Pumpkins 🎃:
This week my wife and I took our two daughters to a local pumpkin patch/fall festival. This time of year has always been a favorite for my wife so we try to visit the pumpkin patch at least twice per year.
One of the main reasons we have enjoyed going the pas two years is that our oldest daughter absolutely ADORES pumpkins. We will be walking around doing a regular shopping trip when all the the sudden she starts clamoring “pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin!” We look around and what do we see every time? Some sort of pumpkin. Whether the pumpkin is on clothes, decorations or simply an actual pumpkin, she knows. It made for a wonderful family trip to the pumpkin patch surrounded by one of her favorite things.
Playoffs ⚾️:
Ask anyone that I know and they will tell you one of my most favorite things to do is watch baseball. That makes the fall one of the best times of the year as playoff baseball hits the calendar. While this year isn’t as enjoyable since my favorite team (The Washington Nationals) wasn’t in the playoffs this year (Or any year since 2019…), it is still exciting to feel the playoff baseball atmosphere come around. I have spent lots of time watching the playoffs this year as our semi-local team (Seattle Mariners) are having their first real playoff run in 24 years. There is lots of excitement and nothing more exciting than last weeks 15 inning win that propelled the Mariners into the ALCS.
Pigskins 🏈:
The other main sport that rolls around in the fall for me is Football. Sundays in my house are spent going to church and watching football. Something about turning on NFL Redzone and sitting on the couch watching hours and hours of commercial free football just makes the weekend so much more relaxing. This weekend was an exiting one for my favorite football teams. It started on Saturday with a college football game. Admittedly I do not watch a lot of college football as there are so many teams and so many games that I feel it is impossible to follow along throughout the whole NCAA season. However, I will always keep track of how the BYU games are going. I did not personally attend BYU myself but both of my parents did and have ingrained a deep sense of fandom to the BYU football team. They did not disappoint this weekend and won their game in 2OT. It was a stressful game but a win is a win.
The stress level didn’t go down as the Carolina Panthers game came on Sunday morning. This game was one for the best Panthers games in years and ended with a dramatic last second field goal bringing the panthers to a 3-3 record for the first time in what feels like an eternity.
As evident by my favorite sports teams I am not accustomed to winning much in the past 5 years but I will always enjoy watching them play. Winning just makes it that much better.
Pictures 📸:
This week we got to take some family photos as well. My wife’s goal is to make sure that we take photos every fall between the middle of September and the middle of October because she really enjoys the fact that our kids are the same age during that time. Our younger daughter turned one in the middle of September and our older daughter won’t turn two until the end of October so for the time being they are both one year old. It makes for funny interactions when people ask how old our kids are because we just say 1.
Rose, Thorn, Bud
When I was growing up my mom always made us share a rose, thorn and bud while we sat around to eat dinner as a family. As a teenager this seemed beyond extra but now as an adult I think it is valuable to reflect on the week and what is coming next. For this your rose is the best part of your week, the thorn is worst part of the week and the bud is the thing you are most looking forward to for the next week.
Rose: My favorite part of this week was walking through the pumpkin patch with my daughter and watching her face light up being able to see and touch so many pumpkins. On top of that it is incredible to watch my wife’s face light up at seeing how happy her girl is.
Thorn: Sunday morning we woke up to a frightening smell coming from our younger daughters room. Turns out her stomach does not settle well with milk and it resulted in a long a quite stinky clean up. We are trying some other milk alternatives for now and will see if one of those options settles a little better in her tummy.
Bud: This weekend we get to have a birthday party for our older daughter. It is themed after her most favorite movie, Frozen. We are having her cousins and friends come play with us at the park. There will be cookies, presents and lots of fun to be had.
If you want to share your own rose, thorn and bud feel free to comment it below, this is something that I will be regularly including with my posts and I would love to see what everyone who is reading is up to as well,
Thank you for coming along with my journey and I hope that you have an amazing week!
Ethan
Young, Tired & Trying 
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