisp air, I love the harvest, I love the beautiful colors of the leaves, I love the holidays coming up, and I love the feeling I get- it makes me want to go to a country hoe-down where we all dress in gingham, for dinner we eat only the food we've grown in our gardens, for dessert we eat carmel apples and pumpkin cakes and treats, and while someone plays the fiddle, we all dance and sing 'till the cows come home! It's this time of year that always makes me wish I lived on a farm.

Joel also loves this time of year because of the changing leaves. Isn't it amazing that Heavenly Father gave us autumn! He could have made the leaves just get ugly and die, but, instead, he made them change into the most beautiful, vibrant colors. They may be dying, but they sure go out with a bang! Well, because we love the scenery so much that autumn brings, we always try to make a few nature drives. We love living so close to the most beautiful valley in Utah- Eden. It would be a dream come true to live there. But, even though we don't, we try to go up there as often as we can to enjoy its beauties. Joel found a nice little spot for a family picnic. So, I prepared all the fixings for BTs (we don't like the L part), and we loaded up the kids and headed for paradise. Here are some of the pictures from our family outing.

After 4 hilarious attempts to get the stupid timer on the camera to work (my bad!), this was the best picture we got.

Joel has a gift for spotting any living creature in nature. We were driving down the road, when he stopped the car and said, "Tarantula!" We all got out and saw this. It was either a very large wolf spider or a baby tarantula. Either way, it was huge, hairy, and very creepy. Noah, of course, thought it was wonderful and spent all weekend telling everyone he met that he saw a tarantula.