Even More Apples

Among many other things, my mom instilled in me the very strong habit of picking apples every year. 

Without fail! 

It's always fun, always worth the effort, and I get to make delicious apple treats for weeks thereafter. This year, I went with just Sister, and I'm kind of glad because it was a bit of a fiasco. 

We usually go to Solebury Orchards in New Hope, which is a bit of a hike, but they have a great vibe and some extremely delicious apple cider donuts. However, this year they were completely mobbed when we showed up. The trees were fairly picked over (we theorize that they were about to switch over to new rows, because the rows available were picking were almost empty, but there were rows of trees a few yards away full of beautiful apples and signs that said "DO NOT PICK"). We, however, rose to the occasion and I channeled my inner Katniss to climb some trees. 

Success!

It ended up being a blast, but we were a little miffed at the availability of apples, and apple cider donuts. We got some cider ice instead, some beautiful pictures, 

Pretty sister. 

and skedaddled with our bags of treetop apples. 

Do you have any favorite fall traditions? 

Midwinter Break

Back in November, a few friends decided it would be totally awesome to take a trip to Vermont to ski and explore the winter. They thought it would be really cool to see a "real" winter with lots of snow, need to bundle up, and have some chilly adventures.



I laughed at them.



(You know I hate the cold.)



However, with some convincing and promises of awesome friends and some good beer, I consented to venture to the great white North(east).

Then we had this winter.



Which was brutally cold, with plenty of single-digit temperatures and several feet of snow total.



Nonetheless, we packed our bags full of long socks and borrowed snow gear, and drove up to Stowe, VT for a long weekend.

We rented this big beautiful house about a half hour outside of Stowe with 7 other friends (which brought us to 9 total, 4 couples and a 9th wheel). Since it was the off season and we were far enough from the ski resort, we scored a great deal and there were beds and bathrooms aplenty for nine adults who are all used to their own space.

Oh yeah, it was on a lake. Complete with ice fishing huts.

My snow angel.

The boys, of course, had to wrestle on the ice.

My snow angel/fighter won. 

We visited some awesome restaurants, drank some delicious beer, and toured Ben & Jerry's. Yum!

Ben & Jerry's was having their Winter Fest the weekend we were there, so there was lots of fun...and a cow!

Hail, hail, it's the whole gang!

On Sunday, most of the gang went to Stowe's ski resort. Dan and I, however, decided to take our lives in our hands and try snowmobiling, something that was on both of our bucket lists.

It was slightly terrifying, but super awesome.



We also cooked together, watched movies, ate popcorn, and played many rounds of Bananagrams. It was a pretty sweet weekend, largely due to the fabulous crowd. I highly recommend.



How are you holding up with the winter? Any fun midwinter trips to break the monotony?

Fun & Fetch

Our little dog is a source of plenty of amusement and annoyance in our household. Lily is a high-energy, stubborn, extremely lovable little fiend. 

So every once in a while, we like to annoy her back. All in good nature (and, as I hope should be obvious, all safely). 

Yes, that is a bluetooth shower speaker. Dan uses it in the morning to listen to stuff while he's moving around the apartment, and we decided to make Lily a DJ. 

She was not amused. 

We, however, were.