October Randomness

Our favorite orchard in the Gorge is Mt. View Orchards in Parkdale, Oregon.  When we first moved to the area, I met one of the owners at the grocery store.  She was in line by me and had a cart full of sweetened condensed milk.  I talk to strangers at the grocery store, so of course, I asked, "Are you making caramels?"

"Caramel apples!" she replied and then launched into a bit of a schpiel on her orchard and how just she happened to have some newsletters with her and we should really come to one of the weekend festivals and use the coupons, etc.  She was just so cheerful and happy.  Looking at the schedule, we saw that they were having their "Edelweiss Days" on Adah's 3rd birthday.  So, we went there for apple picking in the gorgeous October sunshine.

Every fall since then, I've returned to buy pears and apples for canning, drying, and eating. We've taken Damon's parents there for Edelweiss Days. When I was there just a couple weeks before Gunnar was born, the same kind woman went in her house and returned with a baby gift and even something for the girls.  It wasn't until about 3 years ago that we actually discovered that the owners of Mt. View Orchards are Latter-day Saints and that the husband of this woman I met in the grocery store was someone that Damon and I had been serving with in the Church for nearly a year!  One year, their newsletter arrived (we're now on the mailing list) and we saw a photo of this man we know and suddenly put the pieces together!  Now we love visiting the orchard even more.

This year we headed up there on a sunny October day and enjoyed a hayride, playing with the toys in the yard, and piling one of their ubiquitous Radio Flyer wagons full of apples and pears.  We chose one unusual variety, just for fun.  It's called Eve's Delight and is GIGANTIC.

Perhaps this next photos gives you a little bit better sense of scale.  I wish I'd weighed it so I could give better statistics, but believe me, this baby is the New York City of apples.

(Note: Adah had put a bunch of stickers on her face. I don't know why.)

A little more October fun: Damon found Gunnar asleep on the floor like this one night.  Actually, Gunnar was lying with his other cheek up and Damon came to get me.  By the time we got back, he'd rolled over and had even more coins stuck to his right cheek than Damon had seen on the left!

This sweet overalls were worn by Damon and his brothers (mostly his oldest brother, I believe their mom told me) when they were little.  The giant smile on Gunnar's face is really just for the sake of the photo.  It took a little persuasion to get him to put them on and he took them off as soon as possible, a la Ralphie's pink bunny suit in A Christmas Story.

Just a cute little "cheeeese" from Holly.  I think I caught her on the "ch."

Finally, pumpkin carving the Saturday before Halloween: