Fall Funk

As if we didn't have enough going on to help contribute to the usual fall funk that hits post-Halloween that I mentioned in my last post, the last couple days have given us a solid shove into it a couple days early.  As if the cold, rainy weather all week wasn't enough...

Jacob was home sick almost all week.  He started sniffling and sneezing on Monday night, and by Tuesday morning it was clear we couldn't send him to school like that.  COVID aside, just dealing with a super runny nose with a mask would have been a nightmare.  But under these circumstances, there was no way.  Well, one day turned into four.  On Thursday we took him for a test, figuring we'd at least know by his game today.  But alas, that didn't happen.  I don't know if testing is slower since cases are up significantly this week, or if it's more that he's a minor and couldn't have his own portal access, so we seem to be at the mercy of the lab to manually send results.  Their customer service sends back essentially the same message in questionable English every time, no matter what question I ask.  It has to be relatively local so I'm not sure why.  Hopefully we get something tomorrow so he's OK to go back to school Monday!  Of course, today was Halloween, so that made it a bit more of a bummer.

Thursday was Carter's parent-teacher conference.  We knew it could be a rough one, and sure enough, it wasn't great.  Maybe even worse than I expected.  We knew focus was an issue.  We knew his overreactions to any sort of correction were an issue.  But I don't think we realized the degree to which the correction issue was happening at school, and we definitely didn't expect to hear that his manners at school have been pretty bad.  He tends to not say please or thank you, like when asking someone to open something in his lunch.  He gets defensive when someone tries to help him with his work, but also gets mad when he needs to redo something because he wasn't paying attention or wouldn't accept the help that was offered.  We see that a lot at home, and unfortunately didn't have much advice to offer the teacher.  I know he was having a few minor issues in first grade, but I feel like being away from the school setting for so long made him completely forget how to behave.  It felt a little like our Kindergarten conference for Jacob, but at least this teacher tried to be positive and I know she's trying to figure out how to help him rather than just shoving him in a corner.  But it was hard not to have much to offer because we don't have any luck at home either.  We did let her know that we'll probably be moving toward an ADHD evaluation and shared what we've been through with Jacob, so hopefully she tries to see him through an ADHD lens, rather than just a normal high energy boy lens.  I'll admit I felt a hint of PTSD as I relived some of Jacob's struggles in my mind and tried to figure out how to make this better more quickly.  I had visions of the endless scales and questionnaires.  Of more appointments and doctors.  Of the decisions and fears surrounding medication.  I barely survived it all the first time around and now have to do it again.  I'm sad that this is our reality again because Carter seemed so much more typical as a toddler.  With Jacob, we knew early on something was up.  With Carter, the issues have only been in the past few years.  Maybe it was too much screen time.  Maybe it's all the taunting and bullying from his brother.  Maybe it's bad parenting.  Something changed and I don't know what it was.  It all makes me so sad, and this conference made it all the more real.  Home school is definitely making the issues more apparent--both because we see them and because he's lacking the consistency of the in-school rules and routines--but it's officially something we need to take action on now.

On the heels of that, yesterday morning I went into the crawl space--in part to survey my cast-off electronics to see if it was worth going to my work's annual e-cycle event, and partly to track down a hand-me-down winter coat for Carter--and I noticed a wet spot on the floor.  The last time this happened was six years ago, almost to the day.  That time was the day after Halloween, when we had the double doozy of finding a similar crawl space puddle and discovering our garage door spring had broken (actually happened the night before) on the same day.  That was an extra rough weekend since we were trapped in our garage for three days.  Well, this new puddle seems to have a similar source, right under the dishwasher, at least judging by the puddles on top of the bins under it.  I have no idea how long it's been like that, but judging by the corrosion on the bins and the black spots on the floor (mold? mildew? dust? junk leeching out of the floor?).  Luckily we now have a go-to plumber to call, who will be here on Monday, but with shortages on almost everything right now, who knows how long it will take to get fixed...or figure out whether we should just finally buy a new one since ours is broken in multiple spots that luckily don't affect its functionality.  It's over 10 years old (it came with the house and didn't look particularly new then) so I'm sure it doesn't have long to go.  So that sucked.

