New Traditions

The signature Fall trip for us always included a road trip to Little Farmer some Sunday after church.  We'd hop on the wagon, and go for the typical ride in search of all the cute faces on the trees through the 'haunted' woods. The kids would get their fill of allergies running on the big hay pile, and swinging on the tires swings.  Next was the moment everyone waits for, and I literally mean wait, getting your caramel apple made to order with any topping your heart desired.  The trip would then be completed with a walk through the store to pick up a random bag of apples, pies, etc. anything that would catch your eye.  It's amazing how vivid those memories are for me from year to year.

This year marked a new chapter for us in a few ways. Alex no longer feels the need to make that trip to the apple orchard, just so long as we bring him a caramel apple back.  We will probably still make a trip to some orchard as a family yet this year, but as far as small children activities, Alex is over it.  So the boys have been preparing for Alex's first youth hunt, and some early archery season hunting on the weekends Jason doesn't have to work.  This past weekend a friend of mine who lives nearby invited us along to check out an apple orchard very similar to Little Farmer.

We visited Ferguson's Orchards in Galesville, Wisconsin.  The girls had a great time doing a lot of the same things we did at Little Farmer, along with some fun new things such as going out in the apple orchard and filling my friend Melissa's 10 lb bag with an assortment of apples straight from the tree.



Laura enjoyed going through the haunted house with friends and strangers alike.  Ainslee fed the goats and horses.  And the trip ended like every trip to an apple orchard should: with a fresh caramel apple.  They carried 'mini' apples on a stick which were just perfect for my two little birds.

I'm not really sure what is more fun, the day of a trip to the apple orchard or the week to follow when you try to figure out what you are going to do with all of those apples!  Yesterday I spent a good majority of the day in the kitchen making a big pot of potato and ham soup, complete with a 9 x 13 pan of apple crisp for dessert. After it was all done and ready I couldn't help but feel a few tugs at my heartstrings. Living next to my parents it wasn't uncommon for them to come up for dinner or us to go to their place any given night, and it was almost as though my dad had ESP whenever I baked something because he always had a tendency to stop about 10 minutes after pulling something out of the oven.  I miss that ability to just wait til one of them stops on their way by to extend the invitation, or share some baked goodies.  That lack of a spontanious visit from one of them has definitely been one of the harder adjustments for me.

The past week went well, Ava and I had our first reading session with the 3rd graders at Mel-Min School District on Friday afternoon which went really well.  The kids got to experience their first homecoming week celebrations at their new school, complete with a parade in Melrose.  Monday evenings are the only night of the week we typically eat dinner together with the 5 of us present since Jason is working night shifts, so we really take that time to talk about the day and touch base where each of the kids are at in school, activities, socially, etc.  The kids continue to adjust very well, they are all really liking their new teachers and classmates.  Fall seems to have finally made an appearance temperature wise, and I have a black dog beckoning me to go for a hike, until next time!