Playing in the leaves

Rick raked up the leaves from a few of the trees in the back. The kids had a great time jumping into and out of the pile. It was big enough that when I jumped in I could cover myself completely.

I just love those smiles

When the fun and games were over it was time to clean up the leaves. Rick hauled our trailer down to the leaf pile with our riding lawn mower and filled the bed. He then (for whatever reason) drove down our hill to have a straight shot to drive back up the hill to the front yard. Leaves piled in the front of the property would be picked up by the city sweeper/vacuums.  In the process the motor mount on the lawnmower broke and we were left with a trailer full of leaves and a lawnmower that won’t drive at the very bottom of our steep (I mean sledding grade steep) yard. He quickly got his car and drove around the house to pull the lawnmower to flat ground. Only it had rained the day before and the slightly damp ground wouldn’t let the car get traction. He decided to stop before he got the car stuck too. We had to push/pull the mower up the hill by hand. Not easy. There were marks left in the ground from my shoes digging into the side of the hill in hope that the mower wouldn’t roll back over me. It was so taxing that we had to take a break before tackling the leaf loaded trailer.
We tried unsuccessfully to move the trailer up the hill. Finally we let it roll down to the edge of our property that is a wooded area. We decided it was a good place to unload the leaves. After cleaning the trailer off it was much more manageable. We placed Katie and Brady on the back of the trailer for balance and pushed/pulled it up the opposite side of the yard. It doesn’t have as steep of a grade. It was one of the best leg workout Rick and I have had in a while. Both of us felt like jelly afterwards.