Add in the election and a rise in COVID cases--not just nationally but locally for a change--and it was a tough week.  I was crazy busy at work, and I could tell I wasn't in much of a Halloweeny mood.  I guess I felt better when my co-workers all also admitted on a call that we were not feeling any urge to participate in the office-wide costume contest.  We were so into it last year with our Mario theme, and this year, nada.  It would just be one more thing to stress about.  But it sucks we're all feeling this way.  

I've had moments recently where this reality gets to me a bit.  Like, if you would have told me a year ago that this would be our life--wearing masks, working from home, schooling partly from home, virtual everything, that we'd gotten through multiple months with malls closed, that I'd only have eaten in a restaurant once since March, and that every holiday could be affected...not to mention that we'd live like this for a year or more, and that it's been so heavily politicized that no one can agree on how to manage it...I'd have thought you were literally insane.  And yet here we are, stressed out but shockingly well adapted.  It's sort of mindblowing if you think about it too much.  And yes, it totally stinks that this is our existence, but it honestly could be so much worse.  Heck, tonight I read about all the new lockdowns in Europe, and yet people here have the nerve to 1) insist this is just about the election; and 2) complain even though almost everything is open, even if it's not to capacity.  I know this has caused hardships.  Businesses have lost a ton.  It stinks weddings have to be small, restaurants are only at 50%, and theaters are even less (now that they just opened after seven full months), but what's the alternative?  Letting things run amok again and shutting down more?  No, the death rate isn't what it was but it is still killing people and it's still causing long-lasting health impacts.  We'll live our lives as much as we can, but we're not going to be reckless because we don't know what might happen.  If you don't care, that's fine, but wear your mask in public because I don't want you endangering me or my family.  It's like the difference between seatbelts and DWI.  There are laws for both, but only one impacts the safety of others in addition to yourself.  By all means, go out to eat, don't sanitize, make fun of masks in your own house if that's your thing...but if your actions can impact me, please at least be considerate in public and wear your mask and try to keep your hands clean.  It's not that hard and it's not the beginning of some slippery slope of loss of freedom.  I'd have hated to see those people during rationing back in the war years!  I'd love to see the kids back in school more than anything, but beyond that, where things are now seem pretty livable to me.  But the fact we all carry these weights at all is hard to think about, and it's only going to make this "darker" part of fall a bit harder to manage.

This post took me an extra day to write, so Halloween is just going to have to wait a day or two.  More soon--hopefully with COVID test results in hand!  

News and Notes, Forced Fall Family Fun Edition

Another week down.  I guess it was an interesting one.  Mostly because I ended up getting a COVID test on Wednesday.  I came down with a cold on Monday night.  It was mostly just some post-nasal drip and some fuzzy-headed congestion.  By Tuesday I had some body aches.  Nothing crazy, but enough to make me uncomfortable at my desk all day.  I was functional, and under any other circumstances it was just a simple cold, but under pandemic circumstances, it was worrisome.  After all, we went to a picnic at my cousin's last weekend, and we probably had a little more indoor time than would have been ideal.  But then again, Carter had a short-lived cold last week and sneezed all over everything (because he did it about a thousand times over the course of a day), so it wasn't a stretch that I just caught his.  But then a friend of mine knew someone whose kid had sniffles for two days and tested positive, so that really made me wonder if it was possible Carter had it and passed it along.  Either way, with two kids in school and a handful of activities on tap, I wanted to make sure I wasn't passing along something I wasn't expecting.  

