How to Pack an Autumn Day Full of Fun

Cross country season has been a big part of our autumn. The JD series wrapped up last weekend with the BC Championships in Abbotsford. 

An early start in the morning (have I mentioned Finny's obsessive-compulsive and slightly bossy time management in the mornings?). She got us up and going well ahead of schedule. 

One of the very best parts of Finny's running club is the good friends she's made. 

Delia, Sophie, Finny and Jessica

Focused on the start line:

Finny got an eighth place finish in a very competitive field. She was really happy with how she did and very proud of her fifth place overall finish (in her age group) for the entire series. 

As a strange side note about our experience in Abbotsford...the race took place under a massive set of electrical towers. Whenever I touched the girls, a strong current of electricity passed between us. Sometimes it was painful. Sometimes it was ticklish. It was ALWAYS strange. I happened to be the most electrically conductive. Weird.

Note to self: don't ever buy a house under power lines.

Since we were out in Abbotsford, we decided to join the Warringtons for a trip to the pumpkin patch.

Unlike most of the pumpkin patches closer to Vancouver, this one was free to enter and very affordable  for pumpkins and other items.

They even had a goat on a platform...

Finny set out to get the BIGGEST pumpkin available in the whole field. She did some comparative shopping. She gathered all the biggest ones she could find and then measured them.

Molly was on the hunt for perfection. Her system involved less heavy lifting...

I shot a few pictures of Finny doing her best to lift a giant pumpkin:

Molly and Lucie made this crazy guy:

My sweet little pumpkins:

Since Lukey had to stay in town for his soccer game and a birthday party, the girls picked a smaller and less perfect pumpkin for him.

One of the cool things this place offered was a place to wash your pumpkins. They were straight out of the field, so they were muddy. What a great idea. Instead of cramming mucky pumpkins into our car, ours were squeaky clean.

They also had a really cute wall the kids could stand in front of to see how tall they are...with the year on it and everything.

Molly is exactly five feet!

And Finny is 4'9".

We even managed a group shot before we headed to the Spaghetti Factory for an early dinner.

Once we got home, I was tuckered out...BUT, then I realized the Parade of Lost Souls was on and we picked up Lukey and headed over to Commercial to check it out.

Lukey found it a bit scary. There were TONS of people and a lot of costumes and noise. He finally relaxed and enjoyed it, though.

And Molly fell in love with this garbage monster:

I don't think we could have packed a single shred more into our day. It was autumn perfection.