I love bucket lists.
I was obsessed with them in middle school, especially when my cousins and I would cut up pieces of Elle and National Geographic magazines to create mood boards for our summer must-dos at Grandma's ranch.
These lists usually included:
Drive-in movie theaters.
Kayaking in the gorge.
Night walks with flashlights behind her house.
Hand-squeezing lemonade with a dash of sugar.
Staying up all night, telling scary stories (so cliché).
Assembling outfits from $1 items at Dollar Tree.
Day-long adventures at the waterpark until our skin chafed.
In those days, we practically lived in our swimsuits, with our skin baked raw by the sun. This was in Utah, where summers weren't as unbearable as in Arizona.
The changing season and holidays feel even more special with a baby. Each day offers a chance to create something beautiful and unique. Pumpkin patches take on new meaning, and trick-or-treating becomes more fun. It's like passing the torch from childhood to adulthood, allowing us to share these experiences with the next generation.
I don't scrapbook my bucket lists anymore (though I will once Reyna is older so we can do them together), so for now, a written list on my Substack will do just fine (lol).
Here's my list of things I'd love to do this Fall…
Go apple picking! I've never actually done this, can you believe it? There's Annie's Apple Orchard near town that I've been dying to get to.
Make hot apple cider (preferably with the apples we pick).
Make me some yummy green chicken chili.
Put Reyna in a pumpkin and take pictures. Obviously.
I can't wait for more looooooong early morning walks.
Will this finally be the year I try my hand at a pecan pie?
I'm also dying to make focaccia bread.
Make our own apple sauce for Reyna! Gee, I'm doing a ton of activities with apples this year, lol.
Our homemade drive-in movie theatre night! My husband wants to take the truck and projector in the desert and craft our scary movie marathon. I found this TikTok to be just too stinking cute.
Our annual pumpkin carving contest. Reyce's family does this yearly, and we've won it twice. We would have won a third, but our brother and sister-in-law announced they were pregnant that year, so they obviously won that round (losers).
Happy Potter Movie Night! I haven't seen these movies since they were first released, so now's the best opportunity to crack open some spells.
Navigate the corn maze with pals at our local Pumpkin & Chili Festival.
Rake leaves at my dad's house and throws Reyna in them.
Is this the year we finally have a Friendsgiving?!
Gilmore Girls play every morning when the family comes to carpool.
Fire night making cinnamon roll-ups.
Perfect weather to go fishing at the Salt River!
October will be the first month I'll be traveling for work / my sister-in-law's bachelorette party since pregnancy, which is CRAZY!
Hot yoga 3x a week.
Lastly, begin our Fall garden-bed baby food forest! I'm SO excited to share more on the project!
Happy best time of the year! xx
This is such a wonderful list!! I’m ready to make all the apple treats as well!
I see you live in Arizona! I lived there for a year and loved it. One of my favorite places ❤️