Fall Break Part One

Fall Break was the middle two weeks of October. I think I barely made it to fall break. School time is just intense, as it seems to be for most people. We stayed home, mostly, for fall break and had some good times with the kids.

First outing was downtown to get ice-cream on the circle! 

LOTS of ice-cream!

And I found some plaid sky to photograph:

I love the beautiful old buildings:

Another day I convinced Michael we should go on a family water adventure.

Everyone present! We have had the most beautiful weather this October! And it continues to be beautiful in the forecast. I do think our foliage color and intensity has suffered from the beautiful weather but might be worth it to have the longer warmth.

Heading back in to shore.

Michael took the kids away to a new park near Greencastle: DePauw Nature Park. Having a good stretch of hours at home without kids is an extreme rarity, but it does me so much good.

Everyone raved about the park:

And it sounds like I'll have to make a trip there someday to see!

 My mom took us to the Art Museum one day and we enjoyed our lunch together on the lawn:

And everyone got in some art practice:

Again the weather was beautiful and lots of flowers still in bloom.

Once in awhile I make them pose:

Grandma always helps someone build a fairy house:

Then we went up to the roof to play miniature golf:

These were my favorite flowers I saw. Incredible dahlias with beautiful asters in the background:

Fall break provided a chance to try and get walking back onto the schedule.

And there were a few moments for sitting down with tea and a book!

James and I finally went on his promised birthday boating outing.

It turned into a bigger adventure that we bargained for when we forgot to take the wind into account. We were headed for lunch across the reservoir at Rick's Boatyard but were blown off course and landed at the sailing beach. All attempts to walk the shoreline to Rick's failed and when we put back out to sea we were blown into the center of the reservoir and couldn't make any headway toward Rick's. We finally gave up and with the two of us paddling our hardest and fastest on the SAME side of the canoe we managed to get the canoe back where it belonged!

The inlet was deceptively calm.

Then we got in the car and DROVE to Rick's where James thoroughly enjoyed his birthday lunch.

Couldn't beat the beautiful weather, even if it was windy.

There were a few pies for break too!

Michael and I made it out for a quick dinner one night and there across the parking lot was the gorgeous Hunter's Moon.

I met my mom at a local dairy and we painted the cows in the barn.

And admired the cows from outside too.

This place always reminds me of Vermont, my birthplace. I'm kind of like a salmon who always feels that pull to where he was born.

And we even took some time to paint our coffees from lunch.

More fall break to come next time when I post about our trip to Michigan while Michael and Rachel headed to Pennsylvania.