It's the most wonderful time...

*singing*

...of the year!!

*clears throat*

Sorry about that. I just get excited for apple season.

Michael and I got a head start on the fall season today. We went apple picking for the first time. Tessa was excited, too. This is her in mid-air, jumping.

We didn't take her with us, but she certainly benefits from all of the apple picking that goes on. She looooves apples.

The apple farm that we like to frequent is about 25 minutes from our house. I've been checking their website, waiting for the early season varieties to be ready for picking. They were technically ready last weekend, but it was like 90 degrees. No thanks. Today, it was a comfortable 80 degrees, plus they had four different varieties ready for picking. So we decided to go for it.

As it turned out, 80 degrees was still a little warm for apple picking. We were HOT. But it was worth it. I'm looking forward to the cooler weather for picking, though.

We came away with Paula Red, Ginger Gold, Zestar, and Sansa apples. Almost 40 lbs. of them. Yes, that's right. 40 lbs. We're big apple eaters. Love everything apple. Fresh eating, applesauce (homemade is SO. GOOD.), pies, crisps, baked apples, etc. etc. The funny thing is that we'll probably be ready to go out and pick another 40 lbs. in a couple of weeks.


We proceeded to almost get ripped off $11 (we're obviously not that great at math). Apples were $0.65 per pound, and we somehow got charged over $35. I was a little bit shocked because we went there regularly last year and I never remembered paying more than $25. We brushed it off and got into the car.

We were a little ways down the road before Michael was like, "but wait..." We started talking through the numbers, and I pulled out my Blackberry to do a little math. Um, yeah. It was definitely wrong. Michael turned around and we went back to have the guy weigh the apples again and figure out the total again.

As it turned out, the employee was wrong, and we were right (I guess he wasn't so great at math, either). We were refunded our $11 and change. Jeez. That was a pretty big mistake! Needless to say, we'll be watching more closely on our future trips to the farm.

Tonight, we got together with our friends Theresa and Greg. They are currently enjoying their last weekend of freedom (see: as non-parents), and decided they'd like to spend part of it with us (we're flattered!). Theresa is 9 months pregnant--due on Thursday--and will be induced on Friday if the baby does not come before then.

We enjoyed dinner at a local bar/grill type place (so good!), and then went back to their house to let our dogs run around in the backyard, and to sit around their fire pit. Michael and I enjoyed a few drinks (no drinks for the parents-to-be), and we all had s'mores. A great way to spend a night over Labor Day weekend.