I love the fall colors! I have fall colors and leaves in one of my bathrooms right now. As I thought about this question, I thought about when John and I were dating and after we were married, living in Logan. We frequently went for a drive up Logan canyon. He would look for wildlife, and challenge me to find a deer, elk, moose, or other wildlife before he did. Since he's been spotting animals in the mountains almost religiously since he was little and I've only casually looked my whole life, this is sometimes a challenge for me, and I have to take it seriously. I get quite excited when I see something first, and he even has the handicap of driving, too. He often pulls to the side of the road when there's a car behind us and they don't seem to be as into the sight seeing.
One of my perfect autumn days, in early November 1999, started with a drive to see the elk at Hardware Ranch. After watching the animals for a while, John started driving again. I frequently get drowzy in the car after a while, and I was starting to doze off. When we stopped, I started to wake up. It was then that John pulled out a ring and proposed to me. I was quite surprised. Not because of him proposing - we had basically been planning to get married for a few months. He had told me he was going to look at rings in the next couple of weeks, and I had no idea he already had a ring. Of course, I said yes. We then went to dinner at Kate's Kitchen, then went to his apartment and watched a movie. We didn't tell anyone until the next day, when I called my mom and told my roommates.
After that, our drives up the canyon got even more frequent because we needed to have something to do all the time to keep from getting into trouble! Gotta love hormones!
The first activity that came to mind was witches brew. My sisters and I would get all kinds of great ingredients from the yard to mix up in our witches brew. Sometimes, our cauldron was a hole in the ground by the swingset, sometimes it was in a big black barrel, and sometimes it was in the wheelbarrow. We used sticks, rocks, leaves, twigs, apricot pits, dirt, and anything hanging out in the gutter. We mixed and stirred for hours on end. I'm amazed at how often we were entertained by such simple things. And to think of all the toys I've bought for my kids! All you really need is a little dirt, sticks, and imagination!
