Fall Happenings

One of the best things about living in New England is the fall. The other great thing is that lots of people want to see our beautiful colors, and that means visitors! If you want to come visit, get your October lodging request in early because rooms go quickly at the Thomas Bed and Breakfast. This year we were lucky enough to have California Grandma and Grandpa come for the first week of October followed by the first annual Girls Weekend with long time friends April and Beka. I love having company because it is such a great excuse to get out and explore all of the great things to see around this area. Ryan loves it because I clean the house really well for company and cook yummy dinners.

We did lots of fun things when Mom and Dad were here. Since it was the first time Dad has been here since we bought our house, we did lots of driving around the neighborhood to show him our new digs. We also went to the coast to tour Strawbery Banke (yes, that's strawbery with 1 r and banke with an e, those crazy Brits,) which is a super old town that has been restored to teach the youngins about the way it used to be back in the late 1600's. We also had outings to Lake Winnipesaukee and Wolfeboro, Lull Fruit Farm for fresh produce and apple pies, and a trip to the shooting range with Ryan. Ry brought a bunch of fun .22s to shoot with. Mom and Dad had a great time and killed lots of water bottles, various fruits and vegetables, an aerosol can of sunscreen, and a few other inanimate objects that deserved to die. Dad had an especially fun time. I think I have a great idea for a Christmas present, I just have to make sure its legal in California.

There was also lots of play time with Christian. It was cute to see how Christian took to Grandpa. My son has never been a cuddler. He prefers to wiggle. However, when we put Christian in Grandpa's lap and he was perfectly content to sit and chill for a while. He even fell asleep once. He NEVER does this. Pretty adorable.

April and Beka came the day after Mom and Dad left for a short, but very fun girls' weekend. It is hard to believe, but we haven't all been together for over 10 years. Way too long. But with old friends, it seemed like no time had passed. It was so fun catching up on our families, talking about the good old days, and seeing where life has taken us. Life has been good to us and we are all very blessed. I know that where we ended up is largely due to the fact that we had such good, healthy, strong examples in our friends. I am so grateful to the many outstanding friends I had both in childhood and young adulthood. You guys rule.

There are lot of great pictures on Beka's blog, which you can access from my blog. I figured I wouldn't bother taking pictures when I had a master photographer there. Beka's pictures are so cool. She captures scenes I would probably overlook. Very cool. I also convinced her to take a family picture of Christian, Ry, and I since we hardly have any all together. I think we might even use it for our first Christmas card. That's right, I will attempt to send out Christmas cards for the first time ever this year. We have a child now, I think you have to do things like that.

After everyone left, we remembered that we hadn't had our fall harvest yet. We have a bunch of new fruit trees, and some have even given us fruit the first season they were planted. Here is our fuji apple.

That's right, one apple. It wasn't exactly a bountiful harvest, but we're working on or farming skills for next year. Our little apple was delicious, though. I made a little apple tartlet that we ate with whipped cream. Yummy.