Eighteen is such a crazy age and a senior year just mounts up the craziness.  Looking on Facebook and other social media sites, kids are applying to colleges, for scholarships, announcing their plans. I often wonder what it will be like after senior year for this one. He isn't necessarily coasting but he isn't in a rush to figure things out.  He is taking his time, trying to determine what he likes.  It is interesting to see how he is approaching his last year of high school. 
I've probably taken a thousand photos of this young man over the years and in most of them he looks serious but he isn't.  He just doesn't fake smile at all.  He's comfortable and is a bit of a goofball.  We started off with this amazing canopy of trees and made our way around the park until we reached my favorite bridge. It has the barn in the background and cool wooden rails, with bushes and trees surrounding it. We take our photos and I decide to have him lean against a post.  I'm giving him instructions as a family is approaching us. They have their photo gear in tow so they can take their family Christmas photo.  It happened to be a family from his soccer team and just as they meet us, he leans again the rail instead of the post. The rail goes down and he goes over backwards with his feet flying in the air into the pile of brush and grass on the other side.  I so wish I would have caught that on camera.  I couldn't stop laughing.  It was just the most perfect timing. He was so good natured about it.  He righted himself, replace the rail and posed for a few last photos before we moved on to another location. I have to say that I do appreciate his ability to laugh at himself and to calmly take things in stride.

It was planted before we moved in, a spindly little that that stretched and reached pushing roots outward. Each spring, the pink petals would cascade down covering the yard in a fairey-tale wedding ike carpet. The beauty of the petals would last a day or so on the ground before turning brown, sticking to soes and paws and making their way into the house, only to be swept and replaced by the next days blossoms. It provided shade and backdrop of large pnk pompom clusters for tea parties and photo shoots. In summer months the kids, ours, neighbors and visiting friends would climb to dizzying heights above the house peering at all of us still on the ground.  It was a big deal to finally be old enough to reach the lowest branch unaided and therefore be allowed to climb into those branches.
Once I came home to drop someting off before immediately leaving again on yet another errand. I noticed a neighbor kid hanging by two hands and a foot from one of the low branches.  As I rushed into the house I casually said "Hello" and she calmly answered "Hello". I was barely in the house two minutes before scurrying back to the car. I happened to glance over and she hadn't moved. It was not a natural climbing tree state and so I asked if she was stuck. She was, her heal was caught in a "v" between two branches and her hands were starting to slip.  I have no idea how long she had been there.  We needed a new rule, climb with a buddy and only as high as you could get down alone.
At one point the kids had climbed up and hung a rope from one of the higher branches with a loop for their foot at the bottom. I looked out the window and realized that it looked like a noose in our front yard so a weathered splintered plywood square had a hole drilled and attached to the bottom of the rope for a swing.  It was put to good use over the years.
During the autumn months, it was release large brown leaves and cover the yard yet again and we were able to create the best leaf jumping piles if the rain didn't make it soggy first.
In winter months, the stark, bare branches would break the view of the endless grey of the sky.  I waited and watched for the signs of swelling buds of leaves and petals to start to form once again on my tree.
Over the course of years, the trunk started to thicken while the branches grew long and even more spindly. The roots instead of staying buried rose to the surface reaching further upward. the leaves would burst into green and then more and more would immediately turn brown and start dropping all summer long, not waiting for autumn before shedding an they would join the pink petals on the yard. The last few years, it became increasingly clear that our beloved ornamental cherry tree needed to be removed. We fought the idea of it but this we we could no longer but it off and so made that tough decision. The kids (or young adults) in our family ran through the emotions of anger, sadness and resignation to the fact they needed to say goodbye.  John and Job took turns cutting with a small borrowed chainsaw and then a larger borrowed chain saw until only the trunk was left. We hired a professional stump removal guy and he came and took the rest of the tree out, leaving sawdust and firewood. Grass of different type and color is all that remains of our tree in the front but maybe someday we will replace it with another.

I have to admit that when I heard that Stoney Ridge Farms was open to the public for pumpkins and I had the chance to go with a kid I was excited.  In years past, we would ride the wagon around, pick out a pumpkin or two, eat the caramel apple pie, and snap photos like crazy.  I had expectations of the quaint little place it was with all the fun decor. The newly opened Stoney Ridge Farms was quite different than I had expected.  It seemed as though they went from quaint to large commercial.  I don't blame them really.  Who wants a bunch of strangers wandering around their front and side yard? However there was a little "je ne sais quoi" that was lost.  The barn was big, open and could fit many people.  I liked the little out buildings better and now realize that I need to adjust my idea of what Stoney Ridge is about.  Like most things, it doesn't stay the same but grows and changes as we do.  There are many things still the same I am just a little nostalgic.
The group Job an I went with were the foreign exchange kids.  They were introduced to corn mazes, oil drum train rides, wheelbarrow races, kettle corn and pumpkin hype. Come to find out, teens are the same the world over and like selfies and their photo taken.  Especially when they are being fun and goofy.  I think wheelbarrow racing should become a thing at the pumpkin patch but there probably is too much liability for broken arms involved yet the kids and teachers had fun.