Fall

There’s something about Fall in Oregon.

(I guess it’s Oregon.  I never noticed it in Utah, but I’m different now than I was then.)

The clouds are gray and we get a lot of big raindrops that pit and pat outside the window. The air is crisp – like biting into a perfectly ripe, juicy Gala apple.  The leaves are just barely starting to turn.  The grass can go longer between haircuts. The flowers all need to be cut back.  College football is on TV.  We’re taking umbrellas to soccer games.  I want to eat soup and chilli for dinner about six times a week.

And I miss home like crazy.

It’s this season, with the holidays around the corner, that I miss Utah the most: The family dinners with my parents (or the husband’s).  I miss the game nights, the walks by the river and the drives in the canyon to see the leaves in all their autumn glory – red, orange, and gold.  I miss getting together to watch BYU play.  I miss raking leaves and filling pumpkin bags at my parent’s house.

It doesn’t help that I’ve seen a few blog posts featuring the beautiful fall leaves in Utah.  Mental Note: Visit Utah in the Fall next year. 

Over the weekend, we went on Mount Hood to see if we could find some color (like I’ve seen here), but we didn’t find any.  We did do two great hikes though.  My kids are troopers and they let us drag them to see Hidden Lake and Lower Zigzag Falls even when they (and sometimes me) wanted to quit. We rewarded ourselves for our 5 miles of hiking by eating Mini Blizzards on the way home.  Mmm.

There is a definite chill in the air today.  I guess that means Fall has made it’s official appearance in the Northwest.