Sour Apples

It's that time of year again. There are good things & bad things about it.

The good things are, we are doing one of our favorite things we love to do in Ohio & that is picking some fresh fruits & the Fall time here is b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. The sad thing is that it means it's the last type of fruit of the season around here & it means it'll be getting much colder soon. Also, this may have been the nicest-last day of the year! AND, the saddest of all is that it's probably our very LAST time picking any sort of fruit in Ohio. Sniff sniff.

Matt was lucky enough to get off before lunch last Friday, so we took advantage of the beautiful day & headed over to Eddy's Orchard. Most of the apples we got, were pretty sour...almost like eating a sour patch kid. I love this pic. You can tell how beautiful the weather was that day!

"Home, home on the range."

Just for fun, this was Luke last year when we picked apples.
What happened???

Luke & "Mommieeeeeeee," as Luke says.

We have so many pictures like this...because it's the only way we can be in one together.

If you haven't noticed, we buzzed little Lukey's head!
He looks way older, but at least he has a great head for a buzz & it's super easy, which is always nice for a wiggly worm.

Glad you're hear Mr. Fall, please stay for a while, we love having you around.

Our crazy, busy trip inside of a trip.

Yes, we are that family.

The kind of family who packs along an electric sandwich maker so we can have hot sandwiches at our hotel. It was quite fun actually. We got a great deal on Priceline to stay at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Philadelphia. I think Luke was the only child there. Everyone there had to have been on a business trip. When we pulled in at 4pm with our stroller loaded with all our baggage that the wheels were squeaking, Luke in pj's (because he barfed on the car ride, of course) & the both of us looking like we just sat in a long car ride for 7+ hours, everyone was sure to notice us!
BUT
Who cares! We had a nice hotel room & a lot of fun. See how yummy those sandwiches were? Mmmmm.

There was even an indoor pool. It was mainly a lap swim pool, but no one went swimming while we were there (probably because of Luke being the only child there), but the two times we went it was a blast! Luke had no fear of jumping into the pool....when we caught him anyway.

Luke even got his own bed!

Well he could have, but we stuck him in a crib...of which he kept climbing out of. Thursday while Matt took his 8 hr test, I ventured out into the city, just me & the boy.
We mainly just shopped all day, without spending money :)
I just had to take a picture of what the inside of this Macy's store looked like.
I know, I'm a nerd. But it was so cool!

Later I walked through this building. It was a cool building, but once I got to the other side the city didn't look so friendly, so I decided to turn around. Then I just happened to see the missionaries! I felt better, but still headed back to the safer looking side of town.

The next day we saw some of the history sites.
Here are a couple we saw.
The liberty bell.

We toured Independence Hall. Matt thought this was pretty cool.

We took a few pictures outside of Independence Hall. It's a beautiful building.

This is us (below) attempting to use the timer with our camera.

Have you ever been to any tourist spot & see a lot of foreign people & they are posing for a picture, all alone & they never smile & sometimes do a peace sign?
Well, we always see that & think it's kind of funny.
So we tried to do it too...you should too sometime, it's hard not to laugh.

Matt was pretty good at it.
I just look ticked.

Luke couldn't keep a straight face.
And he's almost got the peace sign down.

So cute!

We also saw Benjamin Franklin's grave, toured the Mint (where they make coins) & spent a lot of time eating yummy food at the Reading Terminal Market-highly recommended.

After a lot of going, Luke wiped out.

This is where it gets complicated.
A week & a half ago Matt's grandpa Clark died. He was only two months shy of turning 109!
The funeral services were Saturday. So Friday, after touring the sites, we flew out of Philadelphia & got home to Utah just after midnight.

Unfortunately, I only have TWO pictures from while we were there!
Here they are.
This one was when we were playing Kochu (sp?) on their tennis court. Always a fun game.

After fun & games we headed to Salt Lake where the funeral & burial was.
Afterwards we had a delicious luncheon.
Matt took this picture (notice my very bad posture).
I was busy taking pictures with his parent's camera for them, so I didn't catch any on mine. After the funeral, we hung out at Matt's house, played some games, ate some food & just chatted. It was so fun being with everyone.
Then on Sunday morning we visited my parents for an hour & jumped on a plane that took us, eventually, back to Phili. Whew! It was the shortest Utah trip EVER (sadly).

The next morning we slept in at our hotel & hit the road.
On the way back to Cleveland we visited the Hershey Chocolate Factory. Yum.

And you ask how did we spend over 14 hours in the car & over 12 hours on air planes, plus sitting in the airport with 2 out of 4 delayed flights....this is how.

A portable dvd player & Elmo, Luke's favorite.

It was a fast, fun trip & we were glad to be home, but it's nice to be back as well!
We'll be back in Utah in 6 weeks....we are always on the go.

My recent obsession

The past few weeks I have had a bit of an obession with my camera & my new Photoshop CS4 program, that I LOVE! Now, I don't have a very fancy camera (although I would love to get one someday). I just used my little Cannon Powershot Elph Series camera.

A few friends & family have let me do some "practicing" on them & I got some cute pictures.
Here are some of my favorites.

My good friend Sarah is an AMAZING photographer & I've gone with her on a couple of her shoots. I know one place many people like to have her take photos. So, when Dave & Meg were in town we went down to the Cleveland Art Museum to try out some photos. Check out her blog, she's very inspiring!

McKelle is such a little doll!

We got some darn cute pics of her. Here's a little sample.

I love the red flower!

Dani is one of my best friends, she & her husband wanted me to take their pictures while I was home. We took them behind the Manti temple.

While I was in Utah in August I got to snap some fun pictures of two of my nephews Jakson & Burkley. We got some fun ones.
It might not have been the best time of day, as far as the lighting goes.


The one above is my favorite of Jakson & the one below is my absolute favorite of Burk. Love the eyes.

These boys are so cute.

I love the old school one of Luke, this was taken in my mom's garden.

I've only toyed around with a couple of my bridals (yes, I made Matt come with me). But I like how these ones turned out. I love all the different things you can do with these pictures!

My sister actually took my bridals, they turned out very cute.

There are still MANY things I am working on learning & don't even know exist, that I hope to learn about CS4. For instance, the pic above, I want to make Matt's ear not so red (it was a very cold day in early January). And the pic below, I like these funky colors, the only thing I don't like is how white my dress is, too white. Still learning. :)
But I'm loving doing all this! Matt thinks I'm addicted, which I may be...a little.