Apples, Pumpkins, and Baseball

It's fall.  Want proof?  In the last month, we've been apple-picking, to a Nats game with Uncle Justin, and to the fall celebration at Burke Nursery.

Way back on September 15, we drove an hour to Stribling Orchard.  The attraction to this farm was its variety of apples and it's location: the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Now that I have a garden, I've gotten really into food preservation and bought my own water bath canner, which I'd used precisely once (come visit and we can crack open my jar of pickles).  Applesauce is one of the items that can be canned without a pressure cooker, so I was excited to get some practice in and have an excuse to eat apple crisp day and night.

9-15-12 - Eve

9-15-12 - You can't beat the mountain air!

9-15-12 - New Wagon

The farm was lovely, gave us a chance to try out Alison's new wagon, and gave Alison a chance to eat apples off the ground for two hours straight.

9-15-12 - What?  46 apples seems reasonable to me!

I did eventually make four jars of applesauce (and we've already eaten one - physics works!), two apple pies, and two batches of apple crisp.  Yum!

The next weekend we watched the Nats vs. Brewers game with Uncle Justin.  It started off great, with a beer and brat tailgate, but as the Nats crushed the Brewers (I secretly wanted the Nats to win, I'm sad to say), Alison got more and more angry and we left after the fifth inning.

9-22-12 - We wore red Wisconsin shirts to disguise the fact that we were rooting for the Nats.

We went to Florida, then Nathan took an extra day off.  One luxurious, beautiful October day off together.  However, we were beat from the trip, so we drove eight minutes to Burke Nursery's Pumpkin Playground.  There, Alison got to take a hayride, see some goats and chickens, play on numerous farm and halloween-related play structures, and rode down huge slides on a carpet.  Over and over again we rode those carpet slides.  She is going to be an excellent roller coaster partner when she hits that coveted 53" mark.

10-6-12 - I jumped the gun because these slides were fast!

10-6-12 - So much joy from a fake horse

10-6-12 - I wanna go fast

10-6-12 - Alison picked this pumpkin out herself

The first time we visited DC was in October and that's why we got hooked.  It is hands down the best time of year to be here and we are soaking it up!