The test process was fine.  It took a little bit of figuring out that I was best off going to the local community college for free state testing.  I wanted whatever was fastest, and while it seemed like the community college was quick enough, I still checked in with my doctor.  They initially recommended an urgent care, but that would involve paying an urgent care co-pay (which on a high deductible plan is obscene) so the free test it was!  It was a drive-up thing, and pretty much you just made an appointment ahead of time, showed up, put your ID in your window, and drove through with the windows up.  They found your paperwork and stuck it in a crack of the car hood (since it was pouring and the wipers were in service), sent you into one of two lines, and you drove into a semi-permanent structure in the parking lot.  They review your paperwork (which you approve through a closed window), and you eventually pull up, lower your window, pull your mask under your nose, and get a swab to the brain.  I thought I'd be OK since I had a lot of time with a scope up my nose last fall during my sinus infection from hell.  But no, the 7-10 seconds of swabbing was really uncomfortable.  My eye watered for a solid minute afterward.  After that, the wait was on.  I checked the portal (and my email) a lot over the next day, and finally my result showed up after 11pm on Thursday.  Luckily, it was negative.  So, just a cold and back to life as usual.  Much ado about nothing...but better safe than sorry.

What else is new...?  Not much, I guess.  Mostly we're just counting down the days to the election, dealing with subpar weather, and surviving the usual mayhem the kids throw at us.  The fights have been on the rise lately despite Jacob promising he'd try to be nicer at our last therapy session.  Even when we call him out on it, he just doesn't seem to care, which is discouraging.  So, in the meantime, they find every possible way to annoy the heck out of each other.  At least they're separated all day, so at least we get that break.

Carter's home schooling has gotten in a bit of a better groove, but it still takes a lot of time to walk him through every assignment and his focus is crap.  We really need to get him evaluated.  I'll be interested to hear what his teacher has to say about him during our parent-teacher conference this week.  On one hand he seems to do his in-school work well and his teacher doesn't seem to have any specific beefs that come through on video calls (and trust me, she'd call stuff out if she could--she's not afraid to shame a bit if it's motivating), but his focus at home is so abysmal that I can't imagine that it doesn't come through a bit at school.  I want to get a seat belt and strap him into his chair just so he has a physical reminder he shouldn't get up.  He ran laps about a dozen times behind me during my work call the other day (much to my co-workers' amusement...and amazement), even though he was supposed to be doing his math.  It's exhausting.  So if she mentions anything (and probably even if she doesn't), I feel like we need to get him checked, just so we know what we're dealing with.  I know remote school is hard for even typical kids, but this is nearly impossible.  We're managing through the tag team, but Craig is likely going to be spending more time at work soon, so who knows how that's going to work out.  Not well for my work, I'd guess.  I desperately wish they could up the number of days of in-school now that we know infections aren't exactly running rampant, but I also know that distancing isn't really possible that way, and closer contact could mean a higher likelihood of exposure.  Plus, the holidays are coming and that could get dicey.  Ugh, the holidays...don't even get me started.  Thanksgiving is one month from tomorrow and Christmas is two months from today.  And I have no idea what we're going to do about either.

After our last fun fall outing, Carter was being super affectionate and sweet.  Part of it is probably that he loved getting back on a playground and getting a little one-on-one treatment, and part of it was probably that I finally downloaded Roblox for him.  One night he randomly climbed on my lap while he was playing and sat there.  While it was a bit awkward and I essentially only had one functional hand, I had to document it because I know these moments aren't going to last much longer.  He's finally hit 50 pounds and I laughed this morning when we went through his overflowing pants drawer and stripped out about five pairs that were fine in the spring but now at least an inch too short!

We had a pretty miserable weather week with a ton of rain, and I can definitely tell the leaves are on their way out.  It makes me sad to see that the bright reds are disappearing and more and more trees are already stripped.  I like fall...in September and October.  I love cider, donuts, pumpkin patches, apple pies, pumpkin spice, fall leaves, my glass pumpkins, my jeans, more comfortable weather, and to some degree, Halloween (it's fun, it just induces stress most years).  But once Halloween is over, it's often the equivalent of the first couple weeks of January when the Christmas sparkle fades--in the words of one of my favorite comics, "a cold, gray, bucket of suck."  But instead of cold, gray January, it's cold, brown November, when all the golden hues fade into early darkness and we have a long three-plus weeks of blah until Thanksgiving, just so we can eat turkey and get started on Christmas.  And who knows what all of that looks like this year.  I forced myself outside in the cold yesterday and today to clean up my yard a bit.  All that's left of the garden is the still-thriving tomatoes (and a lot of rotten ones that were out of reach in the mass of greenery).  I pulled a bunch of weedy junk out of the way back (so maybe it won't re-seed itself as much) and did another phase of weed whacking to try to clear out all the overgrowth back to the rock wall that was visible when we first moved in.  It's a battle with all the blackberry vines, but I'm going to keep trying!  While I was out there, I enjoyed what's left of the fall color. 

