october and picking apples and hiking, empty nest style

How can your average person tell that it's October?

That's right, PUMPKIN SHAPED PEANUT BUTTER CUPS, GUYS!

Those little cuties are by far the best shaped peanut butter cups. Let's all just face it, they definitely have the best peanut butter to chocolate ratio. Mmmm

Also pumpkins! And mums! And an abundance of city people slumming it upstate to go apple picking for cute fall-ish Instagram posts to ooh and aah over.

That was rather cynical sounding of me wasn't it?  Sorry. No offense.

But really.

I live near so many great farms and orchards.  Right now I have overflowing bags of fresh apples in my kitchen. I can't get enough of them. I've actually got some crockpot applesauce cooking right now. Not sure if anything could smell any better than that.

Last weekend Alex and I went off apple picking like weird little empty nesters. Like, it was so strange not having any kids with us. Both of the girls were off doing their own things with their friends, and of course Alex is away at college, so we went for it. Just the two of us. We took a nice ride in the country to this awesome orchard that has corn mazes and tractor rides and hay slides and stuff. We definitely felt like the minority because most people there had little kids with them.

We also felt kind of free and nice, doing our own thing. My favorite thing about the orchard that we went to is the fresh, hot cider donuts. All cinnamon-y and warm... SO GOOD, not even kidding. Besides a huge bag of apples, we picked raspberries and strawberries and got some fresh pressed apple cider and mini pumpkins. Not much better than that! It was pretty fun.

After hitting the farm, we went to a really cool spot for a picnic lunch and a good hard hike. It was such a gorgeous day. The place has all of these awesome rock faces and cool trails, but on a really nice day, it can get a little crowded. As nice as it was with just us, I definitely missed having the kids there. I like my kids, they really are pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. 

Maybe we'll take them there next weekend. I'll definitely need another bag of those donuts..

It's fall!

I love October! 

It's probably my favorite month.  I love HALLOWEEN decorations and hot cider and overflowing apple farms and big fat pumpkins.  I love mums and Indian corn and pumpkin shaped peanut butter cups. I love crisp cool days and looking at the changing colors and walking with the crunchy leaves under my feet.  I love the smell of fall.

We are so lucky, where we live.  The leaves up in the mountains have already started changing color and they are so pretty.  The farms are up and running and bustling with people picking their own apples and pumpkins.  I've been going to farm stands for the past few weeks just loading up on fresh picked apples and homemade cider.  The kids love riding around pointing out which color leaves are their favorite.  And running around the back yard trying to catch them as they fall from the trees.  They love raking them into big piles and jumping off the swings into their piles.  And when night falls, they love sitting on the couch together looking at the all of the Halloween costume magazines.

I started putting up my fall decorations at the beginning of the week.  I would have to say that fall is tied for my favorite season to decorate (with Christmas of course).  I'm running out of places to put things.  Either that or I have too many things to put out.  I haven't even brought the BIG bucket of fall decorations up yet!  I haven't even finished my purging!  Or my organizing!

I know Alex won't put the little orange lights in my front yard tree.  Well.  I will have to do it myself.  Because they are so cute.  And festive.

I'm baking an apple pie today!  And making butternut squash soup.  And hot cider. 

It's kind of dreary and rainy, but I don't care at all.  In fact, I like it.  It's cozy.

Ahh.  I love fall.