Apple Picking

One of our first fall adventures was apple picking at Becker Farms. It was the classic apple picking experience and we couldn't have asked for more. Here are some pictures to highlight.

Here is Edison with his "stolen" apple that he took from the store while we were standing in line waiting to buy our apple picking bags. He promptly started to munch on it, and since there really was no use in giving back a half eaten apple and because there LITERALLY were apples scattered all along the floors, we figured he could just keep it. But doesn't he look guilty in this picture? We ended up eating the rest of it after his three or four bights.

And here is the apple orchard DRIPPING with apples. I had this adrenaline rush seeing all the apples everywhere... like the kind of rush you get at a buffet line when you feel like you need to try everything. I felt like I needed to grab all the apples I could.

Beautiful, delicious apples.

Edison was off like a shot, picking up all the half eaten apples on the ground and giving them a try. I think he had the same kind of adrenaline rush I had.

After our bags were stuffed with apples we stopped off at the pumpkin patch. Edison has been obsessed with pumpkins this fall (probably on my doing) and was thrilled to finally be in a real pumpkin patch.

He was also thrilled for the chance to sit on the big red tractor. He talks about it to this day.



Here are the fruits of our labor. We savored every one of those delicious apples. I made a fine apple crisp, and the rest we gobbled up whole. Natures candy.

Amherst, New York. Home.

So here we are, home sweet home in Amherst New York. So far we really like it. We are floored by how much space we have in our little duplex, and amazed by the kindness we have received from our ward, neighbors etc. We are slowly putting our house together and making it a real home. We love the trees, the squirrels, the birds...it's all so different to us!

I wish I had a better picture of our little home, but this is the only one where I had Edison sitting still. It 's a great little 3 bedroom duplex, and I promise to get more pictures of it once we piece it together.


And of course Edison loves our backyard. The people before us put in the swing set and slide and even left this great little truck that Edison spends HOURS playing in. It's great for when I'm making dinner!


Here is Niagara Falls! About 20 min away from us on the New York side. Canada is just a walk away, and we plan to visit that soon.


Edison loved the "BIG water fall" as he called it. It really is a sight to see!



We found this great ice cream shop (love that the shop was a big ice cream cone) called "Perry's" with the most delicious ice cream. If you come to visit us, chances are we will take you here.

We live in a place where Buffalo's have wings.

This picture was taken on one of our "exploring" drives. All the houses are super classic Americana, which I love. I love even more that a lot of them put these fake candles in the windows! It creates this really nice, warm "home-y" look.

Our drive led us to more ice cream! We need to get our share of anything with the word "ice" in it before we start detesting the word. We found this great ice cream shop called "Uncle G's Ice Cream". To top it off there was even the Niagara Frontier Fiddle Band playing outside. It was too classic to pass up. I live for this kind of stuff.

We settled for the Fluffer Nutter ice cream Sundae. I have never had anything like this in my entire life. Marshmallow whip, peanut butter sauce, custard ice cream. Oh. my. goodness.

So, thus far we are having a great time (eating a lot of ice cream), and getting back to our American roots. We can't wait for all the adventures that await us! Stay tuned!

Leaving Hawaii and the Journey East

Here is our very long post about our very long journey to Amherst, New York. For those of you who don't know, Nate is going get his masters in Economics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. It was a big and expensive decision, but it felt right so we went with it. Here are the pictures of the highlight of our move!


First, we had to soak up Hawaii before we left, so here are our pictures of our last time in Laie. *sniff*. It was such a good place to us!

Thank you Hawaii we love you!!!

Packing our stuff up to ship to New York....ugghhhh. What a mess. At least little Edison knew how to make fun out of it. This is the time I found him caked chocolate that he got off the counter. There were so, so many more incidents like this. I will end there.

ROAD TRIP.....

Here starts our road trip. 4, 10 hour driving days from San Diego to Amherst, New York. Thankfully Edison stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Alexander in Utah as to spare us the stress of driving with a 18 month old in the back seat of the car.

Pretty Park City

Wyoming

And then it all turned into this after that....

Lots of it...

And then, Ta Da! We made it to Buffalo to feast on our first real, authentic Buffalo Wings!!!! I have to mention as well that after we made it to New York, we flew back to Utah, went to Nate's sisters wedding, picked up Edison and flew back. I think I must of been too tired to take pictures, because I have none!! But more posts to come on settling in our new house :)

4th of July already Happened?

"We already had the 4th of July?" Seriously, I had this thought just today. It was just last month that I was browsing a recipe book, and thought, "Oh, that will be good for Easter dinner". All ready had that one too!! Where has time gone?

I did manage however to take some pictures of this years 4th of July cupcakes to help me remember that, yes, it was celebrated, and we did have a great time.

Thanks to my great sister Amy I went a little crazy with my new frosting tips...and a little crazy with the icing. But what's a good cupcake with out a lot of frosting? This was a DELICIOUS butter cream frosting recipe that I found online if you want to look it up. I highly recommend it.

http://therepressedpastrychef.blogspot.com/2008/05/buttercream-icing.html

The catch of the day!

We spent a lovely Saturday afternoon at the Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden for a ward primary activity. Nate and I couldn't get over how beautiful this place was! Heaven on earth! Quiet, tranquil, majestic all rolled into one. The highlight was fishing in the lake with a bamboo poll and watching little Edison's face light up when we pulled a big orange fish! Another sweet moment to add to our Hawaii Bank of Memories.

If you ever come to Oahu, come and visit this place! http://maps.google.com/maps/place?rls=com.microsoft:en-us&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=botanical+garden+in+Kaneohe&fb=1&gl=us&hq=botanical+garden&hnear=Kaneohe,+HI&cid=6085936552712260703

The $6 dollar mango

Ok, this isn't the most exciting of posts, but I have to tell someone that I paid $6 for a single piece of fruit. It just kind of seemed like a big deal when we purchased it. It was a huge Kona King mango, and we were kind of sucked into buying it by a sweet lady in China Town. But we justified it as an "investment" in our Hawaii Bank of Memories. Was biting into a thick piece of sweet juicy mango worth $6? You bet it was.

King Kamehameha Day Parade

Living in the city gives us instant access to all the events downtown. This is the Kamehameha Day parade, commemorating King Kamehameha V. It's a holiday as well! Wahoo, gotta love Hawaii.

Here is the King Kamehameha Statue adorned in leis from the city.

Here is the king himself!

The lovely Princess of Kauai.

Ok, lets be honest. This post was really for this picture of the Kings Guards. Check them out! Huge! That's real Hawaiian blood there. We all stood in awe.