Pumpkin Fest

One Saturday morning in October walked over to the Bethesda Fountain area for the Pumpkin Fest.  Nothing like a kid's holiday program by the parks n rec to remind you that you live in the biggest city in the country. The chatter on the web was that the pumpkins do run out so don't dwaddle.  So we got there before it started and were in a huge long line that wound around down the street.  It was crazy but fortunately moved quickly.

Jaime was very into hunting down the perfect pumpkin.

After picking out our pumpkins we wandered through the other stuff. Most of it was for older kids so it was a quick pass through. We took a break in the mall.

We listened to a couple of songs by the kiddie band and then called it a day.

Pumpkin patching

A couple weeks after our apples trip I weasled in a trip to the pumpkin patch.  We left bright and early once again and had the most beautiful drive up to the farm.  It was like the type of scene from a movie, gorgeous.  It set the mood for the day.

When researching pumpkin patches I decided to pick a place that was fairly diverse to give it a full experience.  The farm we went to does CSAs and grows a variety of produce through the growing seasons.  We headed to the pumpkin patch first.

We picked out three excellent pumpkins. And then headed off to load back up on apples.

After having our fill of running around the orchards we headed back to their farm store. We had to play with the pumpkins and have some apple cider donuts.

And we checked out the chickens.  That was pretty cool.

It was tons of fun and an absolutely lovely morning.

Apples!

The first weekend in October we packed up as early as we could in the morning and headed out north to pick apples. It was an absolutely wonderful day, we had a blast.

We picked a farm that was family owned/operated and was super simple. They had a farm store and let you loose in their orchards and that was it, zero cheez-factor. It was perfect.

When we arrived we stopped at the farm store to purchase our bag to fill. They had it all decorated for fall and Jaime got a kick out of the pumpkins. He thought they were like balls and thus the little ones were for throwing.

After we got out to the orchard it was like the city was a million miles away. There was zero road noise and while there were other people there picking it was easy to get off into your own little zone. Jaime just loved it.

The kid had an apple in hand the entire time. He ate his body weight in apples that morning. 

The apples tasted amazing. There is such a huge difference between these and what we get in the store. We all were in love with these apples and ate them like they were going to get stolen from us if we didn't get them in our bellies pronto.

Jaime was passed out hard core within minutes of hitting the road. During the drive home Dan and I chatted about how this has to be an annual family tradition.

Such good old fashioned family fun and such good memories. I thought we might not go through the apples so easily since there are only three of us but they were gone in no time.

September Little Stuff

Oh September. One day you are running around in muscle tees and getting pinkberry fro-yo for an afternoon treat, the next you are in a cardigan and thinking about apple cider donuts.

September was about relaxing. Just good old quality family time in the neighborhood.

Playground visits in the neighborhood were plentiful. You wouldn't know that this kid only started walking months ago. He was flying around and working on new tricks like the chain ladder.

There were peaceful mornings in the park (these pics are from when we waited for Dan to finish his race.

Sunday morning donuts on park benches and dinner alfresco.

Lots of time was spent playing at home. We worked on coloring, painting, duplos, making alphabet soup, etc.

There were trips to the farmers' market.

And there was baby growin'.

It was a good month, wrapping up summer and leading us into fall.

Races 9 of 9 - And Done!

In September we both ran our final races to complete the nine races plus one volunteer race to finish the guaranteed marathon entry program. It was a great feeling to complete this goal and I was so excited about this perk that came with moving here.

I ran 3 races pregnant this time but didn't run nearly as much as I did the first time.

And done!