General Conference, Apple Picking and Pie

On the first weekend of October every year (and the first weekend in April) we get to gather together with our family and our church community to listen to messages from the prophet of our church along with other leaders. The event is called General Conference. This year we were pretty excited to have the live broadcasts at times which made it possible for us to watch them live as opposed to watching them a but later via internet broadcasting. This also meant that we could gather together at our local meeting house with other members in the area and listen all together. It felt pretty special to be able to sit in the chapel with our family and the other families in our area. It was also the first year that the kids were able to watch all 4 sessions of General Conference and they were doing really well with recognizing some of the leadership. Not too shabby for a 2 and 4 year old. Their favorite part? Getting to watch President Monson wave to all the people in Conference building. It was a wonderful conference, as always, and I am looking forward to getting my conference issue Ensign so that I can start high lighting and studying (I think I'll get another one of those conference journals as well!). 

Well, to preface all those great conference session we woke up early to head out of the city to an apple picking farm. We lucked out and picked the perfect farm. It was nestled in some beautiful rolling hills that were covered in autumn colored trees. The drive was spectacular. The rain held off just long enough for us to pick a 20lb bag of apples (which we are still enjoying in various forms). We had a tractor ride out to the orchard and played on the great playground afterward. The fresh air and a little escape from the busy city was the perfect way to kick off the conference weekend. 

Then, between conference sessions, we made our conference apple pie on step at time. After all the sessions we all sat down and talked about our favorite parts of conference. Atticus is old enough now that he is starting to really remember our little traditions and I think it helps Milayla to get excited about them as well.

It was a great weekend and though it was very full between the apple picking and 4 sessions (plus the priesthood session for Jason) we really enjoyed the break from the very full days of trying to get familiar with Montreal and settle into our new home.

It was a great spiritual refill.

Now, enough with the randomly inserted apple picking pictures - please enjoy the photos of our apple collecting :)

LOVE those little pigtails that always seem to be falling out..

Atticus was in search of just the right apples to put into our pie

Look! more apples!

I wish you could see Milayla's facial expression in this one a bit better. It was priceless. 

Milayla decided to lick the apples that she picked before putting them in the bag. It's a good thing we've washed them before sharing :)

Everyone eager to head up the ladder

Trying to see where the good apples are

The Atticus and Milayla series: 

I love these kids.

Our tractor ride back to the farmhouse and playground. Beautiful surroundings!

Milayla LOVES these gumboots. They were perfect for marching around those rows of apple trees!

Having fun on the playground

I think I need some more practice at getting top crusts to work. But here is the pie before it went in the oven. I forgot to snap a photo of it after it was baked when it looked much more appealing.