Wordless Wednesday - Fall's Beauty

With snow in the forecast tomorrow, let's have another look at what we'll be missing. This is the sight coming to my sister's house and her yard. Beautiful but gosh, that's a LOT of leaves to rake.

Fall is Here

Fall has officially arrived in NE Ohio. The leaves are turning bright oranges, yellows, and reds, the air is crisp, and everything is all about pumpkins. This isn't technically the kids' first Fall season, but it is their first "real" Fall since Arizona's Fall months consist of 80 degree temps and no changing or falling leaves.

My sister's house is in the woods so there is an abundance of leaves to rake and jump into. The kids are experiencing many 'firsts' this year. One of them is a leaf pile and Alena and Christian loved it! Noah, not so much. He did like kicking the pile but not actually sitting in it.

See Noah's face? Hah!

My sister not only lives in the woods, but on a quiet dirt road too. It's a great place to take pictures.

Found a perfect tiny leaf.

Is anyone else out there loving the beauty of Fall?

Arizona From 7000 ft

We are alive! The move was successful and our drive from Arizona to Ohio went just fine... Minus the snow we woke up to in Amarillo, TX!


The weekend before we moved, the kids and I went hiking. I chose a place we've never hiked at because with us moving, we won't get the chance again. After the absolutely gorgeous views we saw, I regret not having done it sooner and with Gabe there. I chose to hike at the Coronado National Memorial which is just south of us and sits on the border of Mexico. Yes, we lived that close to the border.

I selected a hike that was short and had an incline of about 400 ft. No problem I thought. HAH! I didn't take into account that with a short hiking distance, the incline meant it would be steeper. And steep it was! Just about the whole thing was steps and I almost turned us around a few times but we persevered and it was worth it! It was breathtakingly beautiful, amazing, serene, so many words could describe it.

We had to drive up a steep, winding, one lane, dirt road which you'll see in the photos. Speaking of photos... Let's get to em.

Beauty Surrounds Us

We've lived here in Arizona for a little over five years and I love our scenery. At times it can be somewhat "ugly" if you're looking at the surface. It's not very colorful except for a few short months during monsoon season. There is mostly dead weeds, small shrubs, cacti, dirt, and everything seems to be a shade of brown.

But open your eyes and mind a little and look past that and you will see beautiful mountains, clear blue skies, and small wildlife. If you look a little harder you will find plenty of colors in the birds, bugs, small plants, and desert flowers.

The other week when we had snow, I wanted to get a good shot of the mountains because they are just so beautiful when covered in snow. I'm not sure I did them proper justice but I tried.

I really like the flag that appears as if it is in the middle of nowhere in the above photos.

These were taken on the west end of town at the edge of the base. I then moved to the south side of town to take the next photos. I went as far as I could until I hit a dirt road and there was nowhere else to go but down a walking path.

Seriously, so beautiful.

Sunset on the Lake

Growing up, my family would take family vacations in Canada. We would stay on a little island in the middle of a lake. I loved it. And every year I would take a sunset picture as it was setting over the lake. You could get some of the most beautiful pictures!

Well, since we were staying at a lake for a couple of days on our vacation, I took full advantage of the beautiful sunset. I may or may not have taken 69 different photos of the sunset on our first night there. I also took some on the second night but that sunset wasn't quite as colorful.

Here are my favorite photos of the first night's sunset. One of the reason there are so many is because I was experimenting with all the different camera settings and taking them from different angles.

And here are a few from the second night. I was also experimenting with the panorama setting on my camera. I did not capture the full 180 degrees on some (which is a bummer because they were really good photos).

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one. Just wish I had gotten the full 180.

Just a few pics, right? Hah! I hope you enjoyed them as much as me. Now the question is... which do I get developed and hang on our wall?