Beginning of Fall

September is such a great month.  The temperatures have cooled a little, the trees are changing, we are in the full swing of school.  I found evidence of all of this in my pictures for this month.

The PTA Reflections contest just happened, so I found a whole bunch of pictures of the Fall leaves, sunsets, clouds and other random things that my kids thought might be worthy of the photography portion of the contest.  It made for some pretty pictures.

With the beautiful weather, we have spent a lot of time outside.  One day, all of my boys and I went on a hike near our house.

 The whole family hiked a pretty hard hike on Labor Day.  The kids did awesome, and we felt like we'd accomplished something afterwards.

 We tried out a park that Dustin helped design.  It got an A+.

We finally replaced the corner tree in our yard, that we cut down 2 years ago!  And, within a week, all the leaves had fallen off and it looked dead.  Dustin, the tree whisperer, thinks that it was just shocked from the planting and he has high hopes that it will be alive and well in the Spring.  Unless the deer eat it first.

 We wore mustaches during General Conference.  Just because we could.

 The kid's school did a Fun Run, and both Maren and Grant ran the most laps for their grade, so they got to spray the teachers and principal with silly string.  Goal accomplished!

 The annual Father Son Campout happened, regardless of the pouring rain and cold temperatures.  The boys had a blast camping and we girls had a blast doing pedicures and watching movies.

  Dustin and I went on a date and took a selfie.  We had to try twice because we are old and couldn't figure out the right angle.  Plus, the second time we didn't get the lady in the background.

 We went to this totally random Christmas Cantata (in the middle of September).  It was beautifully sung and well done by a group from Korea.

 One sunny Sunday we used some chalk paint of Grant's and worked on some chalk art masterpieces.

 It is the time of year to reap the rewards of our garden!

 Avery got a hamster, and then two weeks later it gave birth to seven little baby hamsters.  That was a little bonus gift that the pet store gave us.  Thank you so stinkin' much.  Literally.  My house smells like a barn.