Hello Winter, You're Early.

It's October 29th and we've got this tonight...
...hopefully there's not a ton more of it when we wake up in the morning!!

Winter, you're a little too early this year!!!

Apple Fest 2011

Per our annual fall tradition, Brian and I went apple picking at a local orchard. This year was a much better year for apples and the picking was easy peezy. Or perhaps easy as pie. Either way, we picked 35 pounds of apples in about 10 mins. We plan to make and can applesauce, and maybe some apple-pie jam (because who wouldn't want to smother some morning toast with apple pie jam!?). But really, we needed apples for our Apple Party with some friends. Everyone brought an apple-inspired dish for dinner, then we played the Apples to Apples card game, followed by a very close girls v. guys Cranium game. Kurt and Emily even came dressed as a apples - how cute! With all that yummy food and great people, we'll have to consider making the apple party an annual event.

Circus Dog

After Jane's successful encounter with the obstacle/agility course at the Dog Days of Summer event, we've talked about signing her up for a class. But before we commit the time, we wanted to test out her interest a little further..... so far so good! Don't call the circus yet, but she's taken to jumping over a stick pretty quickly.

(please excuse the silent video... technical difficulties)

Beach Day

After our quick picnic dinner trip to Popham that didn't go as planned, we took a day off together, left Jane at home, and spent the day at the beach. Since it was mid September and overcast, the beach was nearly deserted, but it was a great relaxing day. We even got in the water and went swimming!

Popham Beach, we still love you. We'll see you next summer.

Perfect Picinic Dinner

Early in September I was feeling like we had let the summer slip away (once again) without once visiting the beach - and really, what's more summery than the beach?! Brian had just finished a stressful week at work. So on whim, Friday evening right after work, we picked up sandwiches and drove to Fort Popham with Jane. We were excited. What could go wrong with dinner on the beach and Jane enjoying the water? yeah, sure, I'll list them all.

• Sunset comes a lot earlier this late in the summer, so we only had about 30 mins before the sun set.
• the mosquitoes were so persistent we literally couldn't stop swatting long enough to take a bite of our sandwich without getting covered in bugs. We ran up and down the beach, sandwiches in hand, to try to stay ahead of the bugs.
  
• Jane was not interested in getting wet and too nervous about the waves to enjoy herself.
• they put tomatoes in Brian's sandwich which isn't a big deal to pick out ...if your fingers aren't covered in sand.

Was it the relaxing evening we had pictured? No. But we squeezed in that visit to the beach, doing one last "summer" thing before the shorts got put into storage.

Maybe that's just what the beach is, a perfect experience we dream about all winter long, but once we get there the water's too cold to swim, the seagulls want to steal your lunch, and the sand's found its way into places it really shouldn't be.... actually, that's exactly how I remember it. Is it crazy that I love it so much?

More Snuggles

This is what happens when Mel picks out the movie to watch... my two snugglers get to relax together. :)

Sharing the taste of summer

Nothing says summer like fresh watermelon (which finally showed up at Farmer's Market!) so we enjoyed some last weekend. But no one likes it better than Jane!

And no, we wouldn't normally feed her like this.... I dropped my slice on the ground and it seemed silly to toss it when we knew Jane loves it so much. Plus, it was a riot to watch her eat it like this.