picking apples.

We went to our favorite place to pick our favorite apples to celebrate our favorite season.

The day before autumn equinox, we headed to the apple orchard. 

There were cider slushies, hot dogs, and too many pumpkin donuts.

There was a hayride, missed by a daddy and a certain little boy who needed a change and ended up without any pants.

There were animals to squeal over and pumpkins to pick.

There were honeycrisp apples to be picked. It was the first time we've been allowed to pick them. They are so coveted, the orchard usually doesn't allow you to u-pick. But that day they did. And we filled our bag until it was spilling over. And everyone ate as we picked for good measure. (Honeycrisp apples . . . reason #67 I can't bare to think of leaving the Mitten.)

It is crazy to think of our years coming to this place. I remember the year I was newly pregnant with the twins. After an August meant to be forgotten, I finally felt human again once I found the right medication in September. We went to the orchard and life felt repaired. Now here we are two years later, the twins I didn't know about yet walking up and down the rows, eating apples strait through the core, carrying them like teddy bears, chowing doughnuts like they are going out of style. Life has a particular was of changing so much while somehow staying the same. They looked so much like little Carly did during our first visits to the orchard.

Speaking of our firstborn. How much she has grown.

I love Michigan and I love fall and I love apples, but what I really really love is family time. I love escaping everything for just a little bit, to be together. I love family traditions, things we can look back on and remember, things that our kids will cherish.

And I love these apple-eating, cider-guzzling, pants-messing, crazy humans. 

One of my favorite quotes reads, 

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."

Every year as I soak in all that is fall, I can't help but feel that is more than a little true.

Welcome, autumn.

We're glad you've arrived.