Fall is coming!

Up until recently, it hasn't really felt like fall. It has been what I consider hot (any day with a high of 80 or above) and dry. Then it rained. And it really hasn't stopped raining for days. I love it. A dreary, rainy day calls for tomato soup and grilled cheese for lunch, and some applesauce making.

For those of you who live in NKY, you must check out McGlasson Farms in Hebron. We love it there. Grace always wants to go to the "farm." Right now their apples are in season, and they carry a ton of varieties. I like the fact that they come from right there on the farm, too, not Michigan or some other place 'far away'.

Last week after dropping my brother-in-law off at the airport, it was perfect timing to go to the farm to see what we could find. I came home with what seemed like a ton of apples, but have learned that one of those giant baskets of apples doesn't make as much applesauce as you would think. See below...


The giant pot of apples, after cooking on the stove, and put into this magical machine (that Grace is modeling above- doesn't she look like Vanna White selling it?) makes a 9x13 (about 3 quart size Ziploc bags worth).
No peeling, no coring... a big thanks to Janelle for turning me onto this thing. I borrowed hers so many times that I finally asked for one for Christmas! :) I am about to try it out on tomatoes. And maybe canning them? Pioneer woman I am not, but this is fun! No snickering, please.

One last tidbit of summer news....

What we did on our summer vacation in Colorado

Do you need a recap? End of July, head to Chicago. Erik, home. Cathryn and kiddos to Albuquerque. Erik works, then on to Albuquerque as well. Then we took a Westbrook family vacation to the mountains in Colorado. I lobbied afterwards to get a vacation house up there but couldn't get anyone to jump on board with me. :) Something about money...

The boys fish, the girls and kids through rocks. Look for this to be a recurring theme.

The big kids got to take a train ride on a 1920's steam locomotive through the mountains. Poor Matthew positively loves trains, but was happier napping at home I suspect.

At this point I think Erik 'shrieked' :) "are those train cars tipping?" I believe he also stopped leaning over the edge to take pictures of the river thousands of feet below!

How to keep babies entertained for part of the long drives and flights. Hey, you get desperate.

How cute is this picture of Papa and the Little Man?

More rock throwing... I told you there was a theme here!

Turn the hot tub temp down and it is like a giant warm outdoor baby pool!

Snuggles with the chosen ones on the trip, Aunt Sara and (Uncle? ;o) J.J.

Seriously, my baby almost got attacked here by rabid chipmunks who apparently other people find fun and cute to feed. But the baby can't defend himself! It was crazy. Grace also slipped on pond scum trying to get the perfect rock to throw into the lake. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the wet underwear and shorts drying on a stick in the sun like a white flag of peace for the chipmunks.

The boys fish.... Lots of travel and lots of fun, but still good to be home too!

What we did on our summer vacation

I am ashamed that it has been so long since I blogged. I really don't know where our summer went. Oh, yeah. We did this a lot at home:

Then we all drove to Chicago and met my parents there for a wedding. Man, we miss Chicago. It is too much fun!

Then we went on to Albuquerque and had some lady like fun at a tea party at Gram's house, where Bear also got a new coat. We went to the Albuquerque zoo (love those reciprocal memberships!) and saw some kangaroos and got to ride the train.

We got another 5 generation photo, even if the Boy doesn't quite fit in with that line of ladies.

Then we had a little unorthodox fun, because, after all, we were at Nana and Papa's house.

Like, reading Christmas books in August (Grace's request). That is Aunt Sara and boyfriend J.J.

Swimming naked, because they can. And eating in the pool, because they can. And getting a bath, in the pool, because they can. Hey, I said it was unorthodox (but fun!).

Painting rocks, naked. Again. I promise, they really were clothed most of the time. Why wash out paint when you don't have to?

"Uh, this posing for pictures is such hard work."

Grace and her adored (or is that adoring?) Aunt "Sasa".

And get this: Matthew and Grace both decided swimming in an icy pool was fun after all! They didn't know that Papa puts warm water in the baby pool at home. What service.

I left my heart on.... Vancouver Island

Here are the pictures from our trip to Vancouver Island. Like I said, it was fantastic! (Still haven't found that thesaurus.) The trip was as wonderful as our honeymoon (stop your snickering!) and I think I've decided I like "winter" beaches more than "summer" beaches. We were visiting over their cooler months, but it never really gets hot. My kind of place. No sweating or sunburns! It is a temperate rain forest, so there is also a lot of rain, although in all our time there we only had one wet day (thanks, God!). Now all we have to figure out is how to take a trip like this every year, just the two of us, not every eight years!

Check out these tidal pools. You can see how vast the tidal difference was- about 12 feet every day.

I was joking that Erik was trying to kill me off on this trip to collect on my life insurance (kidding, kidding!) because he had planned on us taking a sea plane tour. I deplore little planes. And it didn't help that I had a movie in the back of my mind in which one crashes in the wilderness. However, I must admit it was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. The pilot took us into the glaciers and then at the end we flew over the ocean and spotted three gray whales migrating! I will never forget that sight. I couldn't decide which pictures to post. They all were fantastic (there's that word again!).

Our pilot also said that he came here on vacation and never left. I had the same thoughts...

A 1500 year old tree (fuzzy picture- it was raining that day) that we saw on our kayaking trip to one of the inner islands. Think of all that this tree has seen!

An old open pit mine that was turned into a garden 50 years ago. I'm wondering if I could get my yard to look like this...

A sprinkle of pixie dust

Maybe I should be blogging about the fantastic trip that Erik and I took just the two of us at the end of May. Suffice it to say it was wonderful. Glorious. Magical. Did I say fantastic? Where's my thesaurus? Anyway, we had to drag ourselves home. Except that there was the draw of these two very cute kids waiting for us...

Here's the fairy, at her ballet recital last week:

In case you were wondering, yes, they were the cutest ones there!

If you are curious as to why they are all doing different things on stage, have you ever tried herding cats?

Luckily she didn't notice the giant crowd of people until towards the end! And like all good things in life, after all that time, effort and money, their performance was over just like that. Like, one minute and fifteen seconds. Um, can we get an encore?

Matthew thought his sister was the star of the show, clapping and screaming when she came out to perform. Only problem was he was trying to be the star from the audience. Needless to say the men left during intermission.