The neighbor's trees are so pretty.  They were skewing more red, but I think the red leaves fell off and the rest turned an orangey-yellow.

This is the way back that I'm working on.  Unfortunately the pretty reds are invasive trees that spread like crazy.  You can see off to the right where there's an area in front that's flatter than all the rest of the junk in the foreground.  The right is mostly up to the rocks.  I did another huge section today, so hopefully we'll be good to go in the spring.  Oh, and remains of a dead skunk are still in my way because I have no idea what to do with them.

Speaking of those last gasps of fall, we actually had a last gasp of summer on Friday.  It hit 80 degrees!  Carter had a half day of school, and I would have loved to make the most of it, but sadly I had a lot of work to do and my boss was off, which made taking off harder.  But I decided that I was going to cut out a little early and we should try to hit up a new pumpkin patch in the late afternoon-early evening hours.  I'd been seeing cool pictures from one across town, and with a gorgeous day and a little extra time to work with, I wanted to give it a shot.  Of course, between the two kids I was practically dragging them kicking and screaming.  Carter flip-flopped about wanting to go a couple times, and Jacob was refusing (which I was going to allow him to after his lack of enjoyment at Stokoe).  We almost didn't go after Carter said no again, but then Jacob changed his mind (likely because I was ticked off), and we all ended up leaving a little after 4pm.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it ended up being a nice little visit (aside from Jacob's constant complaining).  As we got our bearings, we checked out some chickens.  There were some gorgeous feather patterns, but this fluffy, fuzzy one cracked me up.

We should have looked for a pumpkin first because there was a line to wait in to get into the store, which is where you paid for pumpkins and bought tickets for the hayride.  But we planned badly and didn't do that, and by the time we were done there was no way we were waiting again to pay for a pumpkin...so Wegmans it is!  Anyway, we got in line to go into the store and once we were in there we scooped up half a dozen donuts, two giant cookies, and a half dozen gluten-free cookies.  We got our hayride tickets, and headed for that line, but on the way (while Craig was dropping off the baked goods at the van), we had this photo op!

I happened to run into a friend of mine here (an old trainer at the gym) and marveled at how giant her kids are now.  Seems like not that long ago we were both pregnant (her son is just a few months older than Jacob and her daughter is a couple years younger).  

It was a lovely evening--warm and pleasant, with lovely golden sun.  Definitely a pretty view with all the pumpkins. 

Craig took some pictures while we were waiting in line for the hayride, and since I rarely make an appearance here, I'm including them here...even if you can see the tired in my eyes.

Yes, Jacob officially looks taller than me here.  He probably had a little boost from his shoes compared to my flip flops, but yeah, it's that close now...

Ready to go...even if everyone's eyes make us look miserable!

The hayride turns into a haunted hayride at night, but the daytime stuff was pretty creepy by itself!  Might be fun with Carter in a couple years, though!  It started off passing by the giant teepees (note the skeleton up top)....

The bats aren't real, but they look real enough!

They had lots of crazy scenes like this...

Creepy tree...notice the face!

They had a rock band that sang the Monster Mash!

The fake fog looked extra creepy with the setting sun...

Skeleton bonfire...

This actually tips as you ride under it!

Another crazy scene...

Near the end was a tunnel that lit up with eyes and some jack o'lantern faces.  Those pics didn't really turn out.  But it was neat!  When we got off the hayride, there were some animals to explore--sheep, goats, alpacas, a miniature horse, and a donkey.  I thought the donkey was a second horse, but then it made a very obvious donkey sound!

Hard to see but they all had pretty funny haircuts!

Our last stop was to see the inside of the teepees.  They were huge and filled with carved pumpkins!

Another chance to see the difference between cameras--above was the phone, and these next three were from my camera.  The phone had a hard time capturing the color in the snake below and the other pumpkins, and I wanted to zoom in on some faces.

