Autumn 2011

Autumn is here, for real. Halloween has come and gone (yay candy!), and now it's dark when I leave work in the evening. Thank goodness for my new key chain flashlight, since I can't see our doorknob without it!



Today was quite lovely, but we've have several cold days and a whole lotta rain. Even some snow here in Belmont (much more to the west).

How's autumn treating you?

{cell phone photo; 27 October 2011}

Two Weeks Ago

Two weeks ago, we attended Eric's 10 year high school reunion. It was a beautiful weekend, and we picked pumpkins with a few of his former classmates and went for a hike on a trail near our apartment.

road to the pumpkin patch

pumpkin parch at westward orchard in harvard, ma

autumn mushrooms in belmont, ma

dried fall flowers

Lovely, lovely fall. 

Looking Backward

Sometimes it's worth it to look backward. To stop and enjoy the full 360° view. 

I took this picture on our drive home from New Jersey the Sunday before last. The sunset was stunning. 

Head Of The Charles

On Saturday, Eric and I spent some time watching the 46th Head of the Charles Regatta. It was a great day to be outside and there were all sorts of booths set up handing out free snacks!

We watched from the Cambridge side of the river, and it was pretty cool how many people turned out for the event. It was a lot of fun!

DHS Marching Band

On October 3rd, Max was in the North Adams Fall Foliage parade. It was a perfect day for a parade: sunny and warm! The leaves had even started turning (just barely), which is always a little iffy since it's so early in the season.

Max looked great in his uniform, and even gave me a little smirk as he marched on by. Gotta love that kid.

Happy weekend! Enjoy it. :)

P.S. I've been posting pretty regularly over on the Everything Little Miss blog (about more than just products, of course), so you may want to hop on over and take a little look-see! This week I shared a little peek of my new work space.

2010 Fall Foliage

I had to make another trip out to Western Mass last Thursday. Since Eric had class, I took the good old Peter Pan bus. The drive was actually quite lovely because the trees are so colorful right now.

I had a meeting on Friday, and then I spent the rest of the weekend running errands and relaxing. I always love spending time with my family. 

On the way back to Boston, I had to take a picture of the motorcyclist in Charlemont. It was such a great day for riding with the wind in your hair, because it was warm + sunny. 

Affianced

He asked. I said yes. Just like that, we became affianced (that's much more fun to say than engaged)! 

Sunday, I accidentally foiled Eric's proposal plans, because I wasn't feeling well. Luckily, we both had Monday off and had planned to spend the day together. We spent the afternoon walking around Beacon Hill. We found some good looking chocolate chip cookies + hot apple cider on Charles Street, and we took our goodies to a sunny spot on The Common.

Then we headed over the the Public Garden to watch the ducks. Eric picked out a nice looking willow tree, and we sat underneath in the shade. The next thing I knew, I was looking at my gramma's engagement ring and he was asking! I said yes right away and then the ring was on my pinky (it needs to be resized). I didn't cry; I just smiled and smiled and smiled -- still smiling -- and so did Eric. 

We had the camera with us, so we decided to take these genuine engagement photos of ourselves (there are a few more here). We propped the camera on its bag and used the remote control to take a series of pictures. Then we both wanted to keep it secret for a little longer, so we didn't head straight home or get out our phones. We just walked around feeling special.

When we did get home, about 2 hours later, it was time to call our families. Having never done this before, we weren't sure what to say or how to say it, and we approached it differently. I blurted out the news ("Hi! We're engaged!"), while Eric seemed to ease into a little ("Hi, how are you? wait for response I have some news: We're engaged!").

You may think 8 years is a long time to wait, but for us it was the perfect amount of time. Nothing else would have felt right to us, and I'm lucky that Eric and I move at the same pace and that neither of us was rushed into this big decision.

We're both incredibly happy and so thankful for all of the enthusiasm from family and friends!   

Mount Greylock

On the 2nd, while we were in North Adams, we drove to the top of Mount Greylock with my sister and brother. It was Eric's first time to the top, and it was the most gorgeous day for the trip!

Mount Greylock is the highest point in Massachusetts, and there's a beautiful view from the top. I'm still thinking about it more than a week later!

Farmer's Market

The dog parade setup was in the same parking lot as the weekly Farmer's Market, so my mom and I scoped it out and picked up my parents' CSA. 

The colors of fall are so pretty - even in the food! And aren't those teeny tiny potatoes hilarious? 

Harvest Moon

Did you see the Harvest Moon last night? If I understand correctly, last night was the first time in nearly twenty years that the Harvest Moon  -- the full moon closest to the September equinox -- has actually occurred on the day of the autumnal equinox. 

Since it's a pretty rare event, Eric and I went hunting for a good place to check out the sunset. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy. We stood on this bridge (which was sort of scary, because when a truck drove over it the whole thing shook like crazy) with a few other nerds and waited for the moon to show itself. I took the photo above during the wait.

Every once in awhile, it would peek through the clouds for a second, and I'd snap away with the camera. I really struggled to get a photo because the chain link fence was obstructing my view. But look how golden the moon was! 

It really was pretty cool, and it was fun trying to figure out where we could go (by sunset) in order to have the best view. We had a little Wednesday adventure!