Fall Festivities 2021

 Fall festivities are so much more fun with Griff - and he is at such a fun age for them! This year we really embraced all the fall activities with him.

In September we kicked off "fall" early with camping, an early trip to Zoo Boo, a visit to see Nicole and Hugh's new sheep, and a trip to an orchard to get an apple cider slushy. We camped at Turkey Run mid-September. Griffy loved the trails there (although they are a bit challenging) and especially loved all the time riding his bike & playing on the playgrounds. He also loved our visit to see Nicole and Hugh's new baby sheep another week - he especially loved chasing them around their enclosure and trying to hold them. We also stopped at McClure's Orchard (on the far north side of Indy) one day when we were out that way for something else. Griff loved seeing their animals and we got an apple cider slushy from the apple barn (Griff & I always get one to share in the fall!). We also went to the Indy Zoo when they were just kicking off Zoo Boo with Hadley and Rachel We went during the day so we didn't see many lights, but we saw lots of big pumpkins & enjoyed some time on the playground too! We also just generally enjoyed lots of park, zoo, and outside time in September as well as our last few weekends to enjoy the nice weather at the lake - all of Griff & I's happy places. 

Hummel Park Playground Time


Meeting the new sheep



Zoo Playground time



Park Picnic



Riding our scooter with Ali Dog



Turkey Run - Playground time



Zoo Time with Hadley


 

We kicked off October camping at McCormick's Creek. It rained most of the weekend unfortunately, but we did make a side trip over to see our cousins in Bloomington for part of the weekend which Griff loved! We did get a chance to do a couple shorter hikes in between rain - to Wolf Cave and a waterfall. We also had a "movie night" on Saturday evening and had a themed dinner and watched Casper. For weeks after Griff called every "ghost" decor item he saw "the friendly ghost!" so I'd say he liked it!

Wolf Cave Hike

We also went to Zoo Boo (a couple times!). We went once with family and another time as just our immediate family. The first time Griff went as "train conductor Mickey" (his halloween costume this year). The next time he went as Buzz (an extra halloween costume I made him this year). 

Zoo Boo



Zoo Boo

We also went on a long weekend trip to the Smokies with my parents and older brother's family (Tim unfortunately wasn't able to come because it was before a big tax deadline). On the way down we stopped at Bass Pro Shops (Griff loves seeing the large aquariums here and the kids loved the glass elevator!) and to get some ice cream. We spent the evening hanging out at the condo getting settled and letting the kids play. The next day we went to the Scenic Motor Trail just outside Gatlinburg and explored some of the old cabins and hiked to Grotto Falls. Griff did awesome and hiked the whole way up - though he did hitch a ride on the way down! 

On our last day we drove to Cades Cove. We were able to check out a couple churches and even saw a bear walk right in front of our car! The kids especially loved playing the piano in one of the churches. On our way back we stopped in Townsend and the kids explored a train museum there and we found a neat swinging bridge. That night we also went to play mini golf - Griff loved it and was quick to "place" his ball in the hole if it didn't go in when hit. Poor Brody actually had hand foot mouth while we were there- and Griff unfortunately got it after our trip as well. However, he did pretty well other than being a little fussy and having a few sores around his mouth for a few days!

We also went on a camping trip just us + Griff to Mammoth Cave. We were really excited to see what Griff thought of it since he'd never been in a cave! We camped right near the visitor center in the national park. He loved checking out the visitor center and learning about caves. He was at the end of getting over hand foot mouth so he was a little grumpier and didn't want to hike as much - so he hitched a lot of rides when we did! We hiked down to a pretty spring by the historic entrance of the cave (River Styx Spring), to an old train that used to run to the area, and also around a large area called "Cedar Sink Trail". We also stopped at a couple historic churches (Joppa Church and Good Spring Church). We also took the Green River ferry across (it is a small ferry, only big enough to fit 2-3 cars) to explore another section of the national park (Griff really loved this!). We also went on a tour of the cave (the Historic Tour). I'm not gonna lie - I felt a little claustrophobic myself - but it was also soo cool. Griff was a little impatient (it was a long tour) but did almost all of it on his own! He also talked about it for weeks after so I'd say he liked it! We also enjoyed plenty of campfires in the evening and brought board games to play too (Griff is super into board games right now!). 

We also went to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins! Since we're thinking of moving further north here soon we decided to check out a pumpkin patch on the north side! We went to Union Acres, a smaller farm, which was super nice and had lots of fun activities for Griff and a large patch to pick from. It was not crowded at all which was super nice (though it was a little chilly that day). Griff loved all their activities! They had lots of big slides made of tubes (which he went on on his own and wasn't afraid of at all!), a duck race area, a bubble making area, a corn pit, a playground made of large tires, a tricycle racing area, a basketball hoop area, large hay bales for climbing, an area with bunnies and ducks, and an area where you could "hit" smaller pumpkins with a baseball bat or sledgehammer - all this along with the apple barn and patch. We picked our pumpkins first and then released Griff to go on all the activities. By far his favorite were the tire playground, slides, and hay mountain! We had a hard time getting him off these at the end because he loved them so much! Griff was a fan of trying to carve his pumpkins afterward, though he didn't like the "guts". 

As usual, we also spent a lot of October playing outside, at the park/playground, or going to the zoo! Griff loves being outside so we took advantage of the still (mostly nice) weather and were outside a lot. He also loved seeing all the "spooky" decor so we went on lots of bike rides through our neighborhood to check out all the decor. 

We finished out October with Halloween festivities - a trunk or treat with our cousins and trick or treating in our neighborhood on Halloween. Griff loved trick or treating! This was the first year he really understand it and was excited to go and it was so sweet to see!

November was a little slower and was filled with more play days at home, though we did still go to the park/playground and zoo fairly often! We also spent lots of time raking leaves due to having lots of trees - and Griff loved jumping in the leaf piles! 

We also got in one camping trip to Clifty Falls with Nicole & Hugh! We hiked to the tunnel caves and and a couple waterfalls and explored the Inn and downtown Madison. We found a playground on the river that Griffy loved and he also liked visiting the train at the visitor center. We also did lots of campground loops on Griffy's bike and had a couple nice campfires. It was a nice end to our camping season for the year. 

We also celebrated Thanksgiving with family - we had cake at Thanksgiving as well to sing to Griff with family since his birthday was coming up! Though this year has been...a year..we have so much to be thankful for, especially and including Griff...so we were thankful to end the season thanking God for his many blessings and for our family. 

Now we head into the Christmas season - which is sooo special in our household. We area anxiously awaiting celebrating Griff & I's birthday but also (and most importantly) the birth of our Savior.