apple picking

Fall is here, and I kind of feel like we've taken October by storm. So far we've roasted plums, picked apples, had a few fires in the fireplace, slow cooked pork and short ribs, and visited a pumpkin patch twice.

Here are some pictures from our apple picking adventure with friends. Lucy and Lilac had a great time running around the orchard grabbing apples and throwing them into the wagons. Oscar took a nap and Mazzy tried to keep up. Lilac was big on tasting each apple before putting it into the wagon, so Chip and Rachel ended up buying a bunch of apples with tiny bites taken out of them. Fortunately for us, Lucy's lack of fruit-love paid off again as our apples were sometimes bruised by enthusiasm but mostly whole.

Later, at dinner, we were all saying what our favorite part of the day had been, and Lucy said hers was picking apples and eating them. I told her I didn't remember her eating any apples, but she said Lilac ate them which was apparently practically the same thing.

We came away with a bag of concord grapes and about fifteen pounds of apples but without my cellphone which I dropped in the makeshift overflow parking field. Someone turned it in but it took me a week to get it back, during which time I missed almost no calls and texts. Being largely antisocial pays off!

friday cute shot

snow angels

Attempted family portrait.

It has been a mild winter in Portland but we've been itching to take Lucy to the snow, so on Saturday we had Mt. Hood adventure with the neighbors. The first thing Lucy did when we got there is throw herself face down in the snow, sopping up the experience. It was sunny and we had just gotten out of the car for a minute to get a parking pass, but she wasn't wasting any time. I hurried to get her coat before she soaked her three layers of shirts through.

Luca found Lucy's snow-eating inspiring.

Throwing and eating snowballs were the next two mile stops in her sensory exploration, she was digging the cold but Luca wasn't so sure. He picked up on the snowball eating and soon he was also smiling; the parents were trying to explain the difference between snow on the bank and snow on the parking lot and which of the two we were willing to let the little ones eat. Lucy wasn't really buying it.

Lucy, Mama, Figgy, and a snowball

We got the kids into the car and headed toward SkiBowl, but we got a little confused on the short way there and it ended up being kind of a long way. Relatively, when you're a kid in a snowsuit who is tired of the car wants to play in the snow. To stave off restlessness we offered up her favorite song as of late, Dog Days are Over; Lucy said to the stereo: "Make me patient, Florence!"

At Ski Bowl East we climbed up the hill, watching bigger kids ride a lift with inner-tubes and thinking about future visits. We found a snow hill to dig in and a slide, and some virgin ground for making snow angels. There was an intriguing circle setup with inner-tubes and tiny snowmobiles hooked to a metal twirly bar, but when we asked about it they said it was fifteen dollars for a pass even if you're only two. The first teenager on staff was almost gleeful to deny us: "Nothing here is free!" The second teenager on staff looked a little embarrassed. We improvised and Lucy and Luca hopped into an abandoned two-person tube for the ghetto version, a mama-propelled circle spin. The giggles indicated they didn't much mind.

On a side note, I think when I was little and my parents brought me up here, the inner-tubes were real things from real tires that you stopped into Les Schwab and got for free on your way up to the mountain. Today when we tried to bring a disc sled to slide on they said nothing from outside was allowed for liability reasons. Also, probably because the disc sled would have been free, and thus counter-policy. We did manage to sled in the parking lot while sipping hot chocolate we brought in a thermos from home, and the tiny little banks of snow were just the right height.

Attempted group shot. Two-year-olds in snow are hard to corral!

After lunch of fish and chips and burgers and malt shakes finished off with huckleberry pie, we had one last snow-stravaganza and we were ready for home.

Not deterred by it being much later than naptime, Lucy offers to drive us home.

walk to the park

 Scenes from a frosty early morning walk to the park on the last day of the year:

"This tree is beautiful! I want to climb it!"

"There is a hole. You should walk on the other side because there is no hole there.
I need to step in this hole to see if it is safe."

"Did you know that this plant can walk?"

"Do you want to follow me on my adventure?"

when the rain came

Two days ago we had the first rain that I can remember in awhile and it perked me up immediately and I told you we had to go sit on the porch and watch. It was after dinner and you had your popsicle, and we opened the door and the screen door and sat down right on the threshold and you sat down right next to me, then moved back a little to sit a little more exactly where I was.

We sat for a moment then I said I needed a sweater and you said you needed one too, so we got sweaters from the closet and sat back down. Then you wanted to be wrapped up in my sweater too so you sat on my lap and we snuggled in and the rain came down even harder and we sat on the porch and watched the tomatoes get wet.

The air was chilly and fresh and you were solid and warm and the smell of the rain made me not feel sick at all and we were quiet as you ate your popsicle.

After, you went out and did a rain dance.