What a difference a year makes

My father-in-law Chuck aka "Mr Mac"made this same comment when they took us out to dinner when they were in town this past spring for the Easter weekend, as that Saturday night happened to be Bolivia's 1-year dateiversary :). His point was that life had dramatically changed for me, his son, and both of our families, as the Barton & I had gotten engaged in January and were in full-on wedding planning mode, in fact that same weekend we showed them the site we had chosen for our reception. And this fall, my favorite time of year, I had a bit of deja vu as we went out on a few outings just as we had done the year before, but this time it was as husband and wife, and it was pretty cool to reflect on how much life has changed since then.

This pic from last fall when we took my nephew Kieran to a fire station in Troy when they had an open house shows him looking up at "Tito (uncle) Bart" like "hey dude, that's my hat!", even though just like this year again Kieran was being stubborn/shy and not engaging in all the fun activities. Man, was it hot that day, and yet last weekend when we took both the kids to one of the open houses in Birmingham, it was a nice fall day - I've lived in Michigan all of my life and fully understand the futility of guessing the weather day to day. My niece Tanith was her usual fear-shows-weakness self as she wanted to climb up into the trucks and watch the fake fire scene, while her older brother shied into the background. And trusty sister "Tita Aimee" (who thinks she looks like the kids' nanny when she is out and about with them and any other adults) climbed over the carseats into the 3rd row of sister Debbie's Aviator to come along and hang out. I was even urging her to get in line with the other small children who were testing out the fire hose since they got to meet the handsome firefighter taking pictures, but while she may have been tempted, she didn't take up on my dare :).

Also this year on "Sweetest Day" (read: made-up Hallmark midwest holiday) just as we did on the third Saturday of October last year we decided to again visit the Lloyd Stage Nature Center in Troy, a beautiful 100 acre natural parcel that has some cool indoor exhibits for little ones, and about 2 miles of trails outdoors that are great for a short hike and taking in the fall scenery. We like the fact that we have a little sanctuary in our very own city, not too far up the street from the likes of a Target Greatland and the Somerset Collection (read: fancy mall) that my friend Rich calls my "mother ship", though I'm not quite certain why!

From changing leaves to outdoor Michigan outings to a lovely wedding to a man I love dearly, I now have more reasons to claim fall as my favorite season! Indeed, what a difference a year makes. Can't wait to see what happens next!