Red Barn 2017

We go here every year! Eleven years running, and that just amazes me. I feel like I've said everything that can be said about it, and taken every picture that can possibly be taken, but that doesn't stop me…you can't argue with tradition!

We squeezed this visit in between so many other things, with a hastily-packed picnic of rolls and turkey for dinner, during an impossibly busy week. Every year I ask myself if it's worth the drive, but deep down I know it's just something that must be done. I like comparing the years and sizing everyone up as I look through the old pictures. Last year was SO hot. And this year we were so cold! And who knew, last year, we'd have a little Ziggy with us now? I thought I had taken hardly any pictures because it was so cold and dark and Zekey was fussing in the baby sling and my hands were cold. But then when I got to editing them there were millions, of course.

We bought (and ate) three dozen apple cider donuts, because that's the right thing to do.

Waiting for a turn to ride the pedal-tractors

Oh, that little poking-up trunk on Goldie's elephant hat. I love it so much.

Trusting little hands.

Why do they always make the face-holes for these sorts of things so BIG? Kids' faces never fill them up.

At this point it was getting dark and the sun had already gone down, and then suddenly the light got much brighter and all radiant and glowy. I think it was the ambient light from the clouds, catching the sunlight from below the horizon and then lighting up the ground. It was so pretty! 

Proof that Ziggy actually was there. Not very good proof (I could have just put two stuffed Legs in the sling and let them dangle; how would you know?).

I loved the way the sky and mountains changed entirely in color and character in just a few minutes, as the sun went down.

The sunset was so pretty. I'm not sure the pictures quite show why it was so striking, but it just seemed so unusally…gentle? I mean, the gradient was so soft and each color faded into the next so gradually. Like watercolors. But then the whole effect was so vibrant!

Till next year, Red Barn!