Perfect fall day

We had today what I thought we'd skipped right over: A fall day. And it was perfect!

It was so nice out, I spent essentially all day outside - starting with the raking of all our leaves in the back yard. I love the fact I have a yard. I know it means yard work, but that's one of the reasons I love it! I've always wanted a place to hang out, grill, have flowers, veggies - a dog. And now I do!


Last night and today we had three dogs. We dogsat a couple labs of some friends of ours. I'm hoping to get Rigby socialized with these dogs because we're going to leave him at their house when we go to Nashville in November. I think it's working. They were playing and lounging in the sun, having a good ol' dog time.

Here they are in the back of my car for the ride back home. Rigby's on the left...


I also took Rigby on a walk, got a second fridge picked up for the workshop, and went over to a friends house for a deer tenderloin dinner. How fall-ish is that?

I finally got my pumpkins carved today too! We went to a different patch this year in Ft. Collins: The Bartels Farm. They had tons, TONS of pumpkins. Literally, the fields stretched to the horizon!


Here's a new recipe for roasting pumpkin seeds that I tried last night. It is freaking good. This recipe has the perfect blend of sweet and salty. Don't let your Halloween go by without making these!

From Real Simple magazine:

Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds
Place 2 cups pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet with sides in a 300 degree oven until somewhat dried out.

Remove seeds from oven, place in a bowl. Increase oven temp. to 350.

Stir together 2 tbsp. granulated sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon in a separate bowl.

Pour 2 tbsp. melted butter over seeds. Sprinkle sugar mixture over seeds and toss to coat.

Place back on the cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Cook until crisp!