Here's some colourful photos of a trip Emma and I made down to Bowness park some weeks ago. It's a really beautiful place in the fall, and quiet too. We made a few trips down there when the weather was still on the warmer side, but we only remembered the camera once. Our original plan was to rent a canoe or a paddle boat, but the rental place was closed every time we went, so we'll have to do it next year for sure.
We brought some bread crumbs to feed the ducks and geese, which was a lot of fun, and it was only when our supply had run out that we noticed the huge sign that read "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE". Oops. Well at least we weren't trying to catch them like this other lady was. We fed them again another time with Lucy and Max, and no one got arrested, so maybe it's not such a big deal.
It's funny to watch as both the kids and the birds start to get braver and braver, and they start to get closer and closer to each other. There comes a point when you have to break it up though, before your daughter is crying face down in the dirt with a goose on her back biting at her hair. We unfortunately didn't recognize that point until it was too late. You'd be surprised what a goose can do when it gets all fired up. You'd also be surprised how far you can throw one that's attacking your daughter when you grab it by the neck and spin it over your head a couple of times. I'm kidding of course, no one got attacked and no goose was thrown, but I'm sure there is potential for such a thing to happen, and that's probably the reason for the sign. If it did happen though, I'm pretty sure Emma could send a goose to the hurt locker if she had to. I've taught her that much at least.
We always make time to play at one or more of the playgrounds when we're there, and then we head down to the rivers edge to skip rocks and sink enemy tree branches that are floating by. It's great fun and it makes me wish we could build a house down there and enjoy it every day, and by "build a house" I mean "live in a van". 
Emma loves playing in the leaves and collecting the especially nice looking ones to give to those she loves. We've built up quite the collection that is currently on display on the floor of our car in front of her seat. The wind's taken most of the ones around here away, but for a while there, she was in leaf heaven.
She and I stopped to play at a park on our way to pick up Auntie Sam from work one time, and we found a huge pile of leaves that someone had swept together. It was a gold mine! After I checked it for hobos, I spent the better part of an hour tossing her into it and watching her run from a quarter mile away to jump onto it. When she got tired of running and jumping, she sat in the leaves and had me grab as big an armful as I could of them, and throw it in the air high above her so they would all fall down around her. I love to see her smile and hear her laugh, but I knew I would be an old man before she got tired of that game, so after a couple dozen tosses, we decided to get home before supper was colder than we were.
Autumn is just about done I'd wager, but Emma is just as excited for winter to come as she was for fall, so that we can get out in the yard and make some more snow sculptures. I'm excited for that too, but I don't feel like I've even had closure on summer yet.
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