(Say that three times fast!)

 

So, my mom loves to take photos. We’ve had a lot of big life events as a family over the last two years with both my sister and I getting married, and my brother graduating college and moving to the east coast. Read: a lot of picture opportunities. And I have to admit, we give my mom a little bit of a hard time about the photo-taking. Hopefully she knows it’s meant to be good-natured, but there are definitely times her lens is met with resistance and a little bit of ribbing. (Ahem, a lot of times.)

But turns out, I totally get it now. Sorry Mom! I’ll take as many photos as you want from here on out, no complaints — promise!

As the rapidly decreasing storage on my iPhone indicates, I cannot take enough photos to commemorate both the big things and the little things with Hudson. Scrolling through all of the pictures from the last two months makes me incredibly happy and a little nostalgic too — how has he grown so much in just two months?

So the minute the leaves started to turn, you better believe I was finding some opportunities for cute fall photos, come hell or high water.

And what better opportunity to make my dreams come true than a visit to the farm with my sister and her husband Elvis? They live about 90 minutes outside of the city, and last year took me to visit a local farm. I loved it and couldn’t wait to go back this year with Jason and Hudson in tow.

Ali and Elvis are easily are two of my favorite people on this earth and (sob) our days of living within driving or train distance are numbered. They’re escaping Chicago’s winter for sunny Scottsdale come spring, and I am both in denial and hyper-aware of the fact that my sister is moving across the country. I’m going to miss her so much but am sure we’ll keep up our daily, constant texting. And hey, I have to admit that a beautiful house in the desert with a pool sounds like a pretty great trip come January/February.

But in the meantime, I would like to see as much of them as I can, and sorry guys — that means the camera’s coming out too.

As is apparent from these photos, Hudson is not exactly the smiling bundle of joy that I pictured and is instead an adorable, sleeping lump in his little bear suit. Which is actually perfect, because that’s how the day really went. The kid loves car rides — it’s basically a baby tranquilizer and we couldn’t wake him to save our lives. So we carried our snoozing little dude all around the farm with me happily snapping away.

It was everything my little fall-loving heart dreamed of: my family, a gigantic pumpkin patch, a barn full of animals to pet, and real, live turkeys. (Never mind that they’ll be dinner in t-minus 40 days or so.) Fun fact: turkeys’ heads are blue. Like, sky blue. Did everyone know this except me? Fascinating and horrifying.

The bag of mini pumpkins that my sister and Elvis sent us home with are now scattered around our little city condo for some fall flair, and I’ll always have these photos to remember a fun fall day with my little family. Thanks for indulging me on all fronts, guys. I love you!