They were really cool!  What a fun space!  I just wish the kids weren't being jerks fighting and then getting impatient to leave while we were inside.  Sigh.  This was what you saw when you looked up on the way out in the last teepee...

Before we left, I forced one more photo op...which almost injured Craig and Jacob in the process because Jacob was being stubborn.  Ugh.

So, while it wasn't exactly the dreamy fun second pumpkin patch visit #2, it did have some fun parts and I got a little more fall fun out of my system on what's likely the last nice day of the year.  I guess it's going to be a party of three at these types of things next year.  Or maybe it was just an extra few bad days for Jacob.  He's been extra tweenish this week.  

So, on to another week.  Halloween is coming quickly, but still some deciding to do on how we're going to handle it.  It never ends right now, I guess.

A Fun Fall Adventure

Poor Carter.  This kid just keeps getting dragged on outings with me because Saturday afternoons are prime time to do things, and usually Jacob has basketball.  Craig and I switch off basketball duty, so on my off weekends, I definitely want to get out of the house and do something else.  Fall leaves and good weather only last so long, so this past weekend I was determined to go somewhere fun.  I knew that Letchworth would be jammed, so I had to make a different plan for leaf-peeping.  Lucky for us, we have a local news guy who spends his days driving around and capturing video and photos of awesome things in our area.  He was actually a sports guy for years and Craig knew him well from years in the press box, but a few years back his career took a different route.  I've been following him on Facebook for a while now, and he always has interesting places and stories to share.  He was probably the final nudge that convinced me we had to go to Watkins Glen this year after seeing my parents' pictures years ago, he alerted me to a plane flyover this summer, and he has made me aware of places I never knew existed.  A couple weeks ago, he posted some pictures from Stony Brook State Park, which is about an hour south of Rochester, a bit past Geneseo.  It looked gorgeous!  I had been to Stony Brook once, in college, for my one tent camping experience ever.  It was during senior week before graduation and I only lasted an overnight before hitching a ride back to civilization with someone who was coming back.  It was fine, I guess, but I prefer convenient bathrooms, clean showers, and not smelling like campfire (not that that would bother me now, mind you, since I can't smell--but I do remember a certain gross, filmy feeling anyway).  I think we hiked a little bit on that trip, but the campsites are in a different section of the park so I'm guessing we did different trails then than the main park trails.  So, I decided that would be my target.  I wanted all four of us to go, but when Jacob ended up with a 12pm game and later afternoon training on his schedule, I decided Carter and I were on our own.  

Then, on Saturday morning, that same news guy posted about this veterans' memorial down in Groveland, which was literally right on our route, and I decided that was a must-see as well.  It was going to be a full afternoon!  While Saturday morning was gorgeous, it was starting to get really windy and there were thunderstorms in the forecast for the afternoon.  I was a bit worried that would kibbosh our trip since at the very least falling tree branches would be a concern, but when I looked at the forecast, it appeared the winds were going to be considerably less that far south and the thunderstorms weren't supposed to hit until a couple hours later than at home.  As the winds picked up here (and kicked up my anxiety), I decided that mentally I needed that trip more than ever.  For the record, while we had no damage, the neighbor's canopy was torn to shreds, so I think an afternoon of winds like that might have made me quite crazy.  

Knowing I had to grease the wheels a bit with a less-than-willing participant, Carter and I got Freezes from the gas station when I stopped to fill up, and between those, the sun, and some good tunes, I know I was excited to get started!  The drive down was gorgeous.  The leaves were pretty and any route that leads toward Geneseo usually makes me happy.  Of course, just as we were getting to our first stop, Carter had to pee.  I should have turned toward the gas station down the road first, but figured we'd be quick and could go there before getting back on our route.  Well, turns out Carter was extremely cranky and impatient throughout our first stop, but I tried to make the most of it!

This was a spinning piece of art that was blowing like crazy in the wind.  It features all of the armed forces' shields.

 

This was the initial view as we got out of the car--the armed forces' flags (plus a few others) stood out, and while it's a bit hard to see here, it's a giant flag painted on the ground and dozens of metal poppies on the red stripes.

