Anyway, the way we know it is really fall is the activities that currently fill our weekends.
1) Freshman Follies. For fellow ACUers out there, you KNOW it's fall when it's time to watch Follies! I really found that I'm officially old this year. I didn't know ANY of the music the freshman were dancing to. And I truly found myself saying "Well, that's not how we used to do it!" But, of course, Cailee's REALLY was the best act, and my girls thought it was athe most amazing show they've ever seen. They're still quoting it, actually. :) Here they are with their cool college aunt...
And, of course, the traditional sister picture. :)
2) Dallas Cowboys! Mark decided on a whim to take the girls to their first Cowboys game ever. We have lived a stone's throw from Texas Stadium for five years, and he decided it was time for the girls to finally see the action from inside, instead of just the lovely traffic from outside. :)So, they scalped tickets, bought tshirts, and pigged out on junk for a whole safternoon. I have been trying to download the pics that Kendyll took on her camera because they are AWESOME and hilarious. But, I can't get it to work. So, you'll just have to see the "before" picture in our garage.
The girls were GIDDY with excitement and stayed for the entire game. Now they're much more interested in the Cowboys games on tv, and Kendyll even drew a picture of TO and Romo during church last week. Oops. :)3) The Texas State Fair!!
Yes, one of our favorites of fall-time. And, this year we got to introduce the Hawaii family to the big state fair. :) Grandma, Pops, Jodi, Brad, and Chris were all apart of the fun this year, and the girls had so much fun with their cousins to play with! (I love this picture of the three of them...)
The favorite was once again the Little Hands on the Farm, where they planted seeds, milked cows, drove tractors, and shopped for food. :)...
And, we also enjoyed seeing the great work of Uncle Chris on his big King Tut museum opening.
(By the way, you ALL need to go see the Tut exhibit at the DMA...Chris was in charge of the marketing and has done an EXCELLENT job.) Here is some of the cool King Tut touches at the fair...
Pops and Grandma with all the grandkids on the gigantic Tut statue.
Uncle Chris and all his nieces and nephews. :)
They had a sandcastle carving of Egyptian scenes, as well as a King Tut scene out of butter! It was VERY cool!
Other highlights included the dog show (look at these looks of amazement!)
And, of course, visiting the animals and feeding them. It was Abby Kate's first time, and she was so shocked at this little goat! Her little jaw dropped and she stayed that way the whole time.
Look at her open mouth, as the goat ate her whole cup full of food.
I love this face too as she looks into her empty cup!
We also visited the circus, and Sophie, Kendyll, and Carlie all got to be in the show.
However, it was too long for Sophie to wait for her part, and Kendyll started to feel very silly up there, so they both bailed and left Carlie alone. I was completely shocked that Carlie still did it! Here she is in her big debut as a circus ballerina!
Next, we visited some of the indoor buildings with all the cheesy booths set up. I had just finished making fun of all the homemade crafts you can buy, along with every gadget known to man. Let me just say I ended up leaving with FOUR stovetop grills, and three bendy hair dilly-whoppers. I am GETTING OLD!
Here is the demo man giving Kendyll an awesome ballet bun with such ease. I was totally suckered into it. Look at my excited face! I mean, could I be any dorkier?!
(And, yes, I bought three...because you never know when you need a bendy bunmaker dilly-whopper. :)
And, here are just some cute pictures from the day too. 
It was a fun (but hot!) day, with lots of food and dirty, nasty,tired kids by the end of the day. Just what the fair is supposed to be!4) Halloween/Fall Stuff. The last thing that means fall around here is the opening of the fall bins to decorate. The girls get more and more excited about this with each passing year, so this was another fun one. We had the house decorated in record time with two big helpers. Their favorite part was unloading two little boxes of Halloween trinkets from Grandad and Grankay from last year. Next, was their Halloween pajamas that you would have thought they had missed every night for a year. :) And, the next perk was their box of fall/pumpkin/Halloween books. I know this is an aerial shot, but I was too lazy to go downstairs. This is right after they put on their new/old pj's and started reading their books. Too cute!
Happy Fall, everyone!
And, then the cousin lovin' continued with Caleb! First, Abby Kate just wanted him to take his paci. I mean, from her perspective, as a paci addict, why in the world--if you had it THAT close, would you not want it in your mouth?!
After our hugging sessions, it was time for the famous Gammy freezer invasion. Push Pops for all! (except Caleb, who was sleeping through it, I think.) This was Avery's first Push Pop experience...and after the first couple of shivers, and checking it out a while, she was sold.
Funny, I never got one picture of any other adults! But, I guess they didn't squeeze each other's faces or drool Push Pop down their naked chest. So, what's fun about their picture?!
Okay! I'm almost caught up!! :)
