Autumn Adventures

It's now the eve of December first, and our home is already festive and decorated for Christmas. The rest of the world is also in Christmas-mode, but it is technically still the season of fall, so I wanted to make sure I took a moment to share some of the many magical moments we've experienced.

The weather this fall has been warm and balmy here in eastern Michigan, and we've spent endless afternoons enjoying some of the many wonderful parks with playgrounds.

This year we decided to re-visit the orchard and cider mill we first visited last year. We had absolutely perfect perfect weather this year! After feasting on cider and donuts, we headed to the petting zoo area, which was Makenna's favorite last year.

There is a large pen with medium-sized and baby goats where visitors can enter and pet to their hearts' content. Oh my, these sweet little goats sure didn't disappoint!

Makenna was enamored with these two little ones sleeping in the warm sunshine. She kept exclaiming, "Aww! Little baby twins!"

Our little adventurer loves visiting "the farm." She was fearless when it came to climbing the tire and hay "mountains."

These two have my heart!

As we neared the end of autumn's vibrant colors, Matt and I decided to take Makenna to Wolcott Mill State Park. Pre-Makenna, Matt and I used to love to come here to walk the trails in the woods and let Annbelle run to her heart's content. {We brought Annabelle along with us this time, as well, since it had been a few years since we've taken her here to frolic in the forest!}

Upon arrival, we discovered that the forest floor was covered in a beautiful blanket of golden leaves. Ever the little imagine-er, Makenna started singing, "We're off to see the wizard...!"

It was such such a lovely, picturesque day.

Then came Halloween, and our little movie-lover was delighted to dress up as "Dorothy." She was obsessed with any and all things Halloween this year. We try hard to keep Halloween very non-scary and more about enjoying fall and the chance to dress up. Of course there are lots of people who deck their yards out in scary and gruesome decor, and sadly it becomes impossible to shelter her from this. Thankfully Makenna learned the terms "scary" and "spooky" to describe such things, and she'd tell us certain things she saw were "too scary." Yet they never seemed to truly bother her or cause her alarm, and for that we are very thankful!

Matt's parents came to join us for Trick-or-Treating. They brought along their dog, Diesel, who came along to act as Makenna's "Toto."

Makenna loved being escorted by her "Nana" from house to house.

Here's a house with scary decor. Makenna paused when she saw it and said, "Oh dear." The girl was determined to get candy, however, so she approached the homeowner hand-in-hand with her Nana, while she uttered, "oh dear," a few more times.

Even November brought several unusually warm days. We took advantage of a couple more visits to the zoo and local parks, and one afternoon was even warm enough {in the 70's} that I let Makenna wear a pair of shorts outside!

Now it seems all at once, the last of autumn's leaves have fallen and a permanent chill has crept over the land. We have gathered with our loved ones for a cozy Thanksgiving full of laughter, feasting, and love, and we now are wholeheartedly ready to welcome in the Christmas season.

Stay tuned as I have one last especially splendid piece of news to share with you...we now know the gender of the little one growing inside of me! We were able to share this news with our families over Thanksgiving and I'll announce here shortly!

Recounting Fall, part one: The Family Wedding and Our Tiny Flower Girl

The very last of autumn's leaves have faded and nearly all have fallen to the earth. The brisk and pleasant temperatures have disappeared all too quickly and we have suddenly found ourselves in the midst of what appears to be the onset of winter.

Now here it is, mid-way through November, and I haven't written on my blog for almost two months. But I simply must rewind a bit and share because the past weeks have been absolutely marvelous with the wonderful things filling them. In fact, October itself was downright epic.

I will not begin by backtracking in chronological order, but instead regale you with the single event that helped make October so spectacular: Matt's youngest brother got married! His bride and our newest family member is named Hunter and she is as sweet and lovely as they come.

The wedding was such a fun-filled, loving, and gorgeous event. Hunter especially poured so much of herself into making the details reflect her own lovely style.

I took lots of photos of the details:

Two different flavors of tea bags were inside:

I felt utterly honored and blessed that Hunter asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. {No surprise: I was the oldest one--yikes!} Back in 2008 I was asked to be a bridesmaid to my other sister-in-law, Jennie. How very sweet that both of my sister-in-laws asked me to stand with them on their wedding days!

Me and my lovely mother-in-law, pre-ceremony:

Here is the stunning Hunter, taking a final pre-ceremony once-over of herself. Isn't her dress just exquisite?

A quick photo op:

Not only were Matt and I both in the wedding party, but Makenna was one of the two flower girls. The other flower girl was our darling niece, Cora. If you recall, Cora is only 8 weeks younger than Makenna and having them as flower girls together was absolutely priceless.

We were all holding our breath to see how the girls behaved during their part of the ceremony. After all, this can be a precarious age with boundless energy and the inability to understand the importance of the occasion. We planned to have Hunter's youngest sister pull the girls down the aisle in a wagon. We didn't expect them to drop petals, just sit and look pretty.

