apples and autumn

i love the autumn time in michigan.

i really think it is one of the things i am going to miss most.

i feel like we kind of get the best of both worlds here.

we have the nice wooded areas to really appreciate the changing of the leaves, but we also have the wonderful sprawling farm towns where the barns are nestled in the tall corn.

i know for sure one of the things i'll miss the most is our cider mill.

i know there are other cider mills in the world. i pray we will end up in a place that has one nearby. but this one will always hold a special place in my heart. this is our fourth year going here. i mean, we've been coming to get apples and pumpkins and donuts at our cider mill since tennyson was just a chunky little thing.

tennyson is quite a bit older now and has more hair and less fat, and we still can't get enough of this place.

this year he helped us pull the wagon as we walked around the apple orchard. he climbed the giant dirt hill with the rest of the big kids and went down what has to be the most dangerous slide i've ever seen. he went off into the inflatable playground on his own while we ate our own lunch. and he wandered along picking apples from the bottoms of the tree (which were in much better shape than the rotted ones from the ground that maggie kept trying to throw in our bag).

so now we have about a million pounds of apples sitting in our kitchen.

i have a batch of applesauce in the slow cooker, and about a hundred different apple recipes waiting to be tried.

tennyson and maggie are in heaven because i've been letting them eat an apple whenever and wherever they want and i don't get mad at them if they only take three bites and then leave to go back to play.

and the windows are open and the cool breeze has been coming in all day and the leaves are starting to change colors and halloween is just around the corner.

autumn in michigan sure is awesome.