A Walk in the Woods

This morning Gwen and Mom took a hike in a nearby nature preserve. It was quite chilly, but also quite lovely with some intense yellow foliage. Gwen was in the pack most of the time, but got a chance to walk at the end. Despite many roots to trip over, she managed pretty well. She found lots of leaves and wanted to show Mom each one.

P.S. As you may have noticed in the last post, Gwen has a nasty bruise on her face from a fall yesterday morning. She has been pretty attached to a particular blanket, but she often slips and trips on it. After this blanket battle wound, she'll have to leave it in her bed to snuggle with only when she sleeps.

The [Strange] Pumpkin Patch

On Grammie and Poppa's last day in New York, we decided to take a drive and see some foliage. Come to find out, the foliage in our neighborhood was more colorful than anything we saw on our drive. However, the trip wasn't a complete loss. Besides being warm and toasty in the car and enjoying each other's company, we came upon a pumpkin patch. We needed to stretch our legs, and we weren't a bit bored while we did so. Some of the things we found were pretty neat...and then there were others that were pretty strange.

We were greeted by hay bale Mr. and Mrs. Potato Heads. Gwen was impressed!

First Gwen just wanted to pat the pumpkins, and then she wanted to pick them up. This was a challenge until she found the pie pumpkins which were just her size.

Gwen was sure that is was her job to organize the Indian corn.

There were some neat gourds, including the snake and cave man club variety, and a ton of incredibly carved pumpkins all lit up!

Perhaps Gwen's favorite part was the ride back to the car in the wagon.P.S. The pictures posted fail to capture the strangeness of this pumpkin patch as I took pictures of the more normal parts. But, for example, in the picture above there is a large something made of orange traffic barrels, and it's...well...strange!

Gwen's New Ride

Hi.

Do you like my new coat?

I have something else new to show you...

This is my new car!

(Did I mention my Grammie is visiting from Florida?

Yeah, thus all the cute stuff!)

I really like my new ride,

although sometimes I have difficulty getting in...

But once I'm in, I shut the door and...

Beep the horn before...

I get out to check the gas...

And push the car around.

Then I do it all again!

Did you want a ride?

Welcome to New York

Gwen welcomed Grammie and Poppa Crosby to New York with a visit to a nearby orchard. Grammie found a pumpkin just Gwen's size, we "picked" some Honey Crisp apples from the chilly apple room, and Gwen found the biggest apple in the orchard.

We also enjoyed the crisp fall air (Poppa got to wear a flannel shirt!), farm animals, and face cut outs. We took home some cider donuts and apple pie to enjoy later!

Gwen, The Apple of Our Eye

Today we visited an apple orchard near our home. With lots of rain this year, there is supposed to be a bumper apple crop. However, the apples at this orchard had been damaged by hail. This meant they didn't look pretty, but they still tasted great and the price was right...very right! Gwen picked an apple and held onto it for the rest of the afternoon. She took a few bites, but was more interested in carrying and rolling it around. Gwen is the apple of our eye!