A Brewery and an Orchard kind of Weekend

You know it is going to be a good weekend when it starts like this.

Pete brought home roses for me today to celebrate the day we first met, 28 years ago. So crazy to think it has been that many years and so sweet of Pete for the beautiful flowers.

Saturday morning Pete and I took a little day car trip down to New Ulm, MN with the intention of taking in the beautiful changing fall colors and also doing a tour at Shell's Brewery. We have been here before, but it is the first time we have done the tour. The grounds are absolutely beautiful and it was the perfect sunny and cooler day to just leisurely walk around.

Next we headed to the downtown area and strolled through the Octoberfest area and listened to some live music.

And then dinner at this German restaurant.

Then it was a stop at 'Minnesota's Largest Candy Store' in Jordan. This place is amazing and has just about any candy or soda you could ever want.

Sunday was our annual trip to the Pine Tree Apple Orchard which we have been doing since before Tyler was born (23+ years). The cast of characters this year was Pete, me, Drew and his girlfriend Mackenzie. We did all of our usual things including the hay ride, the corn maze and the apple barn.

It was a fun day hanging out with these two.

And another perfect Fall weekend!

{life lately}

Happy that Jake was home for a full week for "Fall Break'. It was so nice to have him back in the house and give him a little TLC. He came home very tired from mid-terms and with a bad throat infection. So between the antibiotics, extra sleep and some mama home-cooking he is all ready to get back in the swing of things at school.  :) College takes a lot out of a guy!

Enjoying the beautiful Fall season! Fall has always been my favorite season with the cooler weather, the gorgeous tree colors, trips to the apple orchard, nature walks, college football games.... and  I am soaking every bit of the season in.

Tasting some old and new favorite pumpkin recipes. Pumpkin Bars are always a family favorite and one that I have been making for years. And this Chipotle Pumpkin Soup recipe is one that I will definitely be making again! Delicious!

So pleased that my recent appointment with my cardiologist brought good news in that my echocardiogram showed that my heart function is now at 95%, up from 55% just a year ago! Extremely thankful that the medications are working.

Looking forward to a fun month in November... with a weekend trip to Notre Dame (which includes a football game), a visit and a football game at SJU, celebrating a bunch of birthdays and of course Thanksgiving! I am also looking forward in starting a project that documents '30 days of Thanks' that I will share here starting the first of the month.

apple orchard {snapshots}

We decided to take advantage of the glorious, sunny but cool, fall weather and make our annual trip to the apple orchard. We have been going to Pine Tree Apple Orchard since I was pregnant with Tyler, 23 years ago. Yikes.

I love family traditions!

Pumpkin'd

Waking up on Saturday morning, we heard the dog growling out the front window.  She hardly ever barks or growls, so we went to investigate. And Bella was right, there was something not right in the yard.

Pumpkins and 'snowplow guide sticks' all over the yard--none of them were ours. :)

This made me laugh- our hockey net had been on the back side of the house, and somehow it ended up on the driveway. :)

Yes, we were pumpkin'd! :)

{Only one pumpkin was smashed, so cleaning up was not too hard. We just stacked the pumpkins on the side of the house to wait for garbage day--

but they were mysteriously gone when we woke up this morning. Hmmm?}

memory lane {leaves}

The seasons have changed from the warm sunshine of summer to autumn's beautiful array of color.

Seeing these leaves which now cover our yard; always makes me remember a story of Drew and his neighbor friends back when they were just little munchkins.

Our neighborhood was only a couple of years old, with all new houses and new landscaping, which meant all of our trees were little and didn't have many leaves on them. Drew and his friends desperately wanted a leaf pile to jump in-- and so the grabbed a wheel barrel and headed house to house around the neighborhood collecting leaves to make that leaf pile. So cute!!

{Drew is the second from the left}

I look at these trees now and see how much they have grown- just like the boys who are all now freshmen in high school-

and think how much those boys would have loved all these leaves. :)

weekend lens {apple orchard & some cooking}

This past weekend was one of those perfect Fall weather weekends. We took advantage of the cooler temps and had an evening bonfire {which I may have worn a winter coat and my Ugg boots.}

I harvested a ton of tomatoes from my garden.

I chopped a bunch of them and seasoned them with garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and a touch of sugar and roasted them in the oven for about an hour at 400 degrees.

After they were done roasting I threw some basil fresh from my Mama's herb garden. We had this over ravioli~ so delicious!!

Pete, Drew and I made our annual trip out to Pine Tree Apple Orchard. We have been going to this orchard since Tyler was a baby, and I think we have only missed a couple of years. This has become a fun family tradition that always brings back lots of memories.

We took a tractor ride through the orchard.

And grabbed two bags of delicious Fall apples and some other bakery goodies.

I made  Pioneer Woman's 'Spicy Pop Pulled Pork.'  A very easy recipe that I threw in the crock pot and was delicious.

I also made an apple pie using {this recipe} which always turns out so good!

A great Fall weekend.