Fall Fun

September was rainy but I feel like October has been wonderful!  A lot of that wonderful is during the week but that doesn't mean that I can't play!  A friend of mine does quite a bit of hiking in the area and she's been inviting me (and others of course) to go.  We went on a Tuesday to a hike in Sackdilling that was really fun and one that I want to take the kids to at some point.  It had some great rocks, caves to explore, and was gorgeous with the fall leaves.

We had a few good caves to explore which honestly is kind've creepy when you don't know what's down there.  I let my geologist friend and the boys who were with us lead the way.  We did see a few bats and some gross spiders but nothing horrible came out to get us.

I forgot a flashlight and had to use the one on my phone.  It wasn't that great but it did the job.

After cave exploration it was basically just a lovely walk through the fall woods!

 

We even had a couple of leaf showers that I tried to get a picture or good video of but that was impossible.  But it really is one of the loveliest things to stand in silence in a shower of golden leaves falling from the sky.

The other thing that I've been doing while the kids are in school is entertaining a guest of sorts!  My good friend Ryan from college has a son about Abby's age who is reading Flat Stanley at school.  It's a picture book about a boy who gets flattened by a piece of falling furniture or something and then takes advantage by traveling the world through the mail.  So the kids make and send a Flat Stanley to friends or family to explore a little bit.  I've had lots of people staring at me as I try to take pictures of great places with Stanley in the picture!

Of course I took him to Amberg.  Probably every time I post a picture of Amberg I say how much I love it but I do!  I love wandering and shopping (I do a lot more of that now that the kids are in school) and just being surrounded by the amazing buildings and beautiful grounds.  I will take this over an American mall a thousand times over!!

I figured that a shot with the medieval wall was in order.

And then the park on the outside of the wall was too gorgeous to ignore.

I still don't know who the guy in that statue is.

We actually went back here that night to try and take family pictures for the Christmas card.  It was NOT successful.  Megan and William were really grumpy and then I was pretty grumpy and the one shot we got where we were actually all in the picture ended up being too dark.  It's getting darker earlier and with daylight savings almost here it will be dark around 5 p.m.  But we did cheer up later with a great leaf fight and went home happy!