October Catch-Up

It's only fitting that on the last day of November, I write our October post. Oy vey! 

October was full and fun! Jim had lots of rugby games and his team has remained undefeated. We went to the wedding of one of our good college friends, David, and got to have a little reunion with old friends. And all of the grandparents visited! I tell you what, it was a busy month!

John & Kim came and saw the muddiest game of the season, so far. And then on Sunday we went apple picking and then they sent us on our way for a little dessert date night! Thank you so much!!

We picked a bunch of our own apples from a local orchard, Doe Creek, and then later in the month went and got three more bushels of seconds apples from another orchard out near Floyd, called Wades Orchard. We have a whole lot apples processed into apple sauce, apple butter, apple chips, apple pie fillings, and apple slices frozen. It's wonderful!! We love doing this as a family and hope it will be a tradition that continues throughout the years. And we hope to add apple cider to our repertoire.

 We rejoiced as the mosquitoes took their leave and outside play became more manageable in our yard! Fall is so beautiful in our yard. The maple tree's changing leaves makes it the most beautiful season of the year.

 While Mom was here we went to Wades Orchard, Chatteau Morrisette, and Floyd for pizza, window shopping, and music.

 Ian has started successfully breaking leaves on his knee, just like Papa does. He's done this before, but this is probably the first time I have documented it :)

 Owen's outside leisure of choice was to sit amongst & pick up leaves, sampling them occasionally.

Ian runs all over the yard gathering sticks, making "food", and sharing and playing with Leif and Owen. 

 These kiddos.... how grateful we are to be their parents.

 Ian's imagination is so much fun! He comes up with songs and stories and make-believe all the day long.

 Oh, to know what he's thinking here...

 I love these photos from Grumps' visit.

 And here's our future soccer player (maybe, no pressure!)!!

 This tree <3

 Leif always finds the sunniest spots.

 My dad did always have the highest pushes. Ian loved the thrill of his pushes (perhaps just as much as I always did).

 Another thing my dad did with us was pumpkin carving!! When I was younger we did this with him, too. So fun to share the experience with Ian now :)

 My view from inside :)

And that's a wrap on October. Now, to catch up with November and soon December!!!! Ahh! ;)

Full Fall Day

A few weeks ago my dad came to visit. He brought with him a little red wheelbarrow, which is perfectly Ian-sized and great for playing in our wonderful backyard. Thanks, Daddio!

We always try to get a little music session with him when he comes, so here he is playing the xylophone he gave us last spring and singing for Ian.

On his one full day here, we gave him the true New River Valley, autumnal experience. We went to The Palisades for brunch, which is an amazing restaurant tucked in an unlikely location in an old, run-down town. Seriously, I dream of their brunches. Each dish is unique and mouth-watering. It's reasonably priced, and kids eat free until they are five. Woot!

Next we went to Doe Creek Orchard, which has incredible views and a large variety of apples. We picked a whopping 84 pounds. Now, two weeks later, we only have five apples left. We used them to make apple sauce, butter, crisps, pies, chips, and then a whole lot of eating. Many bags contain frozen pie fillings and sliced, cored, and peeled apples to throw into baking and cooking throughout the year.

Ian napped for the first part of the picking and then came to join us.

He sure loves apples!!

This kid.

Ian and I picked a few more to add to the bounty that Jim & Grumps had already accumulated, and then we joined them down at the wine tasting. We didn't join in, though ;)

Next we headed to Joe's Trees, which is a wonderful pumpkin patch/Christmas tree farm between Blacksburg and the orchard. We couldn't have asked for better weather to show off our area.

Ian milked the cow...

showed us how tall he was...

and then led the way to the pumpkin patch.

Err, maybe just led me. Ha! I love this picture of three generations marching over the hill. We could have taken the hay ride, but the line was pretty long. We decided to take it on the way back.

Jim ran back to double-check on the pumpkin prices, so Grumps & Ian took some time to enjoy watching and waving to the tractors as they went by.

He was surprised to find that this one had a hole in it...

Me and my three pumpkins... that belly is growing, growing, growing.

22 Weeks Pregnant

"Hey Grumps, how about this one?"

We tried to take a few family pictures for our Christmas card. I'm saving them for later, in case we use them. But here's one of all of us :)

Me and my boy. He chose one little pumpkin to bring home.

But not after piling a whole bunch in my lap and counting them over and over again. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, two... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, two..."

Here comes the hayride!

First let's explore this tractor...

While we figured out which pumpkins we wanted, Grumps played with Ian.

Ian helped us choose a bunch of pie pumpkins to process later.

And soon our pumpkin hopped into the wheelbarrow with all of the other pumpkins to head home.

Our car was full of people, apples, and pumpkins. The sign of a harvest-full, autumn day.