Fall is here.

Typically, this time of year makes me kind of sad. Summer has always been my absolute favorite time of year and I literally mourned its passing each fall. However, things have changed since the arrival of the cute little critter above. This year I realized that summer in South Carolina really isn't very child-friendly. His pale baby skin just wasn't made for the 110 degree days. He only lasts for about 15 minutes in the pool before he's bored. He only recently started walking so all summer I had to be aware of the temperature of whatever he was crawling on and our deck was typically WAY TOO HOT.

So, this year, I see fall a little bit differently. We are finally able to play outside without constantly being covered in sunscreen and sweat. We can actually go for walks now at any time of the day and not just at the crack of dawn like we had to do during summer in order to avoid the oppressive heat. And we can finally dress Max in cute little hoodies and hats :) I hope we'll take advantage of this perfect fall weather though, because next thing we know it will be freezing.

Today we decided to do a family trip to downtown Greenville. I love just walking around downtown and checking out what's new but we also had a coupon from livingsocial for Chicora Alley that was about to expire AND I had been harassing Chris all weekend about going out to eat so really it was a win-win situation. (I will not go into the rapscalian-ish behavior Max exhibited during lunch; suffice it to say we realized why we never eat out anymore...but lunch was still mighty tasty).

After lunch we meandered around downtown, including a stop on the picturesque Liberty Bridge. Funny story: the first time Chris and I ever walked across Liberty Bridge together, back when we were dating and it had first been completed, it was nighttime and there were lots of couples strolling hand in hand and enjoying a romantic evening. We stopped and leaned on the handrail as we gazed out over the Reedy River Falls for several minutes. Suddenly Chris started to speak; I assumed he was going to point out what a lovely evening it was or how pretty the falls were; but this must have been fairly early in our relationship before I knew him very well, because what he actually said was "This would be a good place to jump if you wanted to kill yourself." And...scene.

Anyway, who woulda thunk that just a few years later we'd be here with Max?

I espcially love that the building in the background is now the Clemson MBA program building. It used to belong to the newspaper, but this is much more fitting.

We also finally found this dang tree that I have been wanting to take pictures in front of for ages. I've seen so many cute pictures taken with this tree and never could figure out where it was located. Finally, the Rogers took some family shots in front of it and I was able to ask; who knew that it was in Falls Park and I had literally walked within feet of this thing on tons of occasions. It's fun to discover new things!

Then we meandered over to the river and let Max look at the water he can never swim in due to pollution. Also, looking at this picture below kind of makes my stomach flip because it looks like Max is at the edge of a cliff. Well, he kind of was...all's well that ends well.

Since Max will never be able to swim in the river, we thought we'd let him experience the next best thing. He announced a "touchdown!" so he must have been happy with this compromise.

Before we knew it, 3 hours had passed since we had left home. Max was tired and zoned out and we knew that the race to naptime had begun. This is the face that says "you want to get me someplace where I can snooze asap or else I will not take a nap this afternoon and I will be a holy terror for the rest of the day."

So, we obliged our boy and made our way back to the car, which I had so carefully parallel parked downtown. Goodbye Greenville; thanks for a nice day - we'll hopefully be back to see you soon.