A typical fall evening at our house...

Now that Brady is down to 1 afternoon nap, I find that the window of time from nap to dinner can get a bit tricky. He gets bored and tired (and I'm usually tired by that time too), so entertaining him in the house can be challenging. I often save errands for this time because it's easier to be out of the house until dinner time and then come home, eat, bathe, and go to bed. 

Since we don't have errands to run EVERY day, another common way to spend our late afternoons is to go outside. Brady loves to be outside (he has since birth!) and the weather has been FANTASTIC...70s and low 80s, so we find ourselves out there a lot lately. Our back deck is attached to the kitchen and I have a baby gate at the steps to keep Walle and Brady from going down into the backyard, so sometimes I'll just let them go out there while I prepare dinner. 

Tonight I had dinner prepared ahead of time so I went outside with Brady and brought my camera to document a typical evening around here. Ryan's away at a Nebraska Cornhusker's football game with our neighbor so it was just the two of us tonight. 

I love how Brady squats down :)

Sometimes we'll take chalk out there and make a mess. Brady doesn't quite get the rules of chalk (no EATING it!), but he loves to draw lines on the deck, the outside furniture, the sliding glass door, the house, and the screen...basically anywhere his little hands can reach!

Eastern view from our backyard...Soy field this year (corn field last year)

BONUS! They were harvesting the soy while we were out there!!

I've never lived around so much farmland! I've really enjoyed watching the whole farming process. I got so excited when spring came and the farmers planted seeds. When I saw things sprouting in the fields I actually called Ryan to tell him because I was so happy! I watched it grow and grow each week...and eventually I watched most of it die due to the drought. Most recently I've loved seeing the corn fields and soy fields in the area be harvested. I never really knew how they did it so it's been fun to pass by and watch the process as I drive around town. Tonight was especially awesome because I'm usually seeing the harvesting from a bit of a distance as I drive by, but this one happened right across the street from us. I was so happy that I was home and outside to catch it!! I'm a nerd!

More view from our backyard. 

Another favorite spot outside is our frontyard. I can pull weeds and tend to the tomatoes and yellow squash that we have growing while Brady plays with rocks, balls, chalk, and anything else he might have found in the garage. We spend at least 1 hour out there every day.

View from our front door -- see the barn in the distance? They host parties and weddings all summer long. 

more view from the front yard

Brady LOVES tomatoes. He is constantly picking them and eating them before they're ripe. I thought tomato worms were a pest until I started losing more tomatoes to Brady! I've tried to teach him that the green ones are yucky and the red ones are good. I think he gets the concept, but it's not helping my tomatoes...I noticed tonight that he reaches in and picks a tomato, if it's red he eats it, if it's green he throws it back in :/

Brady looking for some good tomatoes to steal!

He found a good one

YUM!

You can tell when he has eaten one while I wasn't looking because he gets tomato seeds on his face :)

Sunset/western view from backyard...I get to watch that sunset EVERY night. Awesome!

So that's a typical evening around our house these days. We sure are going to miss these nice evenings outside when it gets cold (probably in a month or so). I don't know WHAT we'll do to stay busy when we are confined to the indoors!!