Fall is Here!!!

Just in the last week, the leaves on trees by our apartment have burst into their Fall colors and they are gorgeous! Oranges, reds, golden yellows...check it out.





Today was the perfect Fall day: blue clear sky, crisp cool wind, and lots of sidewalks covered in leaves!


Although the title of this blog post is about Fall being here, two very significant events have happened since my last post that need to be mentioned. I wouldn't feel good about blogging about Fall and not about these other two events: 1) My paternal grandpa passing away, and 2) my 30th birthday. I think it's cool that in one week I got to honor and memorialize my Pop Pop Paul's life and celebrate my own too.

Brandon and I went to the northern panhandle of West VA, just outside Pittsburgh, to visit my dad's family and be there for my grandpa's funeral. My grandparents live in a little town called Weirton, which used to be a booming steel town and is now a very depressed, struggling town. Their house has the most beautiful view of the Ohio river. My dad gave us a great tour of some of his old stomping grounds, and the weekend was a nice opportunity for Brandon to meet my Nana Pearl (who is quite a character). The funeral service was intimate and, I think, just what my grandpa wanted. There was a 21 gun salute to honor his WWII service and my grandma was presented a flag. We were really glad we could be there for this weekend with my family.



My b-day day was pretty normal, but because it fell on a weekday I got to drag it on throughout the whole weekend! Brandon made me dinner and got me some beautiful flowers. I also got emails and calls from lots of loved ones (my step-niece, Hannah, definitely wins for most beautiful happy birthday song!). Then the next day we went to this sushi place I've been wanting to try and caught part of a women's film festival that was donating money to breast cancer research at Hopkins. We were going to see a normal movie, but we just didn't feel good about spending $10.50 per person on a movie we kind of wanted to see...so, luckily, I have a very resourceful husband and he found this alternative film activity that was very interesting. Then the day after that we went to Ikea and got a few additions for our apartment (a rug, lamp, and new picture frames!). And, if you're wondering if I look older or feel older (I mean, 30 is pretty big time), let me just say that Saturday night I was asked if I was a college student at the local state university. Smile :)