Chasing Fall

The middle and elementary schools had a four day weekend.  It was under the guise of parent-teacher conferences. I didn't mind though.  A couple days off is awesome. Monday afternoon Val called me and said that Tanner was going to be at the temple Tuesday morning.  Super exciting.  I did some rearranging and went down to "bump into him".  Which didn't work out as nicely as I had hoped.  I had to get up super early, and for a 5:15 scheduled normal rising time you know it was super early!  Then I hit a lot of traffic and ended up getting there after the session started.  That was okay I had a plan B.  I did some other work and then waited where I knew he'd be.  I saw tons of handsome missionaries but no Tanner.  Finally I asked one of the young sister missionaries if this was their whole mission and she said no it was only half and the other half was coming tomorrow.  I was super bummed and thought maybe he got stitched to another day.  When I got out to the parking lot I called Val and told her.  We were sad. Of course I wasn't sad to spend the morning at the temple but bummed not to see him.
Eventually we learned that he was there, in the baptistery.  His car broke down on the way to the temple and he was also late.  I never thought to check there and we were both disappointed. :(

I got home at about 10:30 am and Grace and I, and Audrey and Brynn took off on a finding fall adventure.

We drove up to Tehachapi to go apple picking & to have lunch.

cute store with a clever name.  Audrey bought a pie for her family.

Our first stop was a cute German bakery where we enjoyed a yummy lunch and delicious pastries!

apple bags

Then we went to find an orchard.  Weirdly many of the orchards had no crop this year.  I don't know why...and neither do they but we saw many signs that said no crop and several of the websites we had checked before we headed up also said they didn't have one.  Something happened at the blossom stage.  A couple did so that's where we went.

Brynn and Grace

me and Audrey

It turned out that it wasn't a "you pick" farm.  But a "you pack" your own bag out of the boxes that we pick.  They did have sampling and so we tried some different varieties and packed our bags with our favorites.

pumpkin time

Next it was off to the pumpkin patch.  It was a funny little place with fields of pumpkins, fun flowers and a sign that said take knife and go out to the patch and cut your own pumpkin. Come back and weigh it and then leave the right amount of money in the "honesty box".  So we did.

Grace packing the bag

Our pumpkin weighed 15 lbs.

which ended up being $13.

some pretty flowers

We had a fun afternoon and got back around 3:30. Then it was off to choir for Grace and then soccer for Ethan.

This was the last game of the season and the boys did great.  They won 7-0 and Ethan scored a goal.

in action

look at that sunset! beautiful!

soon after this it got dark...and cold

Ethan is glad the season is over.  He didn't love his coaches and while soccer at it's worst is still fun it was less fun than normal.  High school try-outs start at the beginning of November and I have my fingers crossed that he'll make the team.  If he does I will break out my parka for future soccer viewing!

And just for fun: bitmoji's. I love them and have been snapping with my girl but Dani combined ours and made some cute adventures.  So fun!

Dani made us bitmoji partner pictures!