Fall(ish)

One of the wonderful things about living in this area is that you really get to experience all four seasons. It's hot in the summer, cold in the winter, warm in the spring and cool in the fall. But this year, apparently someone forgot to remind mother nature that fall arrived on the east coast. While it technically changed seasons a few weeks ago, we have certainly not been experiencing any fall weather. It has continued to be warm so the leaves haven't really started changing yet, it is still humid and sticky and we haven't put away our shorts because we still need them. In fact, we just took the air conditioners out of the windows this weekend - mostly because it is ridiculous that they are still in not because we don't need them. Marty and I both love fall and can't help but feel like we're getting a little gypped out of our autumn this year.

However, just because it doesn't yet feel like fall doesn't mean that we can't begin our fall activities (something we learned while living in Southern California - forge ahead! look at the calendar not the forecast!). We decided to visit a local orchard for apple and pumpkin picking, pony rides and hayrides - and all the other wonderful things about visiting an orchard in the fall - twice in the last three weeks.

During our first visit, we started with apple picking. Elise was much more excited about the apple picking than Lucas, who seemed to prefer to pick apples off the ground to picking them off the trees, but we all enjoyed wandering around the apple grove and collecting more apples than we will ever possibly eat. Next, we were off to the pumpkin selections. The kids were very excited to see the mini pumpkins, which, let's face it, are adorable, and picked some out for themselves and our neighbors. Around this time it started misty raining and any crowd that was there (not much) began to disperse, which was fine with us because we got to visit with Dora and go on pony rides without any lines or crowds.

For our next visit, apparently everyone had decided had enough of waiting for the weather to change (because at this point it's sort of ridiculous that it's still so warm) and to go ahead to the orchard because every person on the planet seemed to be there. Seriously, it was so packed it was sort of frightening. But we got to go on a hayride without much of a wait and the kids had fun at the playground there. It was also extra fun because this time their cousin Abby came too.

We will continue on with our fall activities and hopefully it will eventually feel like fall around here.