Fall

I love love love the fall. It is by far my favorite season. I love the crisp morning air, the clear blue skies (for the most part, it is still Oregon), the colors (amazing!), the crunch of leaves, the apples, the pears, the pumpkins!! The weekend mornings when the kids crawl into our bed and snuggle under the covers reading books, singing songs, talking....no longer up with summers' early light and before the ski slopes are calling us out of our warm beds (don't worry we are definately THINKING SNOW).

This weekend was spent in celebration of fall. First we went to Kiyokawa Orchard to buy our winter supply of apples and pears. This is a multi-generational family operated orchard established in 1911 (how cool is that!). They boast 80 varieties of apples, pears and asian pears. Did you even know there were so many kinds of apples?? This weekend there was an apple tasting which was super fun and we all walked away with new favorites.

Then Riley helped me make MONSTER COOKIES which we always make before Halloween. Yummy! This is a Campbell family tradition... my grandmother used to make them when I was a kid (all the grandkids got a batch). She even used to send them to me when I was in college (to the delight of my roommate Lisa). I stopped getting them when I went into the Peace Corps (reasonable as it is difficult to ship fresh cookies to Africa), then she gave me the recipe when I got married and its been on me ever since. Big fat cookies full of peanut butter, oatmeal, M&Ms, chocolate chip, and nuts. We look forward to them every year!

To top off our weekend we also went to the PUNKIN PATCH!! I have actually long dreamed of having a punkin patch. There is just something about all those bumps of orange covering a muddy field which just makes me happy. I'm pretty psyched to have kids because I used to go by myself every year, and now its way more fun. We all picked out our punkins of choice and ran through the corn maze. A great fall weekend of family fun!