Fall in....

At only number ten of New at 42, my enthusiasm has started to wane a bit. Thirty-two more... it just seems too hard. As I've mentioned, everything seems a little harder, and a lot less exciting to me once summer passes. After all, what's new about the end of everything?

It was good for me to start in the summer because in the summer, well, everything seems possible to me, so I got a good jump on things. However, though I'm feeling considerably less inspired at the moment, I want to keep going because the point of this challenge continues to be to find and appreciate the newness and wonder of life - regardless of circumstances. Besides, I didn't call it a challenge for nothing.

And so, I do have a number eleven. And a number twelve, but I'll post twelve later this week.

R and I drove down to Naperville, IL last weekend for the wedding of one of my friends.The wedding was beautiful and marvelous... full of personal touches - I love that!

They planted a lilac tree together during the ceremony, instead of a unity candle - how lovely is that!?!

They made wonderfully unique table place cards/favors.

And the bride's mom made the wedding cake, a cheesecake. It was delicious - and I'm rather picky about cheesecakes - and it was topped with a very adorable, very personal cake topper.

It was a purely lovely wedding and I'm so delighted for my friend!!

The wedding started at 10 am, so we were back at our hotel at about 3:30. After a nice nap on the softest, most wonderful and amazing cloudesque bed in the entire universe, we wandered off to the sites of Naperville that I'd researched... namely, number 11, the Naperville Riverwalk.

It very quickly became dusk and moved on to dark (sigh!), so I didn't get a lot of good photos there, but it was a surprisingly quaint area, with loads of nice paths to walk around, covered bridges galore, beautiful fountains, and interesting monuments. I'm so glad we spent a good chunk of time there!

We also met a new friend somewhere along the way.

He was a very good friend, but sadly, I'm not a very good friend. Poor little froggy didn't make it through the night, but he'll always live on inside of me. 

These final two photos illustrate the autumn that I do still love... color and light, crisp, yet comfortable air... longer sleeves and pants, but still sandals. Mmm. 

Week 39 of Photo 52: Photographer's choice

Who can resist a photo of one perfectly fallen colorful leaf?

Or a stolen smooch in the shadows and leaves? Weddings are so wonderful, aren't they? Second only to marriage.

Week 40 of Photo 52: Fall in Love

My friend's wedding actually kind of reminded us of our wedding... it was a perfect outdoor wedding on a perfect autumn day. The theme for our wedding was, "Fall in Love," so I just couldn't resist using this photo for week 40's theme of "Fall _____ ."  

Speaking of weddings and such, we'll be eight next week! It seems like just one and it seems like a million... In either case, I'm looking forward to the next million.