Fall Colors Tree Project 2014 (or something like that)

The tree in our front yard is beautiful! It's an oak tree (I'm pretty sure, I'm no botanist). In the fall it turns the most beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red. Then it starts to shed it's leaves. I'm not sure if that is the correct term for when a tree loses it's leaves. I guess it would be better to say, "the leaves start to fall". Whatever. You get my point. The leaves come off the branches and end up on the ground. Ok? Lots and lots of them. I've raked 2 times this year. Some of you may have raked more, but at my parents house we had a sweeper that we could pull behind the riding John Deere mower. Easy. When I moved out I always rented so it wasn't my problem. At the house in Zimmerman we were in the country so nobody cared if we raked, and most of the trees shed their leaves in the woods and not on my lawn. So raking 2 times is more then I'm used too, alright?

Now we live in a neighborhood. And the neighbor directly next door to us has the most perfectly manicured lawn. He is literally outside everyday from spring to fall doing something to his grass. Mowing it, raking it, watering it, feeding it, reading it stories. (Just kidding, he probably doesn't do the last one.) When we moved to our teeny tiny lot we sold our riding John Deere to a friend and bought a push mower and with Corey working as many hours and days as he does the grass probably wouldn't even get cut if we didn't pay the neighbor boys to cut. 

When the leaves start to fall I begin to feel the silent judgmental pressure of our cul de sac neighbors to get out there and rake them up. Last year, when I was out raking the neighbor with the perfect lawn came over and was shocked we were raking because the previous owner never did so he and his boys would end up doing it. (I was secretly kicking myself for doing it and not waiting until he did it for us.) Last year Corey helped me. This year I've done it all myself. Which includes bagging the leaves, carrying them up the hill (through the neighbors with the perfect lawns back yard) and dumping them behind our property. Uffda. 
There aren't many leaves left on the tree so I'm holding off on round three until they are all shed. 

Now that I'm done whining (for now) I will bring you to the point of this post. My fall colors tree project, or something like that. I'm not sure if that's the "official" name I want attached to it but that's all I got so I'm going with it.

I decided to try to take a picture of the beautiful/annoying tree everyday to show in dramatic fashion how the colors go from green to pretty fall colors. I missed a day or two here and there but it still turned out awesome. Once they start turning it really goes fast. So here is a GIF off all the pictures.

And here is a side by side of Day 1 and Day 19. In my GIF there is a day 22 but the leaves had started to shed pretty rapidly at that point so I used day 19 because that is before the tree started looking bare.

Do you have a favorite tree that you like to watch change colors every fall?