It was actually pretty breathtaking.  They bobbed and spun in the wind, which made it even cooler.

It was huge, as you can see from this picture with Carter for scale!

Each of the flowers was made at a local BOCES, both by students and by veterans who were assisted by students.  They were all unique and included a tag for the person they were honoring.

Looks like a bike chain

A flower within a flower

A plane!

Dragonfly made with spoons!

It was really a sight to see, and I can only imagine how moving it must be for those with military connections, just because it's so large and immersive and truly beautiful.

Because Carter needed his bathroom break and was quite impatient about it, our stop was probably only about 10 minutes or less.  The gas station down the road was a lifesaver, especially out in the middle of nowhere, and then it was on to our main destination--Stony Brook State Park!  I didn't know this until that night, but the park hit capacity about a half hour after we got there.  Letchworth hit around noon, so we definitely got lucky!

Upon arrival, Carter started running right away--because that is what he does--but in the process he found this beautiful leaf!

He proceeded to collect a rock and a bunch of other fun leaves along the way, too.  The first path to get closer to the trails was through this wooded picnic area.  Carter took off running despite numerous hazards and obstacles on the path--lots of pine needles, sticks, and pinecones!

At the end of that path was a playground, and a fun one at that!  Carter loved it!

Doing this on bars and flipping over completely is his favorite thing!

These were a bit wiggly and wobbly, but he went from end to end!

This tree was so gorgeous, and the handsome guy in the front isn't too bad either!

This spun around and around!

I wasn't a great counterbalance for these sorts of things (same for the one two pictures up) but we made the best of it!

He was just climbing hand over hand...such a little monkey!

After the playground stop, we visited the bathroom before embarking on our hike.  Carter tripped on a rock on the way in, and we had to do a little cleanup and repair before heading back out.  Thankfully mama had band-aids!  Back outside, we had to do a little exploring pre-trail because I knew the gorge trail was one way due to COVID limitations, but I wasn't sure which trail started where.  We walked into this gorgeous looking spot to check things out.  Turns out this was the end of the Gorge Trail, so we came through here again later, but it was pretty enough to see twice!

These walls were interesting and made me wonder if there was a bridge there at one point.  Where it would have gone, I have no idea, but what a pretty spot!

We decided to do the West Rim Trail to head out, mostly since it was shorter.  I was intrigued by this crazy steep ascent, but it turned out to be positively exhausting!  So many stairs!

Even worse, the stairs were a bit odd and uneven.  It was like a concrete edge to the step that was supposed to have earth behind it to build the back half of the step, but in many areas the dirt had washed out between, so there were half steps with hollows beyond them.  It was hard even for me to navigate at times.  Then the stairs disappeared completely, and the trail continued to be steep and full of roots!

 
It was warm, and we were definitely huffing and puffing by the time we got to the top.  It was a solid 7-10 minute ascent.  On the bright side, when we got to the top, this is the view that was waiting for us!

 
The path plateaued a bit from there, and every few minutes you could hear waterfalls down below.  I was able to catch this one through the trees.

 
Most of the rim trail looked like this on the non-gorge side.  It was really pretty and peaceful.  I'm not sure if the wind (which was considerably less here as it was) ended by this point, but it was quiet and calm in here!

 
This view out over the gorge was amazing.  If you look closely, there is gorgeous reddish-orange color way out in the distance.

After a lot of walking across the top of the gorge, the trail started going down.  This was as treacherous as going up because the stairs had similar issues, plus there were leaves and some spots were damp.  I was so nervous about Carter going down them, or one of us dragging or knocking the other down if we held hands!  As we got to the end of the trail and started on the Gorge Trail, we started to see all of these concrete supports.  They were part of a railroad bridge that spanned the gorge from the later 1800s to the mid-1900s.

The Gorge Trail was right next to the water, with little to no handrail protection in most areas.  It was a bit damp down there so you definitely needed to watch your step.  There were lots of little waterfalls throughout the stream, much like Watkins Glen but a bit less flashy.

There were a couple stunning views from above the bigger waterfalls.  The foliage was so pretty!

