Fall Photo Shoot

I love taking pictures of my family.  Especially in the Fall.  It's so fun being outside and enjoying the weather and the colors, but then I get to focus (ha, no pun intended!) on my two favorite people.  It just doesn't get much better than that.  So last weekend we decided to go to a nearby park and wander around snapping some shots.  This post is mostly going to be pictures, and a lot of them!  And this doesn't even come close to representing all the pictures that I took that day!  Eric always makes fun of me because I'm always saying how much I love digital (you know, as if it's still something so new instead of something that's been around for 15 years or so) because you don't have to worry about how many pictures you take - you can always delete some later, but then I never delete any!  I just can't though.  I love each and every one.  And I have a hard time choosing favorites.  It's like they're some weird breed of children - you just can't get rid of any or play favorites with them!  Oh well.  Enjoy some of my favorites from last weekend.

So typically Emma!

Not quite sure what pose this is...

And just so we didn't forget who we were dealing with, Emma needed to be very crazy for a moment before we found our next spot.

These next few are some of my FAVORITES (even though I don't play favorites, remember?).  As you can tell, the lighting wasn't very good, and we hadn't quite started taking our real pictures here.  But these two were just talking and Eric said something (I wish I remembered what!!) that totally grossed Emma out.  Her facial expressions of disgust and his smirk of self satisfaction with having disgusted her made me laugh.  I just couldn't stop snapping shots, even though the light was crappy.

She did recover from whatever it was he said though!

We did make sure to take some time and just play at the playground too.  You can't go to a park without just relaxing and having some fun!

Emma's School Door

Last week I decorated Emma's classroom door.  I saw a super cute idea online that looked really easy, so I copied it. I didn't have my camera with me at her school, but here is the picture I saw online.  It turned out exactly the same (except her classroom door isn't red, so I used red paper).  Love it!

Rivalry

Emma and Eric are deep in the throws of a rivalry.  It's her Green Bay Packers vs his Denver Broncos.  The smack talk is thick at the Meadows household.  Only time will tell who will win, but for now, the dirty glances are cracking me up.  Emma even drew her vision of the outcome of today's game.  Too funny!

** Editor's Note:  Okay, the verdict is in.  The Packers won 49 to 23.  Eric and Emma had a wager too.  The loser had to give the winner a back scratch.  The last photo on this post is Eric paying up.  Emma REALLY enjoyed that back scratch!

I love how Emma included fans in the stands, the goal post, and that the Bronco players are frowning while the Packers are smiling.  So funny!

Apple Picking

If you've ever engaged in conversation with me for more than 5 minutes, first of all, congratulations.  ;-)  And second, you probably know that Fall is my favorite time of year.  I announce this to the world as frequently as possible in the hopes that one of these years God will not only hear one of my declarations, but take pity of me (or at least get really sick of me saying it) and let me enjoy more than a couple weeks of decent Fall weather before Winter comes.  I would live in perpetual Autumn if I could.  I love the sweaters, the crispness to the air, the leaves changing colors, the sounds of leaves crunching beneath your feet, and all the smells of the good things there are to eat and drink this time of year.

So it's no surprise to me that I fell in love with apple picking on my first visit.  I've never done it before, mostly because there was never a super great place to go close by.  But this year, living in a new place, we received a most awesome tip from a friend (thanks again Julie - seriously!), and on Saturday headed to Oriole Springs orchard, only about 20 miles away.  It was the first day you could pick the honey crisp apples.  Oh my, they were/are delicious.  We bought a 1/2 bushel, and are now just salivating at all the possible things we could do with them (besides just eating them, we've already made some applesauce, cider, and sauteed some to go over ice-cream)!

A bunch of friends were caravaning out and we were going to meet them there.  Ha!  It was so crowded that I never even saw one of them.  We did bump into our friends the Van Wagenen's, which was great.  And Emma loved hanging out and wandering around with Abi.  Next year we'll definitely caravan with everyone now that we know how crazy this experience can be.

The weather was perfect, crisp, slightly overcast, sweater wearing weather.  I could've stayed all day just enjoying the ambiance (and of course eating the apples - which I maintain is the best part of going there) and the perfect Autumn-ness that the day offered.  Needless to say, we will definitely be doing this again next year.

The line of cars to get into this place was crazy long!  We were 2 miles back from the front, and within minutes the line behind us was probably at least that long.

Emma was such a great helper.  I love that the trees weren't super huge and tall so she could reach some of the apples.

Even though she could reach plenty of the apples, Emma seemed determined to get some of the apples from the very tops of these trees.

Almost there!  The quest for top apples continues.  I love the action shot!  She jumping up in this picture willing herself to the top.

While in the orchard, you could eat as many apples as you wanted.  Yum is all I can say about that!!

Emma with her friend Abi

Bless her little apple-pickin' heart!  I sure love my girl!!