NY Apples

One of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip was apple picking. I know to many of you this is nothing special however it is something I have never has the opportunity to do and was very excited to try.

So prettyin the rain

I have to say the trees were shorter then I thought and it was amazing how full of fruit they were.

More pretty apples

I was not brave enough to climb up this ladder but it made for a pretty picture

A random picture of a father and son picking apples. What a great way to spend family time.

While there were lots of pre picked bushells I was very excited to pick my own and bring it home to Vegas I wonder what the TSA thought of my suitcase full of fruit.

I have had two apples a day all week but was not going to eat all of my special fruit while it was still fresh. So I made apple pie pockets

Look how pretty they are and I made it my self!

My pie was very very yummy, but I don't think I should have eaten 3 (ooohh my poor tummy was not happy)

I had a little left over pie crust so I made some crust cookies and painted maple syrup also from my trip onhte cookies. They eneded up being a very yummy not so sweet treat.

Loweville New York

The wedding was in the small town of Lowville in upstate New York. I was charmed by the beauty of the country landscape. On Friday and Sunday I had a little time to drive around the area here are a few of my favorite pictures (there are more in my other themes coming this week)

There were so many classic red barns it was like I drove into a painting of classic America this shot reminds me of an image used for an eye test at my optometrist.

I drove up an down narrow roads checking out the beauty of the rolling hills. The thin tracks in the road are from buggy wheels.

This was the view across the street from my hotel, it was so beautiful, just like a post card.

I love the framing of this one, not to mention my love of old trucks.
While walking around the village of Lowville I found Mike's a JC Penny merchant I have to say I thought places like this had all but disappeared into history. I also had fun going into several little craft shops.

Sunday

On Sunday I left Lowville at about 9 am set the GPS for the airport, it was a 2 hour drive and I had about 6 hours so I followed roads that interested me and explored this part of NY. The only thing I wanted to do was pick apples (a later post.) It was so cool to drive in the rain and see where the roads took me. I would stop occasionally and ask for directions at places like dairies, bait shops, and fast food. It was a great experience to have time to just explore.

One little town I drove through was celebrating "pink week" There were several business covered in pink!

I pulled off the highway and drove over a bridge in the river there were hundreds of fishermen in the river, it was an amazing site but there was no good place to pull over for a picture. I have to say I was amazed by the amount of camo in Pulski.

I stopped at this little dairy in Pulski and had to laugh when I saw this speciality block of cheese. I also bought the most amazing apple cider there and cheese curd. I was drawn to the dairy by the massive grill out front they were selling fresh grilled fish. I learned that those fishermen were salmon fishing.

Right before I headed to the airport I stopped at a pizza joint for NY pizza and to watch football for a few minutes (it was weird football did not start till 1 in the afternoon.)

It was very cool to drive around and enjoy the rain and enjoy a different season, and way of living.

New York - From the air

The last weekend of September I went to upstate New York for my friend Tracy's wedding. I have never been to New York so I was very excited for this trip. I had a layover at JFK airport in New York City, my first visit. I was delighted as we started our approach to see the sun just starting to wake up, over the famous city.
Due to time all I saw of NYC was the airport. I had a short layover to my final destination Syracuse, NY at take off I was delighted to see that the beautiful sunrise was not finished quite yet. How amazing is the sun over the Atlantic Ocean. Speaking of the ocean as we were approaching the city we hit a bit of turbulence and it dawned on me "perhaps I should have payed attention to the water landing talk."

Two days later I was headed home and happened to land at sunset ( I wish I could say I planned these extra pretty flights, but it was all luck.) I do have to admit though I was nervous about flying for the first time. I worried about weather or not my flight would be safe from crazies? Would we land and take off safely? Upon landing right as we hit that bit of turbulence I even grabbed my jewelry box just in case we had a water landing I was not letting the pearls sink to the bottom of the ocean. I felt very blessed to be distracted from my fear with these amazing views, and beautiful glimpses of the sun.

Over the next few days I will be posting a theme of special moments from my trip including the wedding, fall, and apple picking. I hope I can share a bit of the fun I had, seeing sites and experiences that I ave not had living in the southwest.

House Party

Chrissy and Tom are on their way to being homeowners. To celebrate their offer being accepted tehy threw a small dinner party that turned into afancy dinner all the girls wore dress. They were both smiling ear to ear ready to take this next step.

Check out this fancy dinner set up!

Chrissy hand made the napkin rings

Part of getting a house is making many decorating decsions they invited us to help and had voting slips out along with carpet, paint and tile samples.

Here Max and Chrissy are discussing carpet colors.

Mom and dad placing their votes

Tom Grilled delcious steaks with his special maranaide on them.

Sydney having fun outside spinning

Surprise

This past weekend was the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Long Beach. I chose not to walk for a couple of reasons including busy wedding season that woud have made fundraising a travel difficult (I thought.) Well due to some surprise twists in life I found myself in Long Beach on Saturday for the morning. During the morning I sent my teamates text messages and tried to keep track of their locations. Maureen and Jean were finishing lunch when we drove up I yelled their names then we turned the corner and parked I got out of the car to see them running my way, they were shocked to see me. I walked about a half mile with Jean, we were so distracted talking I forgot to take a picture of her.

Here I am cheering at Seal Beach for random walkers while Max ordered lunch.

Maureen and I, several of my family and friends helped Maureen reach her goal she was so greatful for the generosity of so many strangers to her during this very tough year. THANK YOU!

Also at the rest stop I saw the big ice truck Evan jumped out for a big hug. Evan is Maureen's son he has crewed several years in a row and his hair style is a site to see every year.

I was on the phone with Diane asking shere she was when I saw Mike in his beautiful pink hard hat (remember flat mike from last year)
When we spotted Diane and Todd I yelled at Max to park he grabbed the first spot he saw and I hopped out and caught up with them chatting for a few minutes, expalining my presence.

Saying goodbye to Diane and Todd

As I was cheering in Seal Beach I spotted this cute couple. I would have loved to have walked but was very happy that the stars lined up andI was able to cheer the amazing walkers on!A few ranom shots Max was shopping at a toy store while I was cheering and walking with teamates.

Our hotel advertised lake views I am not quiet sure if this qualifies as a lake.

“It is not enough to take steps which may some say lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Growing Galey's

About 2 years ago I did a maternity shoot with Holly and her wonderful husband Shaun. They were expecting twins.

I did a faimly shoot with her adorable 1.5 year olds, it was quite a challenge to try to get a good family shoot her son was not in the mood and kept walking away. Here is one of the better shots.They were not to worried though since.....
Yep thats right they have a little boy on the way. As you can see we had fun playing with mommy.

I love this one

How precious is this picture??? I love the smiles

I love this picture when Holly asked "Where is the baby?" she flipped up her shirt and pointed to her belly. As you can see by the escaping toddler behind them how focused on the family pictures the boys were LOL I walked in the door and her son spotted my bag of blocks he had a blast playing.

While we were taking pictures he wondered away picked up a rock and walked all the way accross the field to return the rock to its place. It was so precious how serious he was.

I love this smile

I will end with a bit of reality with twins. Do you think they will grow extra arms with the new baby?????