Johnny Appleseed Me

Hey there, happy Tuesday!  Fall is officially in full swing here in Chicago.  Matt woke me up before he left this morning to let me know it was 35 degrees outside, eeek!  It warms up once the suns comes out, but the chill is certainly in the air.  We need to get our firewood and ice scrapers this weekend, before I'm stuck scraping my car with another foam pedicure flip flop :)  And speaking of fall, Matt and I had the ultimate fall weekend this past weekend.  You already read about our hockey experience and football win, but the best fall treat was Sunday when we travelled to an apple orchard and pumpkin patch!  A real apple orchard and a real pumpkin patch!  Now, to many of you, this may not seem that cool, but for this city girl from Texas, it was uncharted territory and absolutely amazing!

 

Sunday morning, we woke up early and headed west of Chicago to Malta, IL to the Jonamac Orchard.  (Thanks for the recommendation, The Pursuit of LLT!)  The drive alone was gorgeous, but when we got out of the car, I squealed with excitement!  (Its true, I literally squeal when I get excited, its an automatic response, I can't help it.)  It was so pretty, so picturesque, and so FALL!  After buying an empty peck, we were off to the orchard to pick our own apples!

It was so nice to get there early, because it was fairly empty.  It felt like it was just us and the apples :)

I mean how cool is this?! I know for some people, this is normal, but I had never seen anything like this!  It was like something out of a storybook for me.  Each row of apple trees was labeled with their variety (i.e. Gala, Jonathon, Fuji, etc.) and those that were ready to be harvested were marked with a blue ribbon.  Anything with blue ribbon was fair game for picking.

A lot of the lower apples had been picked by kids, but the higher apples remained pretty and untouched.  Luckily, I got my dad's height and giraffe limbs lol.

Pulling the apple off the tree never got old.  I just couldn't (and still can't) get over how legit this whole thing was.  I mean, I read about Johnny Appleseed in elementary school, but I never thought I'd have the opportunity to actually be him for a day!

Matt taking a peek at the varieties ahead.  And is that not the most beautiful sky you've ever seen?  I couldn't stop commenting on it all day!

Pssh, and I thought Whole Foods was fresh!  This was fresh from the tree, and so so delicious!

Picking our peck.

I think Matt was a little skeptical about this whole thing when we started.  He couldn't get past the fact that you had to pay more to pick your own, as opposed to buying them already picked.  I reminded him you were paying for the experience lol.  He went with it, and in the end, really enjoyed it.

Though there were more apples to be picked, our peck was full.  So we said goodbye to the lovely little orchard and headed towards the pumpkin patch.

It was only about a quarter of a mile walk to the pumpkin patch, but I wanted the full experience so we took the tractor out there.  So fun!

Would you look at that pumpkin patch?!  Its a real pumpkin patch!  I was silly enough to think that the pumpkin patches in surburban Dallas were real patches.  You know the ones where the pumpkins are nicely laid out on bales of hay with cardboard cut out photo ops every three feet.  Ha, silly me.  I couldn't help but let out another squeal when the tractor stopped here :)

We walked around for a bit before deciding on our three pumpkins.  There were pumpkins of every shape, size and color, and some of the pumpkins were still attached to the vine!

Our fall family picture :)

After leaving the patch and loading the pumpkins in our car, we headed to the apple store to see what kind of tasty treats they had.

No surprise, the apple pie was AMAZING!  So were the apple donuts, the apple cider, and the carmel apples.  Not that we tried them all or anything :)

Jonamac Orchard also has a totally legit corn maze.  And by totally legit, I mean, yes, you can get lost in there for hours.  This was at the beginning of the maze, when I was all smiles.  Twenty minutes into it, I was on the verge of a panic attack, because we weren't making a lot of forward progress.  I thought they'd have friendly little guides throughout the maze to direct you when you were lost.  No, not so much.  Corn mazes have now been added to my phobia list.  In case you were wondering, this phobia list only includes two other things: frogs and swallowing my gum.

Halfway through the maze, I wondered if there was an app on the iPhone to help us out.  (Just saying, it would have been a good idea.)  Thankfully, Matt has a better sense of direction that I give him credit for, and he got us out safe and sound!

And of course, I couldn't go without a quick OOTD photo.  I wore this jacket last weekend to the Cubs game and several of you asked about it.  I didn't have a casual weekend jacket, you know, a good in between piece.  So when I saw this one at Ann Taylor Loft, I thought it was perfect.  Its not available online anymore, but when I was in the store a few weeks ago, I saw a couple left on the sale rack.  (Of course it goes on sale after I buy it.)  I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot of it this fall!

Jacket: Ann Taylor Loft
Long sleeved tee: Ann Taylor Loft
Jeans: Ann Taylor
Scarf: The Limited, gift from my mother in law (thanks Jamie!)
Boots: Clarks
Purse: thrifted in Houston (thanks Mom!)
Apple: Jonamac Orchards

Can we take a moment and pause over my new boots?  I love them!  Now, I know what you're thinking..."Isn't the Clarks store an old lady store? Yep, exactly what I thought too (sorry Mom!)  I've never even thought twice about looking in that store.  But the other day after a long shift at the store, my feet were hurting so bad, that I thought, I can't take a fall and winter at the store in this much pain.  My boss bossed me to go get myself a pair of Clarks and swore my feet would thank me.  The Clarks store gives our associates a discount because so many of our associates shop there.  (I never imagined how bad retail hurts your feet.)  So when I got off work, I headed over.  I told myself before walking in, that I didn't care how comfortable they were; if I wouldn't buy them under normal circumstances, I wouldn't buy them now.  Then I saw these beauties.  I had to have them.  I saw a similar pair earlier last month at Nordstrom, but with a $490 price tag, they were outside my comfort zone.  So when these presented themselves, I had to have them.  Cute, comfortable, and with a discount?  Yes, please.  They aren't available online yet, but the store near me had a few pairs in already.  I love love love them!

So there you have it, our fabulous fall day in paradise (and one more picture, because I'm still in awe.)  If you ever have a chance to visit an apple orchard, you should definitely go for it!  We had so much fun and are already thinking of all the fun apple recipes we can come up with this week.  HOORAY FOR FALL!