Fall Family Fun

Fall is definitely my favorite season.  It is my favorite for so many reasons:  the weather, football, the weather, pumpkin-everything, the weather.  But one of the main reasons it is my favorite is because of the gorgeous weather--have I mentioned that yet?  

When fall brings the cooler temperatures, I just want to stay outside all. day. long.  Central Texas has the best fall weather ever!  Drew had last week off and has the coming week off as well.  It was sort of a surprise, so we had things scheduled for some of the days already.  However, on Friday, we had nothing on our schedule; so we declared it a fun family day.  And man, oh man, God gave us the most absolutely perfect weather to enjoy it!!!!

We went to the Austin Nature and Science center (which is awesome, beautiful and FREE), we had a delicious lunch at a new restaurant together, and then we had an amazing hike along the greenbelt in Austin. I was just giddy and couldn't quit telling Drew and the kids about how much fun I was having!  We brought the camera along and captured some of our little moments.  

Luke and Abbey are just so precious together sometimes.  They were just walking a long, holding hands at the Nature and Science Center.  Here, Luke is telling Abbey about the Barred Owl.  

Me and my sweet boy at the Nature and Science Center.

We tried to make the day as educational as possible as well.  We tried to interject plenty of learning moments.  One thing homeschooling Luke and Abbey has taught me is that there are so many "teaching moments" if you look for them and be intentional about using them.  We had a contest to try to find the "coolest creation" in nature.  On our hike, this was one of the first we saw.  It was a neat rock with several fossils on it.  Abbey was feeling it's cool temperature and fun textures here.  

just enjoying each other in the beautiful setting and weather.

Abbey loves to give eskimo kisses--even on hiking breaks.

I'm sure you could guess who was always in the lead during our hike!

a message along our hike.

There were even some tricky areas on our hike.  Like this steep one...

And this one along a cliff with a tiny walkway and chain.  2 years ago, I would have never let Luke do this, but he is SO much more careful now.

We also took plenty of breaks to take in the gorgeous scenery:

and just to be silly.

I found a boulder to set the camera on for this self-timer photo.  It was just so pretty in that spot and wanted to capture the beauty.

And Luke ended up finding the "coolest creation in nature" for the day.  We were along a cliff,  and he pointed up.  As soon as we looked, we saw the largest bee hive I had ever seen.   There were thousands of bees swarming and inside.  It was definitely cool--but we didn't stay there for long.  Later, we found out that the cliff is actually called, "bee hive cliff."  

  

I am so thankful for SO MUCH.  Spending gorgeous days with my wonderful family in God's beautiful creation is just one of them.