the first weekend of fall

It seems like fall is finally catching up to me. ;) Up until this last weekend, it has been looking and feeling a lot more like this around here ...

He has become quite the professional ring stacker this summer on his splash pad. ;) Maybe horseshoe tournaments are in his future just like my Grandpa Reidar!

In fact, the combination of 85 degree weather and a porch covered in pumpkins was turning out to be quite the clash considering one of my pumpkins is quickly shifting from a beautiful shade of light green (how I wanted it to stay) to orange. haha I guess that's what I get for trying to rush one of my favorite times of the year! Now it's all rain and no sun but you won't hear me complaining because it means I get to pull out the hunter wellies and take adorable pictures of Liam splashing in puddles with his beloved tractors. ;)

As you can imagine after a rain storm, our driveway was covered in worms and I couldn't believe how terrified he was of them. haha He could spot them from a mile away and would start immediately panicking if he came within 10 yards of one. That meant mom was on worm patrol all morning!

We spent our first weekend of fall just as it should be. Friday night we went to a neighborhood carnival where everyone brought a pot of soup/chili to share and the kids got to play a bunch of fun carnival games to win prizes at the end! Liam's faaaaaaavorite carnival activities involved these lovely little markers. Two year olds and markers are just not meant to be in the same sentence but alas, it was his favorite so we let him cover a superhero mask, a paper airplane, and the most popular, his hands in them. We had to finally pry the markers from his fingers after 30 minutes had gone by and not a single bit of skin could be seen under the rainbow that was his palms. There was some kicking and screaming involved too but I'll spare you the details.

I also don't think a single marker got away without the end being completely shoved in. Oops!

We tried giving croquet a go next and it was absolutely adorable for me to watch Nic stand behind Liam and help teach him how to hold the stick and hit the ball. Liam thought the heavy stick was overrated and preferred picking up the heavy ball instead and throwing it while running. His poor little arm barely tossed the ball in the air as he was running forward and it was a close call to a goose egg both times so we moved on!

Wheelie cars. Liam's bike/car obsession sure runs deep. He loved every minute of this one too!!!

The majority of Saturday and Sunday we spent together as a family watching General Conference which is a semi-annual broadcast given by our church leaders to uplift and to teach. I always leave feeling inspired and having a stronger desire to serve those around me ... my family, my friends, my neighbors, and even those I don't know.

Sunday evening it was still pouring down rain and we were missing our usual family walk so we decided to take a drive instead. We drove passed Scout Mountain which was covered in gorgeous fall leaves this time of year and eventually made it to the other side where there were beautiful plains for miles to see. The slowed to a trickle by the end of our drive so we stopped by the ISU Quad and played in the leaves for a bit. 

I swear Liam has the BEST memory in the world because he remembered right where the door was we had gone through in the past to get to the arcade games. We took the opportunity to get out of the rain and wander a very empty student union building.

Liam found a race car arcade game to race his dad. ;) They didn't ACTUALLY race but Liam was convinced it was the real do so it was a win! I love his reflection in the steering wheel of this next picture ...

Just look at those faces of pure excitement playing pretend racing! haha I love it!

Hope you all had a wonderful first weekend of fall! XO