Weekend in the Mountains: Day Two! Apple Picking and Hiking!

When we woke up Sunday morning, it was freezing and eerily foggy out. I decided to go outside and take some pictures because it was oddly fascinating to me and of course I had some company. I'm just warning you now but there was a lot of photo-bombing that went on in most of my pictures...

She's lucky she's so stinkin cute and makes a good subject.

After warming up with some coffee and a big breakfast, we headed out for a morning hike! 

We took the trail that's a few miles to our neighbors where the old farm used to be. There are a ton of old apple trees there and we wanted to see what the apple crop was like this year. I remember as a kid we would pick the apples and my grandma would make all kinds of apple crisps with them! 

Layla did really well off the leash both at the house and while we were out hiking. I didn't know how she would do out in the open there and I'll admit I was nervous if she would run off because she'd be gone for sure. There's no one around that would even find her and plenty of wild animals that would. But I'm happy to say that she remembered her training and checked in with us like she was supposed to! In the picture above that's the farthest she would go before turning back around and waiting for us to catch up with her. 

It was still really foggy and cold but it made for some beautiful pictures. 

Once we got to the fields, though, the sun really started to come out! It ended up being an absolutely gorgeous day with hardly any clouds in the sky. My camera definitely does not do the beauty justice!

I had lagged behind to take some more pictures and someone got very concerned that I was not keeping up with the pack. She stood in that exact same place until I caught up with her before checking that I was okay. Amanda and I joke around that she's a stage 5 clinger and that pretty much sums it up!

There ended up being plenty of apples! The only problem-- they were about 15 feet in the air and we had no way of getting them down. 

Our solution? Grab a stick and whack at them pinata style. Oh, while jumping. 

Of course, I had to get Amanda's "action shot". In her defense, though, this was a slightly more action-packed apple picking than our last adventure. And I might be being generous with using slightly. 

Then, my dad found a much longer stick and since he's taller was able to get the apples down! We picked a good bunch and they were much better than the ones we picked from the trees last year.

When we got back it was lunch time so I made us all some steak and hummus wraps. They were seriously amazing and I'll make sure to get that recipe up soon! 

In the afternoon we took another hike out to my favorite location. We call it "the point" because it's the perfect look-out spot where you can see the town miles below. My dad and I actually spotted a bald eagle flying there probably 6ish years ago.

I've noticed that it's been getting more overgrown over the years but it's still a breathtaking sight!

On the way back, we took the back road to our camp that ends up coming behind the yard. There are so many different trails that unless you know they're there you would never guess to take them. Luckily I've been using them since I was pretty young or else my bad memory would forget half of them!

I absolutely loved how the light from the sun caught the tops of the ferns! 

There was another old camp from ages ago behind ours that burned down. All that's left is the metal from the bed frame. My dad said it's been there since before he was born and he's 51 now. I love hearing my dad's stories of how he remembers things and the subtle changes over the years. The best thing, though, is that it hasn't changed too much as it's always the way I remember it.

Bonus points if you can spot Layla checking in with me! 

This is the view I got to come back to from our front porch. I mean, how much better does that get?!

After we got back from the second hike, we did some yard work, made dinner, and then had mountain pies out in the fire! And I'm not talking about the meat, cheese, and bread type of mountain pies. I'm talking about a legit pie with the crust and all :) I'll work on getting that recipe up soon, too!