Fun and fulfilling fall festivities!

Wow, could I be a crappier blogger right now?? Surely my absence is due the fact that we’re just out having so much fun leaving no time to blog about it!!

October has been quite the busy month for us, actually. There’s been something around every corner and I feel like I just can’t keep up! But behold, it’s nap time and for once I’m not joining in! I shall blog instead!

We started out the festivities with a trip to The Elegant Farmer, everyone’s favorite overpriced, yet adorably festive, apple orchard. We picked ourselves a half bushel of apples (which still remain uneaten), took a hayride, and spent the other 50% of our time in giant lines. The caramel apple pie baked in a paper bag keeps me coming back though!

The next weekend or so we hit up Jim’s Pumpkin Patch, which is just a few minutes from our house and we never even knew it existed!! It’s pretty small but quaint and you can get a hayride AND pick your own pumpkin on the cheap! So ride and pick we did.

We spent Family Night this week carving our newly acquired pumpkins. And my we, I mean me. Derrick does an excellent job of gutting them, but is not the steadiest hand at carving. Good thing he abandoned Medical School after the pass/fail preview seminar at BYU. (Side note….when I started dating him I thought I was getting into a doctor’s salary. I wound up with a Spanish major. But all’s well that end’s well…we are happily debt free!) Back to the pumpkins…The girls loved them and loved “helping”.

What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than raking up not only your fallen leaves, but the leaves from your neighbor’s tree? At least someone got to have a little fun out of it.   Totally unrelated, but I can’t resist a half naked baby eating spaghetti. Not pictured:

• the delicious and adorable treats we left on our friends’ doorstep (You’ve been Boo’d!) that I don’t think progressed past their own families. Oh well, we tried.
• The calorie and fun laden annual pumpkin party, sparsely attended due to sickness but still a winner with those that showed up!
• The insane amount of candy pumpkins I have been eating. They’re practically a vegetable, right?? (Fact: pumpkins are technically a FRUIT!)

Happy Fall!!

The Wedding!

DC was awesome. But then, it always is. We did a TON of walking, and saw all the major sites. I’ll do a separate post on my own pics from touring, but here are just some of the pictures from the temple after the wedding. It was overcast and freezing that day, and rained the whole time except for the 45 minutes we were outside taking pictures. Miracle!!

I really could have used a ladder in some of these shots, but oh well. It is what it is at this point. I have a huge newfound appreciation for wedding photographers. Jennifer, I’m looking at you!!

Congrats to Hayley and Taylor!!

   

Hayley

As you may or may not know, I have been “hired” as the wedding photographer for the lovely Hayley and her soon-to-be hubby Taylor. I do not claim to be a professional photographer, nor do I think I ever will. However, I guess I am cheaper than a real one and can provide adequate enough pictures to document arguably the MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF THEIR LIVES SO FAR!!!! *insert panicked scream here*

Yes, I’m totally freaking out. Losing my camera didn’t help things. I’ve been practicing and reading up on techniques and mostly just praying everything works out and I get some decent images for them.

And oh, did I mention the wedding is in DC?!?!

I’m totally stoked to go. I looove DC. Like, I want to marry it. We get to spend 2 days sightseeing and then the wedding is Wednesday morning and we fly back that evening to be back for the reception the next day. Next week will be an absolute whirlwind! Thankfully my mom is flying out to help watch the girls since Derrick has school and work and all the jazz. So you better believe I’ll be enjoying my solo flight and 3 days without kids! (Don’t worry, in their place I’ll be developing stress ulcers thinking about the wedding pictures.)

So anyway, I took Hayley’s bridals a couple weeks ago and she gave me permission to post them here. She’s gorgeous, so that makes them automatically amazing. I did a little post processing work-not much, since I don’t know much really-and I think we got some decent shots. I won’t bother you with my excuse that I had bought the camera that day and wasn’t 100% familiar with it.

 

So, all of you pros out there, I know a lot of the mistakes I made, but if you have any constructive criticism or tips for the upcoming wedding, I’d really appreciate it!

Be gentle on me, please!