The best photos we have currently are blurry iPhone pics, but still cute nonetheless.

{Makenna is munching on puffs as they wait their turn to go down the aisle. We'd sprinkled those in the wagon to help keep them preoccupied!}

{Thanks to our friend, Jalene, for capturing these photos!}

I am happy to report that both girls behaved during their part, and that they just loved being the center of attention! Cora blurted out "Dada!" when she spotted her dad up front and both girls smiled and waved at the guests. Then, when they reached the end of the aisle, Makenna decided to be a real ham and lay down in the wagon and thrust her feet and arms into the air. Of course this got lots of laughs and she loved that. She sat back up as they were being wheeled back out of the sanctuary and Makenna was laughing loudly and covering her mouth with her hands. I know the wedding photographer got a few shots of Makenna's comedic moment and hopefully I'll be able to share those photos soon!

The reception was a blast, as well. The girls loved socializing and dancing. They were both exhausted at the end of it all. {As were we!}

{I heart this photo!}

It was a really lovely, very memorable day!

The entire Perry family is thrilled that Aaron found such a beautiful woman, both inside and out, to join our clan and cherish as our own for the rest of our lives. Congratulations, Aaron and Hunter!

Slow Down

As September has burst into our lives, the internet world is abuzz with people {mostly females, let's be honest} gushing over how excited they are for Autumn's impending arrival. "Cozy sweaters! Crisp fall air! Pumpkin Spice Lattes! Leaves turning the most brilliant golden shades!"  I freely admit that I always share this same excitement each time September rolls around. It is my favorite of the four seasons, after all, and I have a sort-of love affair with all of the things Autumn encompasses.

Except this year. This year, I am in no hurry to see summer leave. I think there are a myriad of reasons for my sentiments right now:

1. This has been one of the loveliest summers, weather-wise, that I can remember in a long time. It has been mostly in the low to mid eighties with only a fair amount of humidity. {For those of you not familiar--MI summers can be incredibly hot but worst of all, humid like you cannot even imagine. It truly makes being outside miserable when it gets like that}. For a fair-skinned, red-haired gal like me, it's been my ideal summer weather. I feel that this pleasantly mild summer was a special treat after this past seemingly-eternal, bitterly cold and snowy winter.

2. It's our first real summer to enjoy exploring the outdoors with Makenna. Last summer Makenna was too little to spend much time outside, plus last summer was miserably hot and humid. Our pediatrician didn't want us to apply sunscreen to Makenna until after she turned six months last year (on August 11th), so we were really limited as to our amount of time in the sun with her {read: NONE}.

3. The end of August came and went much too quickly this year. In fact, I feel a little robbed of time. Once we had the flood happen on the 11th of August, things got crazy and time became a blur. First we had to deal with the basement renovation. Then Makenna went for mini-getaways with her two sets of grandparents and just when I got her back, she became horribly ill will a tummy-bug that took days and days to shake. In fact, she's still not quite back to her old self yet.

Now that our calendar is slowing down considerably, I am anxious to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of the remaining warm days. It really is a first for me--not to feel anxious to see summer go and embark upon some mild and chillier fall days. I desperately want more time to play in our kiddie pool, to enjoy our garden, to sit outside and feel warm breezes brush my skin, to go to the park, and to walk to the nearby ice cream stand.

Taking advantage of the little last bits of summer may even mean putting off projects I've been working on, or even spending less time here on this blog for now. I feel certain that I won't regret it once we no longer have a choice but to stay indoors as the days get colder and winter makes its debut.

I'll welcome Autumn with open arms when it arrives this year, but until it does, I'll be relishing every remaining day that still feels like summer is with us.

Summer Vacation in Charlevoix: Cherry Picking

It had never really crossed my mind to go to an orchard to pick cherries. Well, I'm here to tell you that it is an absolute joy and you simply must do it if you ever get the chance!

We had such a marvelous time picking cherries at a beautiful orchard and God blessed us with the most gorgeous weather to accompany our little outing, too.

Makenna equally adored our outing. She'd actually never eaten a cherry before. She popped several into her mouth and ate them whole, pits and all! I'm not surprised one bit that she took to them after her first taste.

She was quite intent on getting up onto a ladder, so her Papa helped her.

We wandered from tree to tree, filling our buckets and sampling the bright red fruits as we went to test their sweetness.

Makenna held four cherries clenched in her two little fists the entire time, claiming them as her very own.

It was a really dreamy morning.

In fact, we enjoyed cherry-picking so much that we went back another day. We truly couldn't pass up the fun or the unreal bargain of these delicious little sweets.

On our second outing, I stocked up on sour cherries to freeze and use later in tarts and pies. I've never made a cherry pie before...hopefully it will be a success and I can share that with you here.

I've picked many different types of fruit throughout my lifetime at various farms and orchards, yet I've never enjoyed it nearly so much as with cherries. Cherry-picking season only lasts a few weeks each summer, but if you can manage to find the venue, you must experience this treat for yourself!