Sweet Taste of the Fruits of Late Summer

Fall has begun in the Owens house. Fall begins when the fall semester starts back at school again, and that was on Wednesday. Mike did not take any time off this Spring and Summer, but that is why we have Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mike attended his annual work retreat on Monday, and he rode with a fellow employee. They arrived early and won a king size Hershey bar. Then his table group won another Hershey bar in a getting-to-know-you game. S’mores are on the menu in our house.

Diamond had class on the night of her birthday, so Hallie took her out Monday night to go to C. J. Barrymore’s and have some kid fun. They went on bumper boats, did the batting cages (great workout), and drove the grand prix. They had so much fun, and it had been a while since Hallie laughed that hard. Too bad we don’t turn 21 more than once in a lifetime.

Swing and a hit!

Landon and Eliza spent some time with friends Katelyn and Bryan on Tuesday while Mike and Hallie had some stuff to do. Later, we decided to afflict the kids by taking them car shopping with us. Recently we have dubbed our trusty 2002 Buick Century the clown car. Most Sundays all seats are full and the trunk is on its way there with all of the stuff we take to entertain the kids and do our work at church. So to ease some of the confinement we have decided to look into buying a minivan. We asked Landon what he wanted in a new car and he said, “A new car seat.” I think we can accomplish that for him. Eliza absolutely loved crawling around inside of the minivans.

Wednesday’s theme should be FUN! We started the morning at Morley’s Candy Shop and Factory where we were treated with Jelly Belly samples and chocolate yummies. Landon tasted a toothpaste flavored Jelly Belly. 

After we got our fill of sugar we set out back towards our neck of town. For the second year we attended the community event called Racing for Kids. A bunch of our friends also came out to play.

Riding low next to a beautiful low rider. 

Before we knew it, August was gone and September had arrived. Thursday and Friday were spent with Hallie and the kids at home or running errands while Mike worked. Eliza decided to continue her stair climbing efforts and succeeded in crawling the whole way up. Once she caught on to the idea, there was no stopping her!

Tuesday: Almost there! 

Thursday: Made it! 

After a few Saturdays hanging out at home, we decided to get out and do something we have not yet done this year: go get some fresh picked peaches. M’mmm. . . . Peaches! We drove out to Romeo for their annual Peachfest. Of course, there were farm animals, food, and face painting:  

After we picked up Diamond from work, we drove over to watch the BYU game with Damon and Ann and their family. Things looked pretty sad for the first three quarters, but BYU pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat in front of the Ole Miss crowd. Go Cougars!