"Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling." -Anonymous

So have I told you that I just love Fall?

Because just in case I haven't.. I am so in love with the Fall time lately. It just feels so cozy.

& yesterday I had the most wonderful Fall day.

:)

My roommates had planned for a bunch of friends to come over that night to carve pumpkins, make carmel apples, and watch a scary movie in our apartment complexes theater room just to get into the Halloween mood..

So we thought it'd be really fun if we went to the apple orchard behind our school and got apples for the carmel apples we were making!

I've never been to an apple orchard before so I thought it was SO fun..

There were SO many different apple trees, lots that I had never even heard of!

& luckily I'm engaged to the sweetest guy ever.. who was kind enough to climb up the tree after the apples that I was convinced looked the biggest!

[& let me tell you.. those apples were so yummy!]

I don't know if I can ever go back to buying apples in the store again!

These ones were like a dollar cheaper a pound AND very delicious.

Then FOURTEEN of our closest friends came over for our pumpkin carving bonanza..

& I'm SO glad they did because it wouldn't have been as fun or as messy without everyone of them there! 

But I have definitely never seen so many pumpkins in one house before..

Blake was so excited I think for his SECOND chance to carve an awesome pumpkin this October..

:)

He was sweet as I socialized and ran around and took pictures and kept working hard..

& his hard work DEFINITELY paid off.. our pumpkin turned out SO cool!

[Just wait for a picture of when it's lit.. and you'll completely agree!]

Then of course we didn't have ANY lighters or matches in the whole house!

So.. Plan B was to light a paper towel with our oven and then light the candles with the embers..

:)

and of course that..

[didn't] work.

haha so we had to go trick or treating a little early this year for lighters..

But when we actually got them lit.. I'm pretty sure everyone thought the lighter search was worth it!

They turned out AweSOMe.

Blake and My pumpkin [& by that I mean.. mostly Blake.. but he loved me and shared]

is the one in the bottom left corner..

go on.. tell me that you love it..

Then once we were all done admiring our professional pumpkins..
[which did take a while because I think everyone was pretty proud of their hardwork]
We got to put our apple orchard adventure to use!



& make ourselves really healthy treats! mm..
[the apple balances out all the sugar right?.. haha]

I didn't get as many pictures of the apples because as soon as I made mine, the opportunity to have clean non-sticky hands was ALL over.

:)

But they turned out really cute.

& then we watched Haunting in Connecticut in our theater room!

&.. putting aside the fact that I have recently developed not a huge fondness for scary movies..

It was the best way I could ever picture spending my Friday night.

I'm so lucky to have such fun people to share my time with and celebrate the holidays.

:) 

I hope everyone else is enjoying the Fall time too.. & I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

[almost ONE week until Halloween.. & my Birthday.. ah. can't wait]