Apples!

It's so funny. Living in California for so long, the seasons never seemed to correlate very precisely with what the calendar said. September and October were typically very hot months-- and fire season! It wasn't until well into November when things started to feel "fall-ish." And it's funny that I even have some internalized definition of what fall should be like, since I never knew anything OTHER than a California fall, you know? Weird. But yeah. Halloween was typically pretty warm, especially in San Diego.

Not so much here. ha!! The funny part is that the weather here seems to pay attention to the calendar. It's like it took a look at it after Labor Day and said, "Oh! Summer is unofficially over! Time for some cool evenings as we transition towards fall..." And here we are! It's been around seventy degrees here all week, but down into the forties overnight. Really perfect weather, to be honest. Not too hot, but definitely comfortable. And the coolness is giving us a nice little preview of the beautiful fall ahead! A few trees have started changing already, though we won't see the real amazing colors for another month or so. I'm really excited, actually!

At any rate... the weather has got me thinking about fall. I weeded our front flower beds yesterday, hopefully for the last time this year (we'll see about that). Today, I changed out my door decorations, so now my fall stuff is out. And this afternoon, we went to pick apples! I am officially an apple-picking fan. Today was so, SO nice. It was just the four of us, wandering through the orchard and picking and choosing which apples we wanted to fill our 10-pound (1 peck/ quarter-bushel) bag with. Niko was so excited to climb the trees-- and he impressed us with his skills! Maya made it her mission to find absolutely perfect apples for us-- mostly red, no blemishes or bruises. There were a ton of other people at this same orchard, but it was so big that we still had plenty of space and never had to share a tree with anyone. And the kids loved going down the huge metal slides by the parking lot-- the kinds of slides that most schools have removed for liability reasons, but they are super fast and fun! Anyway, it was just great. And tomorrow, I need to deal with ten pounds of apples! Until then, though, I will enjoy these pictures of my babies on their first (and probably not last) apple-picking trip of 2013!