IT

it's the combination of orange and green.  it's cool crisp air.  it's the turning of leaves. 
it's spiced apple cider.  it's cloudless skies. 
it's pumpkins.  it's jack o'lanterns and it's spiders.
it's webs.  it's candy.  it's costumes.  it's trick-or-treaters.
it's time for a sweater.
it's fall.

fall is the season when families gather and pile into their mini-vans dressed in their pumpkiny orange attire and head to the local farms and pumpkin patches to climb on hay bales, run through corn mazes, pet baby goats, ride on hay rides, drink apple cider, eat kettle corn, pick out pumpkins, snap lots of pictures, and hold hands happily smiling together.

will and i have always loved fall.  it's always been our favorite season.  we love the cool air, the changing leaves, the colorful pumpkins, the tastes of nutmeg and cinnamon, and of course a trip to the pumpkin patch.  we've been married for 11 years and just about every year since we've been married we've headed to a pumpkin patch at some point in the month of october.  for years we went together and rode hay rides, worked our way through corn mazes and hay bales, and picked out our pumpkins while watching 99% of the other farm goers experiencing the day through their children's eyes.

this fall is big for us.  it's the first time we packed up our car with our son and headed to the pumpkin patch.  the air was cool and crisp and the sky was cloudless.  we knew it would be an amazing day, just like we'd always expected.  we made our way to the farm we've been going to since we moved to nc and will and i were both giddy just knowing what was about to take place.  see, for some people it's rocking their baby in a rocking chair in their nursery, celebrating their first Christmas, or sharing their first birthday together - but for us it was taking our son to the pumpkin patch.  IT is that magical moment when the stars align and you feel like this is something you've waited an entire lifetime for.  this was IT.  this was THAT moment.

we got to the farm and were directed to park at the very end of the mile long parking lot.  we loaded up our stroller with the camera and diaper bag and strolled our way to the gates.  we waited in a line of at least 50 families waiting their turn to get their arm bands and head into the land of pumpkin fun.  kids were talking about duck races, bouncy castles, and funnel cakes, but we had one thing on our minds.  we made our way through the gate, parked our stroller, and boarded the hayride.  this was IT.  we were almost there.  dax loved the hay ride.  he loved hearing the tractor fire up and watching the farmer drive us to the field of pumpkins.  after a lap around the farm we'd made our way to the epicenter.  we disembarked the hay ride and found ourselves a nice plot of land with 100 or so pumpkins around our family.  we'd arrived.  we were finally in the pumpkin patch with our son.  i laid on the ground and took tons of pictures of dax with pumpkins, with grass, with barns, with the sky, with daddy, (and daddy took some of daxy with mommy) - and i turned to will and said - this is even better than i thought IT would be - and IT was.

we spent the rest of the day with dax having his first swing on a swing set, his first train ride, his first stroll around the patch, and picking out his first pumpkin (he loves the pumpkins with the stem).  over and over we just kept saying how perfect this day was.  after all these years, its so hard to believe it's finally fall and IT finally happened.