Enjoying Autumn!

It's been a crazy but wonderful Fall. Here's what we've been up to the past couple weeks!

 

 This fall has had some of the best sunsets I've ever seen. And I don't think I'll ever get tired of my view of the Empire State Building.

 Clark's office also has a pretty incredible view. And seriously, this sunset is unreal! Doesn't the sky look painted?!

Ivy covered brownstone on the UES. They are just so romantic!

On our way to the Met (to meet up with Mitch and Valerie, who were visiting from Philedelphia) we just stumbled across a German parade. So we grabbed a flag and spontaneously celebrated my German heritage.I love all the random events going on in the city! It's so fun to always have something neat to go to! And getting a taste of so many different cultures is always fun.

The Met Rooftop has one of my new favorite views of NYC. I can't wait to come up here once all the leaves in Central Park change colors! 

Last Friday, miracle of miracles, Clark got off work at 6:45. That is almost unheard of in banking! So to celebrate we went to one of our favorite burger places - NY Burger Co. On our way over to pick up our delicious Tribeca burgers (bacon, blue cheese, avocado, tomato, and lettuce on a delicious fresh bun) we passed by the brand new Lego store on 5th Avenue! Of course we had to go inside. They had a huge lego mural of the city, as well as a lego timeline of the Flatiron District's history, a Lego model of the area surrounding the Flatiron Building, and a build your own lego character area. 

Our mini lego characters! I think Clark's is pretty perfect. Unfortunately their girl lego options left something to be desired, but I did the best I could! :)

Part of the ENORMOUS lego mural of NYC's most recognizable landmarks

During our walk around the Flatiron district we also had to pop into the Strand bookstore branch at Club Monaco. I could spend hours there. Another thing that makes this one of my favorite  spots in the city is that a branch of Polux Fleuriste is here too! Beautiful flowers, a gorgeous setting (that always smells incredible), and loads of books... what more could I need?!

After a walk around the Flatiron District we met up with James & Jani in Herald Square for dessert! Haha we went to this random French Korean bakery... all the signs were in Korean so Jani and I had to bug one of the workers to tell us what everything was. Clark and I ended up getting this lovely fruit tart and a coconut macaroon. It definitely tasted as good as it looked. 

Saturday was one of my favorite days so far. Now some of you may know that my family has a tradition of going to Apple Hill (in Northern CA) every year. And it is one of my absolute favorite fall activities. Since I left home for college I haven't been around to go with them. Last year Clark and I got to go around Thanksgiving (which you can see here) but I have to admit, going to chop Christmas trees is not the same as going for all the fall activities they have earlier in the season. So you can imagine how absolutely THRILLED I was when some of my cute new friends from our Manhattan ward invited Clark and I to go apple picking. I love that picking your own fruit is such a popular thing to do on the East Coast. In the summer you'll hear about all sorts of berry and peach picking trips and fall is dedicated to apple and pumpkin picking.

Anyways, Saturday morning came around and we hopped on a train to Jersey. From Newark Penn Station we drove out to quaint little Chester, New Jersey, where Alstede Farm's is located. For a $5 fee you get access to their huge fields - full of apples, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, corn, pumpkins, squash, sunflowers, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes...the list goes on and on. So we didn't get too carried away (you do pay per pound), we focused in on apples and peaches.

Cheesy cut-out pictures are always a must. 

Blurry but I love it. It was so fun perusing the rows of apples, searching for our favorite varieties, and finally finding a cluster of perfectly ripe apples. Good thing Clark was there for a lift whenever a beautiful bunch was out of reach!

Honeycrisp apples = our favorite. (Pink Lady apples are also delicious!)

The apple of my eye (ah! too cheesy!)

It was a really bright and warm day for apple picking. It was fun to walk around the orchard and just smell the fruit everywhere. Haha a definite improvement from all the weird smells you'll smell in the streets of NYC on a warm day!

Introducing Camille (left) and Lena (right). These two beauties are new friends from my ward! I'm so glad they invited us to join them for the apple picking adventure!

 

I can't wait to make all the apple desserts possible!

Another. Because it was too picturesque.

Our fun group! We had such a blast at Alstede farms. I'm certain we will all get together for another adventure soon!

After picking as many apples and peaches as we wanted we went back to the barn to grab some apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, and too look around the little marketplace they had set up! These gorgeous mums stole the show!

We also met one of the farm cats. So cute!

Clark and I bought a whole gallon of fresh apple cider. and because we didn't have cups available we drank it from the jug. DELICIOUS! (I did sort of feel like I needed one of those big brown XXX jugs you'd see in cartoons)

Apple cider doughnuts are incredible. 

On our return from the farm we ran right up to watch Women's Conference! I absolutely love the feeling of sisterhood you get attending that meeting. So many wonderful messages, especially about the blessings of the temple! It made me so excited to watch General Conference this weekend!!! If you're interested, you can watch it stream live here, or you can also look up old sessions of conference to watch! It is such a blessing to hear from modern day prophets.

On Monday the fun continued! Jani and I met up to go to this neat exhibit in the financial district. Haha but we forgot that they are closed Mondays. Oh well! haha after peeking through the window we decided to go up to Madison Square Eats for dinner. I love street festivals! I hope they continue to have a couple during the winter. I love being able to walk around the mini market place, check out a bunch of neat NY restaurants, and then get my favorite. It's just nice to have so many yummy options all in one place. Jani got the Syndey from Asiadog and I grabbed the french creole gumbo from Gumbo Bros. Both were amazing!

Finally on Tuesday I met up with Emily, Jen, and Jani to go to an early screening of the new movie Meet the Mormons. It was so fun to see so many members of our stake show up to support this new film. Meet the Mormons is a fun documentary that gives you a peek into 6 Mormon family's lives. It gives an idea of what it is like to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how their faith affects and improves their life. 

I would highly recommend it! It was really well done and a great way to see what it's like to be a Mormon. And for those who may be concerned, it does not "push" religion onto you. They do not emphasize much of Mormon doctrine at all. It's just a great feel good move! 

So on October 10th you should go see it (use this link to find a theater near you or to request it be shown in your town)! All the proceeds from this movie go directly to the American Red Cross.