Our Annual Fall Trip

Keith and I met in 1994 at Amicalola Falls.  I won't bore you with the details - at least not with this post.  The day we got engaged, October 23rd, we drove back up to the Falls to celebrate.  Then, once we had kids we made it an annual tradition.

Taking pictures in the woods always almost always makes for good pictures.  We sometimes go to Burt's Farm while we're there so we have hundreds of pictures of cute kids with pumpkins.  Now that James is in school, we couldn't go during the week so we had to go on the weekend.  You never, ever go to Burt's on the weekend.  Amicalola isn't great on the weekends but it's not the pure misery that the pumpkin farm is.

This year I didn't want to lug around the big heavy camera so we went with just our phones.  I'm not great with a camera, but with a phone.  Well, let's just say I do well to capture the moment.

As you can see from the faces in this picture, this year relations were strained.  We were all looking forward to it, but somewhere things just broke down.

I don't even remember how it started, but it ended with two brothers picking at each other.  One maybe more than the other, but given our "innocent until proven guilty standard" here in these United States his name shall remain anonymous.

Time for the insertion of a lighter thought.  We walking down the trail toward the bottom of this foothill.  As we were walking we saw this truck (maybe from the 40s?) lodged in the trees.  I like to think it was from a moonshiner...maybe sampling his goods.

The Todds before meltdown at the top of the Falls.  Since we were engaged they have added steps all the way to the top.  I think it's around 425 steps.  I strongly advise you to start at the top and walk down unless, like my husband, you are in incredibly good shape.  Very often he walks back up the steps to get the car.  That's true love.

Learning the skill of self-portraits with our phones.  By the end of the trip, we had about mastered it.

One issue is that my arms just aren't long enough...helps when Keith is in the picture.

Or if a child is around.

The other thing I learned is to be sure you always save the original version of the photo if you add a filter.  Once you see the picture in a larger version and you realize it looks like something spilled on it, it's too late to go back.  Not that I did that at all.  Ever.  Especially in this picture.