Pizza, Books and Icecream

We pretty much only go on dates when our families are visiting, we don't know many people who can come over and babysit.  So when my sister, Sammy, and my mom were here for the weekend, we went out!  

We ate some really good pizza, right next door to our fave ice cream place, probably haven't mentioned it before, Pumphouse Creamery.  I know, ice cream is our weakness.  

Then we went to Barnes and Noble, super romantic:)  This is where we spent most of our time...and possibly the sewing section.

This book is going on our Christmas list, awesome!

Speaking of apples, we made these caramelized apples for our crepes that Derek cooked, so yummy with vanilla beans!

Here's the recipe from Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone

ingredients:

3/4 cup Sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

5 apples (about 2 pounds total), cored and cut into 1-inch-wide wedges

1/4 cup heavy cream

to prepare:

Combine the cugar and 1/4 cup water in a large heavy skillet and stir over low heat, occasionally brushing down the sides of the skillet with a wet pastry brush, until the sugar dissolves.  Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean; then add teh bean itself to the sugar mixture.  Increase the heat and boil without stirring, occasionally brushing down teh sides adn swirling the pan, until the syrup is a deep amber color, about 8 minutes.  Stir in the butter. Add the apples and stir to coat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the apples begin to soften and the sauce thickens slightly.  Then stir in the cream and simmer for 2 minutes longer.  Discard the vanilla bean.  Serve over crepes, waffles, pancakes, or ice cream.

A Lovely Four Day Weekend

I've kind of been posting late and in chunks, sorry, but here's our Labor Day:)

We had some fun at the zoo.

He loves his tractors!

Adeline's not so keen on animals.

Hakan's most favorite thing at the zoo are the butterflies.  He walks around with his little picture key trying to identify what kind of butterfly he sees, so absolutely adorable!

We went to our most fave ice cream place, Pumphouse Creamery.

 Hakan took the next three pictures, plus like 100 more, ha!

I love my little family:)

Apples, Apples, and More Apples!

We've already gone to pick apples twice this fall...if you want to call it fall, at our favorite little orchard, Sweetland Orchard.  This is our absolute most favorite place to go and thing to do as a family!    The couple that own it, Mike and Gretchen, are super nice and inviting people, who also have a little girl who's the same age as Adeline:)  Hakan loves their dog, Fletcher, who will play fetch with just about anything, apples, pinecones, sticks, balls, really whatever he can find, he's adorable.  It's not like other pick-your-own places, it's a little more wild and not as busy, our kind of place.  They also have some of the best cinnamon and sugar donuts;)

We've already made apple sauce and apple crisp, with more apple recipes to come.  And we already got to pick some Honeycrisp, which is usually not ready for a couple weeks, yay!

This was our first visit, a little drizzle going on, but still fun:)

Hakan found their chickens and chased them for a bit.

This was our second visit, a perfect day to be outside!   I love this picture because it looks like she's just striding along with her basket, but really she was kind of teetering and falling:)

We have been letting Hakan use our old camera, so he took some pictures while we were there.  I was pretty impressed with a few.  I really love seeing his vantage point, it's fun!

This first one is my favorite!

  

You can read about our past "obsessed with apples" posts here, here, here, and here...I wasn't joking when I said we were obsessed:)

We're certainly not done for the season yet!

We also think that we just need to move down to this area, because we go down there for so many things, I think we're country people at heart...someday maybe.

Last huzzah at our happy place

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my great uncle Dale's cabin being for sale here.  I'm still in shock about never going to the place I've gone to every year for 28 years...this was our last weekend there.  I just wish we could afford to purchase it, but we're scraping by the way it is.

It just breaks my heart.

Lots of pictures.

Hakan's first fish, caught with cheese:)

Helping daddy build a bonfire.

S'mores!

Ha!  My beautiful sister:)

We were in a craft show down the road, awesome day!

We had to eat at Zorbaz...it's delicious!  Hopefully we'll eat there again someday.

My mama and sister.

My step dad.

My great aunt Bev made these, may she rest in peace, and I was able to take them home.  I've always loved them, now I just need to find the perfect place for them.

She couldn't move and just tipped over.

One last boat ride on Clitherall lake.

It was too late for the little ones to roast marshmallows over the bonfire, so we made some over the grill, yum!

Such a good brother sharing:)

This is what I will miss the most, sitting on the patio watching the sun set, gorgeous.

Pancakes with blueberry syrup...he likes it.

Hakan found a little baby snapping turtle...he obviously wasn't mean yet, and still a little cute.  Too bad he'll grow up to be a nasty big thing.

We had wonderful time and will miss this place dearly.  We have been so blessed to be able to use it and are so thankful!  Now onto other adventures in pursuit of our happy place to make new memories:)

You can read about a few other posts about the lake here (sweet baby Adeline was so small!), here and here.