Soaking up Fall

We both love fall, and I think we were both a little worried that we wouldn't get to enjoy it to the fullest this year. This past week, with no sign of Baby Nieman's imminent arrival to interrupt us, we've been doing our best to soak up the season. Seth, who even sent me the awesome flowers arranged in a pumpkin at right, has allegedly figured out how to study with football on "in the background" (how, incidentally, did Monday Night Football turn into Thursday- Monday nonstop football?!), and I've been cramming pureed pumpkin into virtually everything we eat. It's possible that I may even become tired of my favorite pumpkin bread, although that hasn't happened yet. 

I've been working nutty hours, trying to clear off my desk before my six weeks "off" after baby, so Friday afternoon Michelle convinced me to play hooky. It was amazing. We wandered around Old Town and soaked up the fall colors and the crunch of fallen leaves under our feet, got pedicures, went shopping (for once, purchasing nothing for the baby!), and ate french fries oat an outside table in gorgeous weather. To top it all off, I left early enough to avoid the  end-of-week traffic madness and made it home before 7:30- a real rarity on a Friday here.

Because we had had no idea how to plan for the promptness of babies (or lack thereof), we wound up with a weekend blissfully devoid of plans, and we spent it sleeping in, working around the house, swimming lazy laps at the pool, and admiring the fall foliage from the bike path along the C&O Canal. Five days a week I absolutely despise living in the greater-DC traffic black hole, but on warm fall weekends it's hard to complain about living somewhere that (literally busloads of) people vacation. We also trekked back to Homestead Farm for pumpkin and apple picking, and marveled at the fact that it's only been two years since Seth first met my parents there after a rainy hike on a September weekend right before he deployed. Crazy how time flies (and how lucky I still feel to have him along to get the hard-to-reach apples.)

This week it's back to the grind, as Seth has midterms to study for and I'm planning on working until it's time to head for the hospital. We're making downtime where we can, as we imagine it'll be in short supply pretty soon here.

A couple of favorites from the week:

Seth making dessert. ("Seth, this mousse isn't set." "Uh, that's probably because I added some extra milk. You know, because it got really thick after I put in all the peanut butter." "All the wh--?! Never mind." [I know not to look a gift horse in the mouth. And it was pretty tasty.])

Our beautiful backyard in the fall, after Seth mowed and mulched and I scooped out our pumpkins. (We're carving them tonight, so more to follow on the jack o'lantern front.)

A small portion of our giant German feast last night. We finally made it to the Bierhaus we discovered at the Taste of Bethesda festival, and got to catch up with Flip and Jess Klein (not to mention OD on frites) to boot!

And this might've been my favorite. I finally got that pregnancy footrub I've been reading about... but of course in our house it came with a side of animated Monday Night Football conversation.I had the gall to wonder aloud if Brett Favre had played for the Vikings. The picture at bottom right doesn't even begin to do the poor man's facial expression justice.

And finally, the real photo of the week, which we cannot stop laughing about. Lehua, on what Sara calls "Mom- Daughter Day."