signs of fall

Jake's "Show and Share" instructions for last Thursday: "Please bring a picture or item that shows the signs of Fall." This got me thinking that there are plenty of "signs" around.

So for this assignment, Jake took an apple to school. From OUR apple tree. The one behind him in the picture that has produced squat in past years, but made a complete turn about this year. And they are DELICIOUS!! Jonagold apples, gotta love 'em.

Almost 2 weeks ago we got our first frost of the year here. The night before it was supposed to freeze I went out and covered all the important plants that I still cared about. (If I had a camera on our morning runs you would see that one morning we were in shorts and a long sleeve shirt, and the next day we were in full-on winter gear, including hats and gloves!) Since it was close to freezing almost every night since then, I finally gave up and let Mother Nature take over my garden. It was too soon for me, but oh well.

On Friday I had lots of good help from my boys including Ben,
Will,and Jake.

This picture captures perfectly the relationship lately between Jake and Ben. I have been telling Ben for years now that one day all his taunting and teasing would come back to bite him in the you-know-what, and this day it literally did!! Ben can dish it out, but he hates it when Jake dishes it right back. Brotherly love!

Ronnie was such a great helper that day, even with her arm in a soft cast. She and Ben have been hanging out a ton lately--we have the best neighbors!

This is the decoration the boys were looking forward to putting up the most. They call it a dementor (from Harry Potter). It is strung up from the front corner of the garage to one of the columns by the front door, and it plays spooky sounds as it travels.

Other signs of fall are in the mountains, including Mueller Park Canyon near Bountiful. This is where our Cox family reunion is held every October. It was a bit chilly, but still good times.

It's fun to get together with so many family members. The grandkids have a blast together--all they do is play and play some more. This is Sydney, Drew, Payge, and Jake.

And there is always so much good food, including Aunt Patty's homemade cinnamon rolls. They are seriously good. Uncle Lo was brave enough to take lots of kids for a walk.

Grandma, Susan, Patty, and Janyce--they wanted a picture of all their hands together.

One big happy family! ;)