Wonderful Weekend

**Man! I've been trying to get this post out for a week now, I guess we've been busy...

What a great weekend we had! It started on Thursday with dh surprising me and whisking me off to exotic Bellevue (ha ha). He got a great deal on a very nice hotel room and my dad was able to come stay with the boys, so off we went! We did a little early Christmas shopping and just enjoyed an evening of us time-- something we desperately need these days. We came home in the morning on Friday and got ready for our big night of Halloween festivities. We went to our church's celebration and it was crazy!! Poor little Timothy was so overwhelmed by it all that he hardly said two words-- not to mention that he refused to wear his adorable giraffe costume. Oh well, not a battle worth fighting with a two year old. Samuel looked very sweet in his "doggy costume" for the second year in a row and he was so cute running back and forth to the mirror to examine his makeup.

Then Saturday, we all woke up early and headed east over the mountains to our annual Newman Family Cider Weekend. We've done this on an annual basis now for at least 35 years, so I can't quite imagine life without it! My family has a functioning apple farm up in the Naches Heights area of Yakima, WA (my great-grandfather purchased the land quite a long time ago) and we are spoiled with the beauty of it at this time of year. Unfortunately, we had to move the weekend back by one week and the rain came! It worked out just fine, though, cider can still be made in the rain. This year we made over 100 gallons, quite a feat in our history. But I have say that ever since we voted three years ago, pooled our money and bought the electric cider press, I've felt like we're cheating (frankly, I voted no, but I lost. I prefer the crank and grind of the antique cider press that they used to drag out every year. It was made by my aforementioned late great-grandfather). Samuel and Timothy both had a grand ole time helping out. They were as much a part of the process as anyone else in the family-- that makes me so proud! So, without further ado (and sorry to keep you waiting), here are a few glances at the fun.