Fun Fall Things!!

I have said this before but I really hate to see summer leave.  I love the hot weather, I love being outside, and I love getting to go on vacation.  So as sad as I am to see fall start I do enjoy a few things about fall.  One of those things is apple picking.  This year we went apple picking twice!! 

The first was with the Bitel’s! We went early in the season and we went to a local farm (Weber’s).  Their apple orchard was very small but because we went so early they also had peaches still in season (it was the last weekend) and they had a sparse supply of blackberries!!  Those are my second favorite!  We picked enough berries to make 2 peach blackberry cobblers and froze 1-2 cups so I could make it again later in the winter when I am in need of some summer flavor.  Then we had 35+ pounds of apples and peaches.  It was so fun picking with Sarah and Stephan; Sarah kept Elisha for me while we dug through the blackberry bushes to get the last few that we on the bushes.  It was a fun afternoon!  (Side note later in the week after this picking experience we found out that you can blanch peaches, slice them and freeze them so I went to the Weber’s farm stand and I picked up an additional 17 pounds of peaches.  Which we then froze and we have been using them for baking and baby food.)  This first apple picking experience also yielded Elisha’s first food.  We made baby apple sauce in the crock pot after picking apples and he loved them!! To this day apples are still his favorite food!

He loved touching the leaves. 

Elisha helped Daddy pick peaches!

Fun adventures with the Bitel's

Elisha and Sarah hung out while we picked berries.  The shade was much cooler!

Later in October Andrew and I went to Maize Quest Fun Park/Maple Lawn Farm, in Fawn Grove PA with Heather Consla and the Brutus family on our day off from school.  Heather has been friends with Andrew for many years.  Angela Brutus teaches at Bel Air with Andrew and she and I were in Pre-natal yoga together last year before the babies were born.  Her daughter Eva is 2 ½ weeks younger than Elisha. We made the most of our day off.  We started with lunch at the park, then we took a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch and picked our own pumpkins.  I loved that pumpkin patch and I can’t wait until next year to take Elisha because he’ll be toddling around all over the pumpkins!  

Tractor rides with friends.

Mommy I want this one! 

Daddy I found it!

This feels really cool.

Eva loved the pumpkins too!

Then, we went over the apple orchard and picked apples.  This was the most amazing apple orchard Andrew and I had ever seen!  Seriously, it was so large you had to drive into the orchard and park next to the rows of apples you wanted to pick.  Each apple type was clearly marked with a sign that was complete with a QR code giving information about that apple including recipes that would be good for that variety.  This was both Heather and Christian’s first apple picking experience.  It was fun to see them be so excited.  Christian wanted to try all the different types of apples and he loved the taste testing part of the process most.  He tried over 10 varieties apples that day!  Once we had our apples and pumpkins we came home and made apple pies and apple sauce! We made 7 pies that day and multiple batches of apple sauce.  All in all it was a great fall day!

He loves apples!!

Eva and Elisha had a great time!

A perfect fall day!!

Visit with Nana and the Uncles

We spent a few weekends in Calvert County this fall! When we went down for my cousin's 30th birthday we stayed at Nana's to get in some extra play time!! Ryan came over and spent the afternoon playing with Elisha and had dinner with us.  It was so nice to spend time with the family and spend some time walking along the boardwalk! 

Elisha had a blast! 

Tummy Time with Nana! 

He's a Big Boy Now!

I like to smile for Uncle Ryan! 

Story time with the Uncles!

He loves his Nana!!

Family walk along the Bay :-)

It was a great time! 

Our last Summer Extravaganza

Twins! I can't wait to watch them grow up together! 

On Labor Day weekend we went to the beach with 2 families from our small group.  They are like family to us and it was so nice to spend the last weekend of "summer" hanging out and watching the kids play.  We stayed in a condo with the Ernest Family and it was quite a hoping place.  With 4 adults and 4 kids in a 3 bedroom condo we were packed in kinda tight but we had a blast.  We spent some time at the beach, but most of it swimming in the pool.  We also got Kohr Brother's Frozen Custard (my all time favorite!), and have great family meals.  

