[ fall's charm. ]

Today we went out and did some fall-ish things. I've been looking forward to this all year! Seriously. As soon as the last leaf falls during an Autumn... a sense of sadness sets in over the fact that we'll have to wait twelve more months to witness that kind of beauty again. Good thing we have a Creator, who knows how to create! Thank goodness he created four completely different seasons who have beauty all their own. So, in celebration of this season: we did things today like ate lunch at an orchard, sipped apple cider, savored every last bite of a cinnamon sugar donut, admired the glowing trees, touched cool pumpkins, and strolled through quaint gift shops. Love Robinette's! Where else can you locally find a place that maintains an orchard, makes their own cider, fudge, donuts, and lots of other goodies, shuttles people propped on bails of hay around through the orchard, sells pumpkins, has a full blown gift shop, and winery?

 Check out the little guy who's loving the leaves too... He know's how to stop and savor the beauty! (Or maybe he saw me staring up into the tree through my viewfinder and was trying to figure out what I was looking at...)

Yes, please!

Believe it or not. I've lived here nearly two years and today was my first trip to Fredrik Meijer Gardens and Scupture Park! It was nothing short of perfection. It was immaculate and very apparent that someone put some serious time into thinking through every aspect of that place. I didn't see a single detail that was overlooked, or half-heartedly installed. It is absolutely beautiful. I just kept saying, "Breck, you are going to love this place!"

 Even the concrete supports were designed to resemble the structure of a tree. How stinking cool! Now that's creative.

There was something magical about this room. Topiaries and suspended Mum ornaments decorated this solarium.

This was Bonsai Maple Tree... it was literally about 18" tall. It was amazing. (Look at that handsome guy in the reflection of the mirror.) :)

We realized today that it will probably be about another 25 years or more until we are able to hold hands again. We used to hold hands all the time. Now, if both of us aren't carting diaper bags, or Breck, or carseats around, one of us has our hands full with something having to do with a baby. But that's ok... Breck is totally worth it and we wouldn't have it any other way. We'll just try to hold hands during the .5% of the time our hands are free.

 Tired, sweet boy. He did so well though!

He was too busy checking out this massive jack-o that he couldn't waste time looking at Mama for a picture, but we got Daddy to look!

This was so very cool! I felt like a little kid and couldn't stop Ooo-ing and Aaaaah-ing over it! It was a Great Lakes water table. See how it is shaped into the Great Lakes? In the middle and lower portion of the picture you can see how the states Michigan and Indiana are stamped into the ground.

 Chihuly exhibit... very, very, cool. Amazing talent!

The most beautiful view of the day:

Champagne chandelier by Chihuly.

 Want one of Chihuly's masterpieces? Well, you may sure have one if you can come up with, ah-hem, $5,500. Not too shabby.

Off the subject of fall, orchards, and art... but couldn't leave out our sea creature friends who joined us at the dinner table tonight. Thankfully, MomB and DadB were there to instruct us step-by-step, otherwise, we would not have had a dadgum clue how to crack, cut, or dig into those suckers. Yum.
(See the steam?)