- september -

September was a particularly fun month this year. Over Labor Day weekend we traveled (with my mom, stepdad, stepsister & her husband) to this GORGEOUS place. Honestly, it was breathtaking. I'd never been to that area of Virginia before and I'm ready to pack up and move! We built fires, ate s'mores, paddled kayaks, had canoe races, cooked some amazing food, crafted, and so enjoyed each other's company. 

My boys building a fire on the first night we were there. 

We made these Finnish stars out of fabric - they were so much fun and surprisingly easy! You should definitely try them - my friend Stacy even made some with her kids using scrapbook paper. 

A beautiful old barn that we passed on the way back. 150+ acres for sale with amazingly restored barns/home for the bargain price of $2.5 million. We considered calling about it. ;) 

The Capitol Market is one of our favorite places in town, and it's breathtaking in the fall. So when Josh & I celebrated our 10 (!!!) year wedding anniversary September 8, we decided to go there and walk around before our dinner date. Isn't that everyone's idea of a perfect night out?! We are HIP. 

We bought about 55 lbs of apples and did all kinds of fun stuff with them....I'll talk about that in the next post. 

A river goes right through the middle of our town, and the IL's have a boat, so we took advantage of one last summer day and went fishing. The kids had a blast and I got totally (TOTALLY) freaked out by all the fish jumping out of the water inches from me. I discovered I'm more of a "fish from the boat" kind of girl than a "fish IN the water" kind of girl.

I started reading Omnivore's Dilemma while we were in Virginia, and I still haven't finished it. NOT light reading. Fantastic, life-changing, but most definitely not light. One of the highlights of our trip was visiting Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm, which is featured in this book. I feel like I should put this sentence in sparkly neon writing - that is how I feel about that man and his contributions to our modern food (counter)culture. Josh, as I was getting out of the car when we arrived at the farm: "If you see him, do NOT run up to him, squeal, or scream. He's a farmer, not a rock star." And obviously I had to buy this t-shirt. (This is a great video interview series if you're interested.)

It seems like the second the leaves start turning the knitting needles call my name. I bought this yarn when we were on vacation 4 years ago and it's finally becoming a pair of socks. I'm making my first ever pair of toe-up socks and have fallen in LOVE. Almost finished with the second one! 

(((My apologies for the picture-heavy, scattered post - since I'm not here often I thought I'd give you a little more bang for your buck, haha!)))