Finally Fall

 On October 19th, we went to Apple Annie's to pick our pumpkins.  

On October 22nd, I returned to Apple Annie's to photograph their sunflowers.

On October 24th, I went up to Mount Lemmon to check out the Fall colors.

On October 26, we all went up to Mount Lemmon to see the Fall colors.  We ate at the Iron Door for lunch.  

On October 29th, My First Light had 2 blooms and my June Noon had 2 blooms.  While I was photographing them, a Costa's hummingbird came up behind me and checked out my flowers, too.  I got one decent picture of the hummingbird with my First Light cactus.  

On October 30th, I went to Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens, Green Things Nursery and Tucson Botanical Gardens.  

On October 31st, we decided not to participate in Halloween this year.  Nathan was going to dress as the mafia for Halloween, but we talked him out of that.  We decided not to trick or treat or to hand out candy this year (after I bought a bunch of candy!).  We decided that Christians really shouldn't partake in a holiday dedicated to Satan.  I felt this way for years ever since Pastor Joiner gave a convincing sermon.  Paul was never really on board and we didn't want Nathan to miss out on trick or treating.  Now that he is in high school, Paul made the decision (after listening to a sermon at his church) that we should not participate in Halloween anymore.

On November 5th, I went back up to Mount Lemmon.  Mount Lemmon had a recent snow so I thought that it would be a good photo opportunity to experience the last as Fall and Winter at the same time on the mountain.  I was right.  It was beautiful.  

On November 6th,. I went to Reid Park Zoo and the Reid Park Rose Garden.  The rose garden was looking pretty good.  They have been revamping it since the Covid pandemic.  It looks like they have about a 1/4 more to go.  There were some new varieties and I was surprised at how good it was looking.  There was a gentleman working there that day who was very friendly, too.  

October 11th was the end of Q1 for Nathan.  On Friday, November 8th, he brought home a Principal's Honor Roll certificate and it shows that his GPA is 3.42.  He had a D in Pre-AP English, but all of his other grades were As and Bs and I think his honors, pre-AP and AP classes are weighted differently.  I am still waiting to hear back from the school how they calculate the GPAs.  I also sent the principal an email over a week ago about his English grade.  I told her that he has always been an honor roll student and has always had As and Bs in English as well as tested above average in English on the state tests.  I said something doesn't seem right that he got a D the first quarter.  Some other students are having the same issue in that class.  They are getting a bad grade and they don't know why.

On November 9th, we drove up to Phoenix.  I went to the Wildlife World Zoo and the boys went to Sealife Aquarium and Rainforest Cafe.  I got to see the sloth in action.  They fed it while I was there and it very active before it settled down for a nap right in front of me by the glass.  I also got to watch the octopus move all around its tank.  I had trouble getting decent pictures of it because the lighting was very dark and there was a lot of glare.  I stood there for a long time mesmerized by this octopus that seemed to be putting on a show just for me.  The boys liked the Sealife aquarium.  Nathan got to see a pufferfish.  They said they were done in about a half hour because it was small, but that for the price it was worth it.