WW: Holiday Spirit

I really thought I published this yesterday.

Apple picking

I've only been apple picking once in my life. Yep, you read that right. And when I went I vowed to never do it again- it was muddy and there were bugs. Boy have things changed!

Now that I have a child of my own I wanted to start some fall traditions. Things we could look forward to and moments to look back on. My parents came to stay with us for the weekend in our new home and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to start this fall tradition.

I'm glad I changed my mind because I had a blast! My goal for the day was to entertain my parents and basically show them a  good time in our new area, start a new fall tradition, and it had to be very budget friendly. There was an apple festival in a nearby orchard that was all the rave for weeks but the was an entry price in addition to paying for games, food, and apples (and parking too depending upon how close you wanted to be to the festival entrance)- no way... maybe next year. So hubby gathered enough information from the locals and found what I think may be the best apple orchard yet (based on my experiences of course)!

Clearly impressed with what's about to go down!

I was giddy with excitement the entire time! It had rained the night before so I was a little disappointed that I was going to have the 'muddy experinece' all over again but honestly I didn't care. I don't remember apple picking being this fun the first time I went. I must say the owners of this orchard sure knows how to suck you in. There were apple fitter stands, hot apple cider, and live entertainment. I took my first tractor ride (a first for me and the baby!) got tons of apples and a lifetime of memories. I must say I can't wait to do this again next year!

Sorry for the scary face- I must start wearing make-up! We're on our very first tractor ride :)

I don't know what is up with our faces- good thing the baby is sleep and my dad bought his camera!



I promise you my husband and dad are somewhere in those tress!

Look who woke up and picked his own apple!

The weather ended up being beautiful despite it raining all night and most of the morning. I truly had fun going up and down the orchard rows picking apples and tasting a few really fresh right off the tree apples.

I did learn a few lessons being that this was our (semi) first trip and all. First, it is definitely colder in the orchards than it is on the streets. We were a little under dressed- thank god I packed his blankets. Lesson learned. Second, I didn't bring my moby wrap. We when go next year this surely won't be an option anymore but if we are blessed with more children the wrap comes. Third, pack a bigger lunch. We were there way longer than I estimated. The baby had plenty of food- the adults ate lunch at the Orchard. While the menu options were okay and the food was tasty this surely wasn't in the budget.

Although lunch at the Orchard may have not been a part of my plan it sure as heck was tasty. We picked up an extra dozen of these to keep the party going way after we left the Orchard :)

After lunch we listened to the band, perused the country store (where Hubby picked up a really nice find), and watched the children go on pony rides. The owners of the Orchard also has a vodka and a wine distillery (what a pleasant surprise!). So, what do you do when you see a vodka distillery? Why, you pull over and have some (and a photo sesh of course)! And, across the street from the distillery? Why, the wine store! And what do you know they do wine tastings... HOLLA!!!

We're def doing this again next year :)

Mind Right Monday

Today I'm linking up with Dani over at OkDani.com. Every week I always think I'm going to join her and then I never do :( I'm so excited that I'm finally in on it!

Goals for this week:

- Clean the guest bedroom from top to bottom. I never got to do the cleaning that I would have liked to because our move was kind of pieced together. Since this room has the least amount of items in it I think it will be easier to start here.

- Walk 1 mile in 18 minutes or less. My current record is 18 minutes 59 seconds. The longest its ever taken me to walk one mile while pushing a stroller is 31 minutes 17 seconds and that was just last week- I'm on a get fit mission!

- Read at least 2 pages in my current book. Even if this means I have to hide in the bathroom while my husband and son tough it out. I kid! It's not that bad. But I would rather read blogs or browse pinterest/facebook. I've had this book for a week now and I'm on page 30.

- Start the post of my son's first birthday recap. I have no idea why in Sam hell it's taking me so long!

- Participate in 'Mind Right Mondays' again.

- Apply for just one job.

I'm grateful for:

- Heat. As of writing this (Wed 11/28 @ 9:30 pm) it's 34 degrees outside. Tonight's low it supposed to be 28. Oy!

- My son. He really does give me joy. Earlier today he found a closed box of Christmas lights. He walked over to our tree holding the box, pointed to the box, then pointed to the tree. I. AM. AMAZED.

-My family. My extended family has been going through some very rough times and I'm not sure everyone involved is handling it the best way possible. For the first time that I can EVER remember Thanksgiving was rocky. Not everyone showed up and people left early to go shopping- really folks??I am still thankful for them. Keep us in your prayers- please!

-Ice Cream

Accountability:

Since this is the first week I'm participating I don't have anything to add here. Let's see what happens next week.

If you are visiting from Dani's blog hop- please let me know you stopped by in the comments!

Momtography

It's no secret that I love photography and I want so desperately to be a momtographer. I'm inspired daily by many mom blogger's I follow and of course Pinterest. Since my last plea for a camera of my own I don't have any updates until in recent weeks when I've taken over hubby's camera. Here's the catch- I can only shoot in manual. Don't ask why but the 'automatic' feature on the camera just doesn't work. So I've enlisted the help of my brother and godfather to help me through this.

So far all of my pictures have stunk!

I mean can it not get any worse? I've been trying to do some online research to help me get better but I have to divide my time accordingly- know what I mean? So, in honor of my instagram birthday- yes, it's my instagram birthday!!!

I'm sharing some of those here.

(From top left)

Salvation Army, Trucks!, who stole the cookies from the cookie jar, daddy's home!, best.ice.cream.ever, baby fever, barnes & noble, chipotle, I really don't want to delete any of the 3,000+ pictures off my phone even if they are backed up in 3 different locations, where the sidewalk ends.

dinner time!, blog update, our daily walk, he loves veggies, fruits, and apps, shrimpfest, halloween, something I want to try, he's going to be looking for that, our junior firefighter, desperately trying to meet Faith IRL.


Okay, so you use IG but don't follow me yet? Send me a request!!! Just let me know that you did so because my photos are set to private (I'm scared of the stalkers). And, you use IG and want your own stats? I used Statigram.com- it's a cool website that gives you all sorts of statistics- I use it just for fun and not all that often. Wait, you don't use instgram and don't really know what I'm talking about but liked looking at all the pretty pictures? You can view my IG photos via my facebook page- hop on over and "like me". Aaaaand if you can help out my photography skills- please do so!

WW: Thanksgiving Day

Sadly, this is the one and only picture that I have from the Thanksgiving festivites.