Fall Leaves- Titus, Celeste, and Moses
We all spent this past weekend at campouts with people from our church. The older two boys went to a Royal Ranger Campout at nearby Longview Lake, while the rest of us went to Living Waters Ranch- owned by friends of ours from church. What a time we had! Horse rides, a hay ride, a bonfire where we cooked foil meals and S'mores (MMM), hiking, and all the crazy songs and activities that normally happen when you have a sleepover. We played pranks, endless games of charades, teased one another about who snored the loudest, and made zip lock scambled eggs in the morning. What a beautiful weekend, too. The weather was just perfect on Saturday here!
There are 3 ponds on the ranch and the scenery was fabulous!! My favorite site was the countryside and all the trees. I love trees. I always have. I'm not the only one in the family "tree" that does. My dad likes them, too. He planted trees for us in the yard when we were little- something Pete and I have follwed for our kids. Dad would occasionally plant trees- little saplings- and I would go pull them out of the ground. To me, I thought they were bean stalks that sprung up over night... we couldn't let that big giant come down from the sky and eat us all. Dad taught me about different kinds of trees and we had lots of specimins around our yard including the birch tree (the kind with shiny white bark) to examine. We also had a big woods behind our house that provided lots of nature lessons over the years. Grandma Shipps also loves trees and when we go down to see her in the next few weeks, she'll insist on taking a drive around Ottawa to see the leaves. We tend to take drives on the roads where the branches form a canopy overhead. It's gorgeous. Grandma likes trees so much that she has a favored poem on her dresser that's about trees.
The leaves are starting to change color here and the past week has given us some pretty chilly nights. The purples and golds are showing, but I've only seen a smidgen of orange or red. It won't be long before they've all changed and dance their way down to the ground. The two biggest trees in our yard are sugar maples. All the leaves on those are yellow. Across the street, there is a tree that turns orange every year. I watch for it to come out in it's blazing fire color.
One of our favorite things to do is JUMP in the leaves. We also collect leaves from as many different trees as we can each fall. It's so much fun.
