Autumn is here, youth group, and a trip to the orchard

I believe that autumn is my favorite season and October is the month where things all come together. Its not too hot or too cold. The days are cool and bright with the sun shining through the gloriously hued trees. That particular smell of "fall" is in the air and its the perfect time to snuggle in with some hot tea and a good book. Ahh, fall! How I love thee!

So far I have been very busy and taking advantage of my wonderful season. Between work and day to day stuff, our weekends have been jam-packed with fun things to do. The first weekend in October we hosted a youth group event. At the start of this school year, James was asked to be the Sunday School teacher for our church's Jr High and High Schoolers. He was excited to be a S.S. teacher again since he had taught the Jr Highers at our previous church and enjoyed it immensely. We decided to have the youth over on a Saturday night. James and the kids met at the church to play a rousing game of "Capture the Flag" and then they all came to our house where they fed on taco salad and made smores from our fire-pit in our backyard. We all had a great time and plan on doing more stuff with them in the future.

The next weekend Danielle, Dad, and I took an hour drive out west. We drove along miles and miles of cornfields to reach our destination in Malta, IL at Jonamac Orchard. They have apple picking, an enormous corn maze, petting zoo, kid play area, pony rides, pumpkin picking, and a country store where you can buy homebaked goodies. It was a gloriously beautiful day that was in the 80s. Perfect for walking the maze and being outdoors.

Dad and Danielle at the entrance of the maze.





This is the actual maze! They do a new design every year. We only walked about half of it and it took us 20 minutes to go through it.






They had a bridge that you could walk up and look out above the corn field. So here I am surrounded by corn.





Oh, no Dad hacked my head off!


When we arrived we did the maze first. It was absolutely enormous and we only went through half of it. We wanted to have enough time to do some other things and didn't have a hours to spend there so we did the first half of the maze then walked along the grounds. They had a bunch of things for families to do and a lot of people were there. We originally had planned to do some apple picking and pumpkin picking but because of the time frame, we decided against it. For the apples you had to go out to the actual orchard but the pumpkins were already lined up in a row and you just grabbed one. I wanted to go to an actual patch and was disappointed they didn't have one. Instead we decided to go inside the country store and see what yummies we could buy.

They had your usual country kitsch for sale along with a bakery and fudge shop. I decided not to go crazy with the buying and bought only a jar of pumpkin butter, apple cider, and some small pumpkins that I would use for decorating. Dad, on the other hand, grabbed things left and right to fill his basket! He bought apple doughnuts, veggie bread, pumpkin bread, apple butter, a peck of apples, and maybe some small pumpkins too. He totally got into the fall spirit and was very happy with his purchases.

After we bought our items, we headed to the car to put them away and grab our bagged lunches that we had brought. We enjoyed a nice lunch outside under some shade and just enjoyed the people-watching and the weather. Looking at the families around us, we talked about how much fun it'll be when Blake is here and how we will be able to take him to do those types of things. I am excited about starting our own family traditions. My parents never really took us to do stuff like this when we were growing up. That day was the first time my dad had ever been through a corn maze, he didn't even know what one was! So being able to take my own son out and create family memories is something I am very much looking forward to.

After lunch we headed back for the drive home. It was a wonderful day spent with my sis and my dad. :)