a lovely weekend

Last weekend we planned to visit an apple orchard, take in some of Michigan's lovely fall color, and maybe camp. I was pretty hesitant about the idea of camping because I just didn't think Matthew and Scarlett would cooperate. But I finally decided, what the heck? If things really went bad, we could always go find a hotel somewhere. Ha! I'm forgetting who I married!

Saturday morning we ate breakfast, then got everything (seems like we sure took a lot to be gone just one night!) packed and loaded, and off we went. We got to the apple orchard around lunchtime. We bought some sandwiches for lunch, then when we finished those we bought fresh kettle corn, some donuts, and apple cider. YUMMMY! I love all those things. And um no, none of them are very diet friendly. But um, it's only fall once a year. ;) Once we finished our lunch we went off to play at the orchard. Matthew enjoyed climbing on and "driving" one of their antique tractors. We took a hayride to the orchard and picked a peck of apples. We got a few different varieties, some for baking and some for eating. Matthew and Scarlett enjoyed picking the apples, but it was hard to keep Scarlett from biting every one that she could get her hands on!

We visited the petting farm and Matthew rode a pony. We tried to take their pictures in front of the apple growth chart they have, so you can compare size from one year to the next. It so happens my kids just won't stand still for that sort of thing! After that, it was more tractors. That was definitely Matthew's favorite part.

Once we were tired of playing at the orchard, we headed off for a drive. We found a campground in the national forest and picked a site. David & I used to camp and we would usually just find an out of the way spot, not in a campground, but it was getting dark so we decided to take the easy way out. David got the fire going (really quick - I was impressed) and lit the lantern so we could see to set up camp. He did most of the camp work while I kept the kids out of the fire. We started cooking hot dogs so we could eat. It's all about the food. Matthew seemed to really enjoy cooking over the fire and while he usually won't eat hot dogs, he wolfed that one down & asked for another! After hot dogs were eaten we roasted some marshmallows. Matthew really liked those, and while Scarlett wasn't too sure at first, she quickly learned that they were gooey and messy so she enjoyed them too. We got the kids ready for bed and laid down in the tent with them. They went to sleep and we got up and sat around the campfire, even enjoyed a couple of s'mores. Haven't had those in ages.

Sunday we spent the day driving around looking at leaves, with me making a lot of stops to practice the things I've learned in photography class. It was a lovely weekend and I couldn't decide what pictures to share. Here are a couple, and if you want to see more check out my other pictures: