Falling for Fall

I'm sorry for the bad pun. But really, I'm head over heels for Fall. My girls prefer to say "autumn" as it's more regal and it does seem to evoke the majestic tapestry of turning leaves in waning light that surrounds us this time of year. However, I still like plain old Fall - a somewhat plain but homey word that conjures the coziness of staying in under homemade quilts drinking spiced cider by candlelight. We celebrated the first picture-perfect day of Fall with a trip to the apple orchard. It's strange looking at pictures of blue skies taken just a day ago while hearing rain drops on the roof today. But the dreary weather is the perfect backdrop to a day spent inside making applesauce!


Maryn wore a bright flowery dress yesterday and had to borrow my sweater to keep from attracting bees. I left my purse in the car while we picked and just put my keys in the sweater. Well, as we got ready to leave I realized my keys were no longer in the pocket of the sweater. We had walked ALL OVER the orchard and I had no idea where the keys could be. After praying for help, we retraced some of our steps and found the keys in less than five minutes. A little miracle!

Better Together

I've been LOVING the adorable videos that Rubyellen of Cakies has been posting of her sweet family and decided it was high time we did something with our videos, too! We recently bought a little Flip camera off craigslist and the kids have been playing with it non-stop. I love that we have their little voices and mannerisms captured for posterity (and for future embarrassment when they hit high school).

Here's a recap of our month so far - it's been a fun one!

September from jessica ballanti on Vimeo.

What has been your favorite part of September so far?

The Hike

This one deserved a post of its own! On our last full day at Wallowa Lake my mom and I decided to take the kids on a hike. Our friends told us about an easy 1-mile round trip hike up to a bridge and back that was quite doable for little legs and short attention spans. So off we went!

Here are the kids at the trail-head: ready to go!

And here we are at the bridge:
Only that seemed just a little too easy. That couldn't have been half a mile, could it? They must have been talking about ANOTHER bridge. So we kept going.

The picture above of my mom carrying Lucy pretty much epitomized the rest of our hike. Right after we crossed the bridge we stopped for a little snack - and Lucy wound up wiping sunscreen in her eyes. The poor baby was miserable and weepy, yet I pushed us to go on anyway - we'd made it this far, right? How much could we have left to go?

Only another mile and a half! Not bad for two adults, but the kiddos would have been fine stopping at the bridge. Towards the end, we reached this amazing view:

And a few steps later we were at the waterfall. Poor Lucy is still rubbing her itchy watery eyes and Maryn looks drugged and tired:

We turned around to go back and as I had assured Maryn on our way up: going down is always 10x easier. Until you take a tumble and scrape your hand in sight of the car at the trailhead (poor Maryn!)

Only one thing could console us - Ice Cream! Everything's better with a little sugary treat:

And that is the story of how we survived our 3+ mile hike. Now anytime the girls complain about a long walk or bike ride, I remind them that if they could finish that hike, they can do anything! They are very proud of themselves for having made it, but request that we keep it to shorter hikes from now on. I think my mom agrees :)