Just like old times+canyons=happiness

Little apple pickers. Clementine, Bea and Ella

Today I woke up to the lovely voice of Stef who called and woke me up at 8:20(I know she was jealous:).  She told me how much she loves homeschooling and I told her Henry loves Kindergarten and riding the bus where he learned that "what the F" was a bad thing to say.  Another mark for reasons to homeschool.  Anyway, we went to Bea's ballet class which is always the most darling thing to watch and then my friend Alissa and I with all our girls headed up to Heber to pick free organic apples in someone's front yard.  I was in heaven.

We probably picked 100 lbs of apples which we will make into sauce for all our babies.  Clementine was banished to the stroller after multiple attempts to cross the super busy street and Bea and Ella were intent on climbing the ladder no matter how many times we told them it was the "mommy" job. The sign advertising the free apples had a very minor spelling error on it.  No biggie.

The best part is that they used the lower case "L" so it looks more like "apies" which is even more hilarious than leaving out one "p".  lol.

Really great apples we just couldn't reach.  These trees were not pruned so they grew really tall and the apples were tiny, but hey, who can argue with free and organic?

Happy "apie" eaters

Clementine banished to the stroller.  Poor Clemmie!

We raced home to Justin who was all ready to go up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a bonfire where we, along with Alissa and Ella who decided to join up with us,  roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, played on a playground and let the kids put on a show at the amphitheater.

afraid of the fire

Clementine, once again, banished to a life of restricted access.  As long as she had a marshmallow she was happy to be there:)

Bea was unfortunate enough to get an ember in her hair and now has a nice little bald spot right where her only head freckle and part usually is, so we'll see how that looks in the morning.  After scrubbing the kids down and putting them to bed Justin came home with probably $60 worth of produce from our CSA and I spent quite a bit of time scrubbing down multiple winter squash, potatoes, carrots and fruit galore.  My counter tops are overflowing with fruits and vegetables and I am reminded of the good ol' days in Pittsburgh when I had no kitchen space left after buying multiple bushels of peaches and had a garden full of giant heirloom tomato plants that would produce more tomatoes than we could possibly eat.

Perfectly roasted marshmallows with chocolate stuck inside.  One of my all time favorite treats

What's not to love about the fall?

Rare view of my pregnant-ness

I really love the fall for every reason: winter squash, pumpkins, Halloween, my Birthday, this baby finally leaving my body soon, cool nights and fall colors.  All you East Coasters who say that the fall is the best on the east because there are so many trees, believe me when I say that it's way more beautiful when you're looking at those colors up super steep canyons on breathtaking mountains.  The leaves are already changing here and with all the rain we had this year the colors should be extra vibrant.  I miss Pittsburgh, but it's so amazing to be up the canyon in a matter of minutes doing what we did today.  What a fabulous day!

A special thanks to Alissa for providing me with all my photos since my camera is acting up.  You've got skills, sista!