This should be a fairly short post since fall was about two weeks long this year!
We missed out on the best fall weather during smoke season, which was such a disappointment. If the smoke hadn’t been there, our fall would have been just spectacular. But, alas, towards the end of October, finally, the weather changed and blew out the smoke for good, and eventually dampened the fires.
The autumn colors we get are just striking. I live for the drives along the windy mountain roads, ooing and aahing at the clusters of ruby-red vine maples or the stands of chartreuse Aspens. The contrast of the changing leaves against the rocky mountainside or along the banks of the Wenatchee river are stunning.
We weren’t able to do many hikes this fall, given the short-nature of the season, but I got several walks along the river in town and a few hikes and runs at Ski Hill. Just enough to scratch the itch of enjoying the cool weather and the striking beauty of the autumn leaves.
It felt like we spent more time inside this fall than we have literally ever spent inside before. The kids adapted really well, and I was honestly nervous it was going to be hard to motivate them to go back outside when the smoke cleared. Thankfully that was not the case!
We had to squish all of our outdoor fall tasks into a matter of only a few weeks. Thankfully with some help from Alex’s dad, we made it! Our yard looks absolutely fantastic – Alex has really dialed it in.
We had a lovely visit with Alex’s parents, who were here basically for the 10 nice fall days we had this year!
One particularly smokey weekend we loaded up the car and headed two hours east to camp at Sun Lakes/Dry Falls State Park. It was so mild, the air was clear and we had a great time with our friends!
Another “escape the smoke” adventure took us to Squilchuck State Park, where we had an absolutely fantastic time mountain biking together.
We made the obligatory pilgrimage to a pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast.
Ben and Hannah had the best time getting into the Halloween spirit. Trick-or-treating was so much fun. More on that to come!
The day before fall ended the kids and I had an ice cream celebration in honor of us being fully-vaccinated! Hannah got her final Covid vaccine – woohoo! I got my booster {Ben already had his booster}, and we all got flu shots. We’re ready!
And now, winter is here! As far as I can tell, it might be here to stay!? We woke up to 8″ of snow yesterday and it is still coming down……..
