Since we don’t really have a true “fall” here, we have to make up our own autumn traditions to get our fall fix. While it’s not even close to the beauty of fall in Utah where I grew up and Alaska/Idaho where Jake grew up, Southern California has its own fall goodness, albeit an hour and a half drive from Orange County.

Last weekend, we drove to Oak Glen, an adorable little town with country stores, diners, and apple orchards galore. We stopped at Snowline Orchard because we’d heard they had amazing fresh apple cider and a U-pick apple orchard. While the U-pick orchard ended up being closed that morning, the girls had a blast picking fresh raspberries instead and gorging themselves on apple donuts before working hard in the fields.

Pretending to pick apples.

Hooray for fresh, homemade mini apple donuts and hot apple cider!

So cute and kid sized.

Meredith was disappointed in the baby food selection, as always.

Out to the raspberry fields.

I never knew raspberry picking required such hard work and diligence. They weren’t right in front of you… you had to get down low and really dig to find the juicy ones. I was happy with my five raspberries after about ten minutes of picking, but the twins surprised me– they were occupied for over an hour searching for berries.

It was like a treasure hunt for them!

Jake and I switched off wearing Meredith, who was sick and tired of having her face smushed into the raspberry bushes.

We didn’t end up bringing any raspberries home because the girls ate all of them before we left the orchard.

Showing off their pickings.

After getting our fill of raspberries, we stocked up on apples, apple butter, apple jam, apple cider and apple cider vinegar from the farm store. This is about as close to fall as we get around here!

Lots of love,