falling in love with fall

This past weekend was the most perfect fall day......warm, sunny, fresh and colorful.  I really wish that EVERY day was like this except for one month in summer and one month in winter.  A little snow never hurt anyone, right?  I can't talk about winter, I'm starting to cry.

  Back to fall.  Beautiful fall.

With a busy and fun weekend planned it was so nice to take a little time out and head to our local forest preserve with the pups and just enjoy fall while it was here.  We hiked through the trees and ended up at our own little beach where Lola wasted no time jumping right in.  Our little swimmer.

And of course Hudson barely could get his paws wet and when he did he would not leave Bran's side.  We have such strange and silly dogs.  We have no idea where they get it.

Not so pretty and calming was our encounter with these little buggers.

Burs? Burrs? Buursss? 

Spelling doesn't matter what does matter is that 3 of the 4 of us have lots of hair and hair is not a friend of the bur.

My head was covered in the spiky balls and we had to give Lola a massive haircut when we got home. I don't know how that girl caught so many burs on her body.  I think she lost half her weight in fur from the removal and now she has a little nub for a tail.

We ended our little walk with an attempted family photo thanks to self-timer.  This was the best one we could get.  Not going to make the Christmas card.

We also spent some time at the apple orchard this past weekend.  

It is not officially fall for us until we visit the orchard.

And eat apple cider donuts.  Good thing this is a seasonal food.

All the trees were so green and healthy and half full of apples except for this little guy.  It may not be pretty but it's still bearing much fruit.  Hmm...there's a lesson here.  I really fell in love with this little tree.  It was perfect.

Apple picking isn't just about the picking for us - it is about the apple splitting contest - with our bare hands!

Yes we actually can split apples with our bare hands and now my hands are totally bruised to prove it.

Hopefully they will be fully recovered in time for pumpkin picking this weekend.  

Fall just keeps on getting better.

Now if the warm, sunny weather could only hang around a little bit longer.