This weekend, my mom, sister, brother-in-law, niece and I headed out to New Jersey to go apple and pumpkin picking. This is something we talk about every single fall, and very rarely actually do. However, this year was different. My still relatively brand new niece is now a factor, and my brother-in-law’s family lives out near the apple orchard/pumpkin patch. And so we planned a day of it with the in-laws. Waking up Saturday morning, it was pouring rain here and completely miserable out, and so it looked like the day was going to be a bust. However, some quick phone calls told us that the rain in Jersey seemed to have passed overnight and the sun was coming out, and so off we went on our first official fall excursion.

The weather turned out to be perfect – the sun was out, it was breezy and it definitely smelled like fall at the farm. We made a crazy crew – three kids, a baby, and a whole bunch of adults, some of whom seemed more excited about the day than the kids. We had a fun time showing them how to pick the apples the place them into the baskets so they wouldn’t get bruised, and imagining how much fun the trip will be next year, when Pickle (cause that’ll be my niece’s name for blog purposes) is old enough to walk around and pick apple with us. As it was, she was pretty well-behaved for being the littlest person on our trip.

She did, however, seem a little confused about what this excursion was all about.

Both kids and adults alike got very excited when we reached the pumpkin patch. Everyone trekked through to find themselves the perfect pumpkin to take home for carving or cooking (depends on who you talk to!).

Now, of course, we have more apples than we possibly know what to do with, so it seems like I’ll be making a lot of pies and crisps in the near future. And if coming home with pounds of apples is success, then we were extremely successful. The day was finished off with dinner and dessert at my brother-in-law’s sister’s house.