I love love love fall in Missouri.  We haven’t even hit our peak colors yet and I am entranced!!  The kids, they like to rake up leaves and jump in them.  Unfortunately south west Missouri is all about the hills and that means that on a farmstead any piece of flat land is turned into pasture land.  Which is sorely needed if you plan to keep any animals because feed can get pricey, I tell you.  And the inverse is true that any piece of hilly land is left with trees.  It makes for beautiful property and many park like settings that entice you to just come out an have a picnic today, please, but is not so convenient for jumping in leaves. 

We did have to limit the children in the area they were allowed to jump less they go rolling down the hills and run into a cow steer or a chicken or maybe even into the road.  We don’t get a lot of traffic here but we probably get enough that a leaf covered child might be confused for a pile of brush (I almost said tumbleweed and forgot what state I am in) and may be squashed flat in the road not unlike many of the opossums we have recently discovered on our drives into town. (And no, I don’t think they were just playing dead.)

So the kids staked out this one little maple tree that must have been planted in this place because of it’s strange location and diminutive stature and proceeded to rake and rake and rake.  They finally gathered just enough leaves to cover their ankles jump in and frolic about.  They played in those leaves for probably a solid hour even though it took two people with rakes raking after each jump just to build that pile up large enough that they didn’t break their necks to break their fall.  It may be because we are new here and really this is our first year with fall leaves (there are no big trees in new subdivisions) that the joy of raking and piling and jumping is still fresh.  We will see what happens next year.

I stayed out for quite sometimes snapping pictures along the way as the kids bounded about with their "Hey Mom, watch." and their "Mom!  Take a picture!"  It was breezy but not really cold enough for a heavy jacket even though some kids are still enjoying the novelty of wearing one.  They quickly shed their coats after I went on about my business and then it was just me and Jodi walking (I was walking, she was riding) and soaking up the beautiful weather, both of us still a bit too bundled for the day.  Maybe it is fun to revel in the autumn coolness after all.

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