our first taste of fall

 It still may be in the nineties here, but fall officially arrived for our little fam this past weekend.  It's a transition for my dear friend Colleen and I to go apple picking.  After doing this for a couple of years we thought we finally had it figured out and all set to go.  Our first year we went too late in the season and basically picked apples off the ground.  Last year we nailed it by going during the right time and we also found a pear orchard along the way.  So this year we quickly put the date on our calendars, and I was counting down the days. 

Or course things have to go a bit off-course, though!  I had heard earlier that day that this season the crops were so low that apple picking was over.  What?!?!  I panicked, and then did everything I could to figure out which one orchard in all of Julian was still open.  Let me just say that orchards are very hard to get ahold of during apple picking season!  

We decided to make the trek up to Julian, head to the orchard we thought would be open, and if all else failed we would go to the winery that was right next to it.  Fortunately everything worked out amazingly.  The orchard we had went to last year was open to the public, their was a faint crispness in the air, and Nathan was happy as a clam once we arrived (let's not mentioned the fact that he screamed the last ten minutes of the car ride).  

I gave Nathan his first raw apple for him to teeth away on.  That apple was his best friend the entire day.  Anywhere he went, the apple came too, and he was very good at switching hands holding while getting strapped in and out of the stroller.  As soon as he was asleep, I quickly snuck that apple away from him because it was collecting all sorts of yucky goodies.  

Colleen and I had so much fun strolling along the orchard, finding the perfect apples, and collectively agreeing how good it felt.  It felt like fall had finally arrived and my heart was overflowing with joy over the fact that Nathan is here to enjoy all of these little festivities with us.  Our next adventure will be the pumpkin patch!  Although, I'm sure next year will be that much better as he walks and runs all over the place.  This year I imagine him trying to either eat a pumpkin or climb on top of it.  

Oh, and I fully planned on taking some adorable pictures of Nathan at the orchard with our camera only to realize that I forgot the memory card!!  Totally mom fail...thank goodness for camera phones and terrible lighting!