An Autumn Weekend

It is Autumn here in northern Virginia. The leaves have started to change, the nights are cooler, and mums and pumpkins adorn porches. This weekend we enjoyed a family autumn tradition and started a new one.

The kids and I went apple picking like we do every year. T-man was a great apple picker but he was mostly interested in collecting leaves for his yearly leaf collage. We walked from grove to grove taste-testing the different varieties. The braeburn apples were my favorite - crisp with just the right mix of tart and sweet - almost savory. The kids couldn't believe how sweet the golden delicious apples were. Nothing like the bland ones from the grocery store. "It's like eating a mouth full of honey" Madi said. And as much as we tried to discourage Baby C from eating apples off the ground, she happily filled her mouth and her bucket with every apple she could find.

For the first time, we went camping with ALL SEVEN of us! My husband has taken the kids camping at least once a year, but I haven't actually slept in a tent since Madi was two. Here's what I loved: the crackle of the camp fire, the night hike with the park ranger, seeing a toad the size of a kitten, seeing the filmy Milky Way bow across the sky like a sparkling silver rainbow, holding my children's hands, eating foil dinners...

...licking my fingers to get the last of the sticky marshmallow, snuggling in the tent, reading our "Penderwicks" by lantern light, kissing my husband under the stars, and a morning hike around the lake.

Yes, I confess, I slept most of the night in the car (I just cannot sleep on the ground). And we could have done without the angry woman who yelled obscenities at us at 4AM because Baby C was crying (as if we weren't trying our very best to get her to go back to sleep!). I'm grateful to my dear husband who stuck it out in the tent with the kids and rocked Baby C, letting her sleep against his chest (I know he didn't get much sleep).

Despite the hurdles, the camping trip will go down in our memories as a wonderful weekend...one which we plan to add to autumn traditions.