My first October in Cape Canaveral after Greg and I got married, I anxiously asked, “So when does the Fall cool down occur?”  Oh, how he laughed and laughed.  The cool down in Florida occurs for 8 hours in December.  Go to dinner and a movie and you’ve missed it.  This year I have been asking, “So when will the Fall warm up happen?”  For heavens sakes people, OCTOBER is why we live in Indiana!  No one disputes it’s the best month of the year: 64 and sunny in a world on fire with trees and crops and harvest festivals, until you think you’ll BUST if you eat one more fried biscuit with apple butter.  I think my heaven will look like October in Indiana.  My hell will look like the cold, gray and wet October of 2009.  OK, ’nuff of the bitching; I straightened up my attitude and decided to spend this weekend FINDING MY INDIANA FALL…

I read in the paper that Sunday, October 25th, the Universe would go ahead and hold an event we like to call “Autumn”.  I believe there may have been other autumn days this month, but we wouldn’t have noticed, stuck inside, pumped full of cough syrup and antihistamines, awaiting our certain mucous death.  By Friday, this house held 4 healthy humans. Oh yes, our time had come.  First, we carved the BIG pumpkin.  I think we looked at, nay thousands, nay hundreds, but perhaps TENS of ideas until we settled on a fitting tribute to our late cat, Jack.  So here, I present to you, our “Jack”-O-Lantern:

You gotta admit, my husband has some mad talents.  He free-handed that bad boy from a google image.  The girls did the “scoop out” honors while sipping their first warm apple ciders.  Sara asked if she could drink a warm apple cider every day, forever.  Kelly threw her’s to the floor and swore she’d never touch that stuff again.  Ah, so much in common, my girls.  We got a good night’s sleep and woke up to our usual Sunday muffins, and a plan to take on Brown County.  If you’re not from Indiana, don’t click that link.  Seriously, it’s not for you.  We Hoosiers have the world convinced that Indiana is as flat as Kansas.  As dull as box of corn flakes, sans the frosting.  We don’t need the whole world descending upon us and discovering that maybe the glaciers ended slightly further north than the Ohio river, leaving the southern part of the state full of forests and hills.  The pictures that follow were taken a mere 45 minutes from my front door.  And my friends want me to move to the north side.  Just…can’t…do…it (yet!).

After playing on some playground equipment in the park and hitting up a couple of vistas, we took a hike.  A hike we loved so much that upon finishing, we had a snack break and did it again.  Because what’s better than fall?  More fall.  Well, fall, and the days Sara lets me pick out her clothes.  That would not include today, lest you thought I paired brightly striped leggins with a camouflage skirt.  That girl has a strong sense of self, you’ve got to give her that.

There was so much running and exploring.  Exploring that can only be done in a forest: counting tree rings, attempting to chop down trees using fallen sticks, collecting unusual leaves, bird watching, learning about moss, mushrooms, the changing seasons, and smelling autumn in all its glory.  The most exciting thing we learned today was that ladybugs love Daddy. He was covered in them all day.

Having a ladybug land on you is a sign of good fortune.  Daddy must be the most fortunate man on earth, if today was any sign of things to come.  There wasn’t a moment that he didn’t have one on his shoulder and one on his knee.  The “Ladybugs Love Daddy” hike was followed by a tromp through Nashville, IN (seriously, NO clicking!  Justin Timberlake is going to want me to give him a personal tour of the quaint downtown, People Magazine is going to sneak a picture of us sharing a totally innocent caramel apple, it will be a media nightmare for me….so many WHAT HAVE YOUS).  There were lollipops to eat, miniature dollhouse stores to explore, ciders and snickerdoodle lattes to sip, and then, finally, 2 very tired girls to take home.

My Indiana Fall happened today.  I wish you could have been with us.