Yup, it's fall - time for a family photo!

Kind of a strange week this week. Although there seemed to be a lot of interesting things going on with the moon (a lunar eclipse, a really big moon the next day, etc.), none of us got up early enough to check out the shows. However, Tuesday morning started off with an unusual show - a full rainbow visible just after arriving at work. Not a great picture, but it was a nice sight to see.

It was a beautiful, if cool, fall day today. Took our usual hike with Maddy and enjoyed the colours. Below is one tree that hasn't dropped as many leaves as most of the others.

A beautiful fall day

I used my camera phone to take all the photos during the hike. I think the one below of Maddy turned out very well (I used the dual cameras on the back of my HTC phone to detect then blur out the background). The photo of Maddy and I below shows what the phone produces without using the extra camera.

Maddy, wondering why her humans wanted her to stay still.

Maddy and I resting in the leaves.

I guess Maddy was too tired - the picture below was taken of her flaked out on the bed after the hike and getting her feet washed.

What really clued us in that fall was in full swing was the resumption of hockey practices. Parker went to hockey evaluations for the Dundas Minor Hockey League last weekend and was assigned to the Dundas Blackhawks. He is actually quite thrilled, mostly because he has a great relationship with the coaches. Today he got his uniform (#8) and they practiced as a team.

Parker, #8 Dundas Blackhawks

Last weekend we literally dragged the kids from their beds and took them to the hiking trails near the train station.  No, we didn't force them to hike (that might be considered as torture for teenagers). Actually, we went to do our annual family photo (with my real camera). Wendy made sure we all wore a coordinating colour and we had scoped out the location the day before. It is almost underneath the big tree in the picture above (2nd one of this post).

Took a while to get a good image while Maddy was looking, especially since my wireless remote control for the camera had a dead battery (it worked when I tested it the day before...!). I had to do a lot of running back and forth between the family and the camera, but the result turned out OK. After that fiasco, I bought more batteries but won't put them in until I need them...

I have pasted our picture below in a size that is larger than this blog recommends, so it will likely overlap the background a bit. 

Here it is - the official 2014 fall Seidlitz family photo:

Seidlitz family October 2014