Best Weather Ever!

I just love fall! I look forward to this season every year and soak it up when it gets here. Last fall wasn't that great, for the one big obvious reason.... Deployment began. I had to see all these other family's out doing the things I love to do with my family.... Apple picking, Pumpkin picking, hay rides, trick or treating, even just raking up the leaves and jumping in them. Yes I could still do these things with my kids, but it wasn't the same without Daddy home. Of course the deployment had just begun too, so that didn't help matters. When ever I would see happy families out doing all these things I wanted to do with mine... it just made me want to cry.
However... we are making up for it this year! Getting back into a "normal" routine, is going a bit slower than I thought it was going to. By this I mean, the whole "work" thing. Things are getting going and are all set for now, but Daddy has been able to spend a lot of much needed time at home with his family. I am so grateful for that! It is a blessing that things have gone slower than I thought, because we have been able to spend a lot of over due quality time together and it has been amazing!

With the fall like weather starting to kick in we just had to get to the orchard! His uncle owns an orchard right up the road from us... how perfect is that!?!
It's just gorgeous up there, especially when the foliage peaks! With a perfect view of Mount Monadnock (one of the most frequently climbed mountains in the world.. FYI) ;)

We have a tradition with my cousins family, and each year we go up to Windy Hill and get a hay ride (most times from Pape) ;) We pick a whole bunch of apples... we get pumpkins some years depending on how close to halloween we go. This year we decided to wait on the pumpkins since we went a little earlier in the season.

We visit the animals, which the kids love and get a huge kick out of. And of course we finish it off with a trip through the corn maze! Man is that corn high this year!!! My cousin & I left the men and 6 kids in the dust. It was pretty cute as we stood outside the maze yelling to the kids, as they got closer we could hear them all yelling, and see their little feet go running back and forth through the corn. It was a great time!

~I just love all their expressions in this picture~

~Loves to feed everyone those yummy apples~

~Thats our crew~

We always finish the day off by coming back to our house where there is a big pot of warm soup waiting. Of course we have to make some apple crisp with those nice freshly picked apples we just brought home too. The kids bounce off the walls together indoors and out for a few hours and we all have some good laughs. 

Is there anything not perfect about that tradition?!? Nope... and thats just one of the many reasons Fall is my absolute FAVORITE season of the year!

"The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest."
Psalm 85:12