Fall Fun!

Fall is always a fun time of year...

The weather cools to a pleasant sweater-wearing temp.,

The colorful leaves are a feast for the eyes,

And the best holidays of the year are near!

The boys have had their Halloween costumes picked out for a few weeks now;

They can't wait to go back to East Idaho for Thanksgiving;

And they ESPECIALLY can't wait for Christmas!!

In the meantime, though, we've been busily enjoying the autumn season...

A lovely afternoon nature walk...

 

 

Our souvenirs that are now our autumn decorations...

~

Trever's 2nd Pinewood Derby...

He was awarded The Sportiest Car award!

~

And Harvest Day at the Boise WaterShed Center...

So, TJ's niece, Kaity and her husband Bill and daughter Halle came to visit us last weekend. So I looked online for fun events in the Boise area to do while they were here, and I came across an announcement for the "Boise WaterShed Harvest Day: music, hayrides, food, arts & crafts, photo booth, and Zoo Boise animals!" Well, I didn't know what the Boise WaterShed was, but it sounded really fun--and it was free!

So we all drove out there...to find that it was indoors..and the first thing we saw were not fluffy petting zoo animals, but scale-y reptiles! Yikes!

The boys loved it, though, so we looked at reptiles for a while, then wandered around the rest of the building to find a few little preschool-ish craft tables...some little old men playing banjos...no sign of a photo booth...the only food was popcorn you could glue onto a piece of colored paper...and still wondering what kind of Harvest Day this qualified as...we over-heard an announcement for the day's last hayride. Well, maybe that would be more festive, we thought...so we walked outside to find a pile of hard hats....strange, we thought, but everyone else was putting them on...

 So, we followed the crowd, climbing aboard a big utility truck with a row of straw bales down the center...(TJ's niece was still kindly smiling, but probably wondering what kind of lame harvest day we'd brought them to...)

And then, it got worse!

Some lady started "guiding" the hayride "tour??!!"

About 5 minutes into the tour, the lady was reciting with us the "Four P's"...poop, pee, puke, and (toilet) paper...that we should only ever flush...and I finally realized where we were...THE SEWER TREATMENT PLANT!!!!! Oh My Gosh!! Ahahahahaha!!!! I couldn't say anything to poor Bill and Kaity to explain that I didn't know we'd be going THERE, because the tour guide lady was yapping away and they were sitting too far from me, so I sat there, laughing at myself for being so naïve and hoping Bill and Kaity wouldn't hate me for this! Hahaha...

This was not at all the scenic hayride I had envisioned...

nor was any part of the event anywhere close to the festive harvest day I had anticipated.

But it was actually a very informative and quite fascinating little tour.

We learned about the entire process of sewer water being treated!

And the weather was beautiful, so that helped us deal with the poopy scent in the air...hahaha. 

That round building in the background is what they call "The Big Ball of Farts!"

It's full of the gas fumes collected from the treatment process...gross...so we figured the hard hats were needed in case of a gas explosion?? Ew. haha...Anyway, we all came away well informed on the entire sewer treatment process...hahaha....and all felt a little more eco-conscious afterwards, too.

~

After that, Kaity suggested a much better place to visit:

Chuck E. Cheese's!! 

That was a lot more fun!

~

But that wasn't the end...

We also went to The Boise Aquarium! 

(I just love those big puppy dog eyes!) 

Trever is petting a sting ray in this photo... 

They got to pet some small sharks, too.

I just looked.  =)

That was a live iguana on top of the boat! 

The Aquarium was also Kaity's idea.

We all agreed that Kaity had much better ideas than me...haha... 

It was a really fun weekend, bringing out the kid in all of us!

~

I teased Kaity later on that we just wanted to make sure they knew "The Four P's" before they used our toilets...hahaha...we got a good laugh out of the whole sewer treatment mishap...and TJ and I thought seriously about taking all of our house guest to the Boise WaterShed...just to make sure they don't flush anything that would disrupt the eco-system...hahaha....I'm kidding.

At least, we made another fun (and funny) memory!