Mitch here!

What’s your favorite season? When you dream of your “perfect life,” what does the weather look like there? Are you a Spring fanatic, joyously shoving your parka in the back of the closet? Or are you a summer beach junky, delightfully tan–or in our case, glowing pink–under the sizzling sun? Or maybe you’re a fall lover, guzzling pumpkin spiced drinks over a leafy bonfire?

(…Are winter lovers a thing? Are there actually people out there who love shoveling snow in the icy cold darkness?)

I guess I’m a “change of seasons” kind of guy. I live for those special transitional moments when it’s like, wait a second… things are different out here! Moments such as:

  • “Did you see that green thing coming out of the ground over there?!”
  • “I can totally wear shorts today!”
  • “Look at that dead leaf in the yard!”
  • “I slipped and broke my butt on an ice patch today!”

But if I had to choose, I’d say that I’m a fall person. I love it. The transition from summer to fall is all about slow and steady improvements. Air conditioners get turned off in favor of open windows. Sunscreen gives way to comfy sweatshirts. Boring green trees turn into giant natural fireworks. Lemon-flavored shandy beer gets replaced by its superior pumpkin cousin.

Chicago’s weather finally figures it out in the fall. Our winters are infamously awful, but few know about our painfully cold springs and very muggy summers. Chicago’s fall consists of these long, sunny, perfectly crisp, blue sky exaltations of days. Today feels like that.

I can feel fall coming!

I like the fall because I can eat soup without looking like a weirdo. I can wear a shirt outside and not feel the need to throw it away when I get home. Kelly and I share a birthday weekend in October and I absolutely love that, too. We spend the whole weekend treating each other to surprises until we are exhausted. She’s older than me by the way.

^Kelly interjecting here. I’m older than three days, Mitch. 🙄

In our first fall as homeowners, we raked leaves just for fun. Our neighbor actually came out to scold us.

“You know we pay someone to do that?” she asked.

But I didn’t care. I like raking leaves. I can’t wait to throw Emma in a big pile of October leaves because I can already tell that she’s a fall lover just like I am.

On a very special weekend every fall, we load up the car and just drive off into the “country.” We could have an apple farm or some distant park in mind, but we almost never make it there. We just drive and get distracted and and explore and get lost in the seasonal beauty that is fall. In the last few years, we’ve taken to driving north up Lake Michigan to these gorgeous suburbs and beaches. We find cute breakfast diners, doughnut shops and hot chocolate pushers. We park the car in places that we’ve never heard of, and buy souvenirs that we don’t need. When we head home, it’s as if we’ve been gone for weeks. I think this is what the change of seasons is really all about. When they change, we change.

Summer Mitch is ready to hang up his flip flops in anticipation of Fall Mitch. And it’s just so exciting.

Mitch. Out.

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Kelly is wearing this gingham shirt and loves the similar utility jackets featured below.