A-pickin’ we will go!

One of the many things that made me uncomfortable after we moved here was this insatiable desire I had for the seasons to change. No matter how angsty I felt about it, the temperature refused to lessen and the leaves refused to change. I’ve never lived in such a stubborn location. Therefore, I rebelled. I decided I couldn’t handle it, and that Fall was a necessity. If Pasadena couldn't provide, then we’d just have to go find it somewhere else! Hmpf! We gave it a good chance and waited until October, but Fall never showed. So, off we went!

I scouted out a farm about 1.5 hours east of us that had apple picking, pumpkin picking, carriage rides, hiking, a petting zoo, a cider press, hay bales to climb on, fresh pies to eat.. everything you need to remind yourself that in some parts of the country, it really is Fall. We picked a Saturday and went to find some Fall. And oh, was it wonderful.

Just the drive to the farm got me all worked up simply because there were trees that were a different color!

See the clouds? We were high and they were low - beautiful!

This farm also had grove of Redwood trees (or possibly Sequoias, because who can really remember these things? Oh.. maybe the kind of people that don’t try to write things down 6 months after they happened? Well.) and we got to walk right on through it.

It was just as magical as these things should be, for everyone involved.

We didn't even tell him to.. a natural-born tree-hugger!

We found a cute little bench, so we took some cute little pictures..

And even a family photo for the memory books!

We continued walking and found a lake! A lake of the beautiful and picturesque sort, all too tempting for the Short-Leggeds among us.

Our hike was stunning. Stunning and wonderful and naturey and not-sweltering. Everything I’d hoped for.

Well, we ran into a bit of trouble on our beautiful hike when we got a flat tire. Turns out there are lots of little burrs to be had in the woods that are not-little enough to poke holes right on through the inner tubes. So we re-routed our hike out to the road and plodded along, steadily uphill, wishing our children weren’t quite so heavy.

In an amazing turn of events, we discovered the local fire station (that the road we were walking along ran right passed) was having a bake sale! We didn’t buy anything, knowing that many good things awaited us back at the farm, but the bake sale meant there was a fire truck out and open for us to see! Aed was speechless with happiness. He loved it so much.

He was too excited to bother looking at the camera, so all the pictures look like this.

Then it was time for… apple picking! Joy of joys!

Did I mention it was a beautiful day?

We got to pick from any tree, and found that many trees had some amazing-looking apples way up high and out of reach. Ian then patented a new picking technique, pictured below.

Needless to say, the Picker loved it. The Non-Picker had quite a good time as well. (The mysterious arm there belongs to Ian's coworker, Peter. He came along with us and made the trip that-much-more enjoyable!)

Unfortunately, the apple orchard was full of those pesky burrs, so we flattened another tire, and by the time we got home, all three were flat! I spent the next days picking burs and prickers out of the tires and trying to fix up that buggy so we wouldn’t lose more inner tubes. Worth every prick.

Then the petting zoo..

Adorable.

And the hay bales..

And the occasional nap..

Which all led to enjoying the spoils of a proper Fall in our very own home where Fall refused to come.

I also supplemented with a spicy-sweet candle to give us the right aroma. It was a beautiful thing.

One last picture that I think is adorable.. the munchkin acting like he knows what to do with one of those.

He, of course, didn’t and got bored with it after about 5 seconds, but it made for a cute memory.

The day was absolutely wonderful, definitely one of my favorite memories of our time here in CA. Ian and I reminded each other many times of what a gift that day was, how thankful we were to have had it. It honestly was sweet refreshment to our souls. I have learned that changes of season are so important to me, figuratively and literally. I grow when challenged with something new, and this stage of life brings mostly new things. Change is good, welcomed or not, and I’m thankful that we had a time to revel in the beauty of a changing season. Just remembering that special day brings a sigh of relief and satisfaction. A good day.