Right as we were hitting the end of the Rim Trail, I noticed my phone was dying.  I just recently switched to Craig's old iPhone, and I'm not used to the slightly shorter battery life compared to my Android.  I had already used it that day for pictures and music in the car, and I didn't want to get caught in the boonies without a phone, particularly because I needed it to order dinner on the way home!  I panicked a bit and started to use my real camera for most areas except the most stunning views, and I must say, the color quality on fall foliage photos is superior on the iPhone because it fixes the exposure on bright sky vs. the colors.  It's pretty amazing, actually.  I still need my old camera for zoom views, but I was shocked at the difference!

Anyway, the waterfalls that we'd heard from up above were so pretty!

Had to catch a shot with my favorite little buddy at this one!

At the top of another one here...note the edge of the waterfall in the lower right.

The front view was stunning.  I have this as my phone lock wallpaper currently and can't stop looking at it!

You can see Carter's leaf collection in his hands here.

There were a couple cute bridges in the park, too.  This was one of them. 

Looking back at some of the stream and foliage.  Notice the not-blue sky here...this was clearly a camera photo.  But the sun peeking through the trees was sort of cool.

Another camera photo because I needed to zoom in to capture this part of a waterfall that Carter and I agreed this looked like a big loaf of bread.

Another bridge.  So peaceful and pretty.  This one definitely reminded me of Watkins Glen.

I took this picture (with my actual camera) because I was in love with the colors on these leaves!

This one was near the end of the trail and I loved how all the leaves had settled along the walls.

At the end of the trail, we ventured over to the entrance of the East Rim Trail, which I'd someday like to go back and hike.  This pretty bridge was at the start.  

The view from it was equally lovely.

We stopped back at the playground for one more round, and I had to use my camera to zoom in on the leaves in the gorgeous orange tree in the picture above with Carter. 

The clouds were starting to roll in as we got in the car.  My plan was to head back toward Geneseo and stop at Walmart to get an extra charging cord (which I needed anyway), just to make sure my phone didn't die early.  I took the opportunity to load up on gluten-free stuff for Jacob, too.  We called in our dinner order from the parking lot, and took the long way through Geneseo to get to Avon for our goodies.  More gorgeous views and foliage, plus we passed by a front yard, outdoor COVID wedding out in the country!  We grabbed dinner, donuts, and cookies at Livingston County Pizza, and finally headed home, super starving and tired but happy.  It was nice to reunite with the big boys and have our dinner together.  What a day it had been!

I have to share that Carter and I ended up at another playground the next day as part of a school assignment about our community, and I captured an awesome video of Carter on the monkey bars.  He is the master!  He did them about a dozen times!  I was a monkey bar fan as a kid, although I did tell him my story about falling (first grade, maybe?) and getting the wind knocked out of me, which was one of the scariest moments of my life because I couldn't catch my breath for a bit and I'd never had that feeling before.  I watched him with a little fear since his classmate broke his wrist on the monkey bars at school that week--the same playground equipment that served up broken bones to two or three of Jacob's 2nd grade classmates!  Yeah, they probably need to look at that!

The picture we took for his project

Overall, it was a really outstanding weekend.  Also, I'm not sure if it's because I finally downloaded Roblox for him, or if all that time together doing fun stuff actually made an impact, but Carter has been super huggy and affectionate since.  I'd like to think he remembered how much fun we can have together, but who knows?  After all that fun, he's had a bit of a cold this week, to the point we were worried we might have to get him tested for COVID because he sneezed and sniffled so much on Tuesday night and all day yesterday.  He never had a fever and his energy level was fine, so we weren't too worried because it seemed like ae typical cold, but with a family party this weekend, it definitely gave us pause.  But miraculously (and maybe not coincidentally) when I got home from bible study last night after we prayed for him there, he was so much better!  I was sure he'd have to learn from home tomorrow, and even now I'm still debating whether he should go, but he's barely sneezing or sniffling at all!  Even still, illness just takes on a whole new meaning these days.  

Hopefully the rest of us avoid it, because Binkley Oktoberfest weekend is upon us, and Craig has been planning his participation for weeks!