Fall sun with the Paulsons

The week before my dad came, we had a wonderful visit from Kaylie and Derek. They seriously deserved a gold medal for their efforts to see us. They had already tried once the week before to come (mostly to see Leslie) but turned back as the ETA inched later and later as the traffic got worse and worse, to the point that they wouldn't have arrived until bedtime. Since I would have taken Leslie to the airport the next morning, it didn't make sense.

But fast forward a week, and they were on their way again! This time they were able to avoid the worst of rush hour and arrived in time for a late dinner that still tasted good despite the bit of ketchup in it.

After dinner, we played Codenames and then watched a bit of the BYU game. Not only were none of us wearing BYU colors, but 3 out of the 4 were wearing the colors of the opposing team! Most of us went to bed before the game was over, but not all. It certainly made for a more pleasant morning to have a win!

I actually have a maroon shirt that used to belong to Kaylie that I could have worn, but I felt like there was enough maroon in the house as it was.

After breakfast, we headed to the temple open house. All the little kids did pretty well, and it was fun to see details I hadn't the week before. It was also fun to see pictures from all sorts of family and friends who went the same day as us, even if we didn't see them there.

Freeways in fall are on fleek

We then headed up to Talcott Mountain State Park for a hike! I was so excited about this. Even if it was just a Connecticut mountain, it was nonetheless a mountain, and I hadn't climbed one of these since Mount Timpanogos more than 5 years ago. The 20 minute drive there from the temple was a glorious drive through walls of red and orange trees under a bright blue sky. 

Despite seeing a large portion of Hartford's cars parked along the road, we had lucky enough timing to park both cars in the parking lot (along with some cars with Utah license plates . . . Turns out some BYU friends were there too, though we didn't figure it out until we were on Facebook that night). After lunch, we began our climb. We figured Joseph would be more amenable to the hike if he wasn't actually doing it, so while Derek and Kevin carried the toddlers in backpacks, Kaylie and I pushed her jogging stroller up the steepest, rockiest stretch of the hike, all the while hearing Joseph protest that he didn't want to be in a forest. That all changed when we got to the first scenic overlook.

A (slightly filtered) picture of what we saw. It looked more like this in person than the non-filtered ones, actually.

Right after this picture we all took off our jackets -- we didn't need them anymore!

he was never in danger of falling

After admiring that first view of the valley for a bit, we continued on. Joseph was a lot more interested in walking (there were hiking sticks to gather) which slowed us down but made it more pleasant. We alternated between being surrounded by beautiful trees and having a view of the valley, and it was just about perfect. Exclamations from Kaylie about how amazing this was and announcements from Joseph about how much he loved hiking only confirmed that this was the most perfect fall outing.

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Matthew loved the baby carrier the Paulsons brought, and I didn't mind carrying him in it, too. Are we going to be baby wearing people after all?

When we reached the top, we heard old men singing "West Virginia" by John Denver with an accordion. We were also treated to "Ring of Fire" and other old tunes while we were up there. Turns out we had come the day of some kind of festival going on there at the top, complete with all sorts of concession stands. I feel like those are a bit easier to haul up a Connecticut mountain (1.25 miles each way) than a Utah mountain. We decided to not go to the top of the tower (thank goodness for Facebook friends who do so you can live vicariously through them). The walk down was fast and fun, and when we offered Joseph another ride in the stroller he told us that "hiking is funner." Wins all around.

Can you spot the accordion?

Just such a lovely day, especially looking up.

Back at home, the kids played while we figured out that we didn't want to cook. We drove through the castle-y part of New Haven (i.e. Yale) to get there. The choice for Joseph was clear -- he would get a quesadilla. If we had thought a little bit beforehand, we would have brought one from home -- it would have cost pennies, and we would have been sure he would eat it.

Instead . . . well, I now call the money you spend on a kid's quesadilla the "kid fee." You pay it not because you think your kid will actually eat it, but so that you don't feel guilty about the performances your kids put on. (You shouldn't feel guilty anyway, especially when they're this cute.)

After dinner, they felt it was in their best interests to abandon us. So off they went back to New Jersey. Even if it was short, we're so glad they came!