the most beautiful of fall days

On one of the most beautiful fall days of my life, I had two dates invite me to the park for a Sesame Street picnic (thanks be to GG for those too-cute bags). We had business take us to the east side in the form of Christmas shopping, and after that was done we decided to stay awhile and see what life was like on the other side of the park: and so we did, and it was great. To tell you the truth though, on a day boasting weather as charming as this day presented, we were going to have a ball regardless of what we did. It was really, truly a magnificent fall day. Coming from me, that means something!

We ended up at a playground on E 67th with this killer granite slide. I've been wanting to take the boys there for a while now, and you know, since we were in the neighborhood. The slide is 45 feet long, and T soon knew all the tricks of how to whish down that baby in lightning speed.

Speaking of lightning, Talmage told me this morning that he was going to name his first kid Lightning McQueen Wigginton. I asked him how many kids he was going to have and he said, "I don't really know yet. I'll have to talk to my wife and figure that out." While you're at it T, how 'bout asking her what she thinks about your name choices! I did tell him that Heavenly Father should be apart of the decision-making process as well and he answered, so knowingly, "Yes, I know. Heavenly Father is going to tell us when it's time to have a baby." Wise kid, that T.

And about Everett, you will see no pictures of him going down the slide because he didn't. Except for one time where I took him down on my lap. When we got to the bottom he said, "Dank you fo dat beautiful wide. Now I don't want to do it again." He was mostly happy just sitting on a nearby park bench eating an apple and enjoying the craziness that is Talmage Scott on a 45 foot slide.

I feel like with most activities with children, it's fun until it's not. And that window is just so very, very small. One second everyone's having a blast and the next it is extremely apparent that a nap is needed...NOW!!! And thus it was with our park day, and so we left. But oh, the walk home. I just can't imagine that a more beautiful walk home exists.

We walked under one tree and I heard T gasp, "Mom! Look up!" and this canopy of flaming red leaves covered our view of the crystal blue sky. It was magnificent.

And then we looked to our left:

Ahhh... It was just one of those days, you know. Those grateful beyond words kind. Because wow, we're blessed.