Noah and Faith loved getting to play with Elisha for the weekend!

He is always the first one to come and see Elisha and want to play! 

I'm glad that Elisha will have great boys to look up to in the coming years!

In a few years she is going to be a great babysitter! 

Andrew got creative when protecting his sunburned head from the sun. :-)

On our drive back from the beach we stopped at my Grandparent's house to visit Great Mommom and Great Poppy! It was nice to get to spend some time with them as well!! 

Laughing with Mommom!

Great Snuggles!

Play Time!!

It’s fair time!

This is Andrew’s favorite week of the summer! (In case you were convinced by that let me tell you it was complete sarcasm.) But I do love fair time!  We went to the fair for a few different visits.  On the first day we went to see one of the sheep shows.  Elisha got to go into the show ring with Poppy! 

Then we went back another day just to walk around and hang out.  Then the third day we got to go and see Great Mommom and Great Poppy! It was so fun to get to hang out with them and spend the day walking around outside and enjoying each other company! 

 

Uncle Louis

While on our Florida vacation Elisha and I had the privilege to meet Andrew's Great Uncle Louis who I have heard so much about.  His health has not been the best for some time now.  In fact, last summer (2013) he was not feeling up to having visitors so I was not able to meet him on our Flordia trip which just build my anticipation for this year.  When we arrived he was quick to find Elisha and was overjoyed when he saw him.  It was beautiful to see his reaction to the next generation.  I am so grateful to have spent some time with him talking about Kassouf family history among other things.  Uncle Louis is like a grandfather to Andrew and his brothers and I know he cherishes any time they can spend together.  It was a great added bonus to our Florida vacation! 

Elisha at 3 months and Uncle Louis at 85

4 Generations of Kassouf Men

The Sunshine State

I tell you what, my son has been to more states in his first 3 months then many people visit in a lifetime.  On this trip he bumped his total up to 11 states (plus the District of Columbia).  Hopefully with all the traveling we did this summer he will enjoy traveling his entire life because his mommy and daddy love it!  We went to Orlando for a few days with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was a nice relaxing week.  We spent a lot of time at the pool and at the resort just relaxing.  We did a few other fun things too. 

The first day we went up to Winter Park to paint pottery at All Fired Up.  This studio is owned by Alea, a family friend.  She made us feel at home visiting with us and helping throughout the process.  We made some more foot print items but thankfully with Alea’s help we were even able to get a few hand print items which is almost impossible with babies because the first thing they do when you put anything in/on their and is make a first.  Alea would quickly paint his hand while Grandma held him and I held his fingers straight.  It was definitely a team effort but I got handprints and I am very happy about that!! 

 

  We also ate lunch/dinner at some of our local favorites.  We got breakfast at Keke’s. Breakfast is my favorite food so that was a big hit for me.  We ate lunch at Maggiano's,which is one of Grandpa’s all-time favorite restaurants.  One day we went to Copper River Canyon which has amazing salads with special homemade corn bread croutons.  

At Maggiano's for lunch. 

Elisha was not sure he wanted his bottle.

Elisha really wanted Daddy's food!

We enjoyed our time relaxing at the resort also.  We spent most of the time swimming in the lazy river or walking the two mile path by the lake.  Grandpa chose this resort because of the lazy river and he enjoyed it day and night.  He enjoyed it even more when Grandma bought a tube for him to float.  

There were so many wild birds but the most interesting was the large Sandhill Crane family that would greet us on our walks.  The parents stood as tall as the stroller!

At the end of the week we had to go back up to Winter Park to pick up our pottery.  We made it a half day trip and enjoyed a boat ride tour through a series of lakes.  A highlight was seeing Mr. Roger’s home.  It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  Elisha slept through his first boat ride but Florida law required him to wear a life vest so we got him all suited up and then gave him a bottle which put him to sleep and he enjoyed his ride! And we went to BurgerFi, a local burger place that sells custard ice cream! Custard is my favorite!

All in all it was a great week and we had a blast spending some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Kassouf!