Reflections: New Jersey

I made a trip up to Wall, NJ a few weekends back to visit Sarah, Andy and the two girls in their new town and home. They were very gracious to have me so soon after moving in and to have my guest room all set up, cozy, and freshly painted! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a glimpse of their new life in Wall and just spending time hanging out and catching up (what we do best!). Much to my delight, Sarah is as inclined as I am to make special outings especially for picture taking so we spent a fair amount of time outside enjoying fall activities and foliage. My camera has spent more time in its case than not lately so it was great to finally play with it again in relaxed settings. Now that Sarah & Andy live back in Sarah's hometown, I was also able to spend time with her parents and sister, which was great after not seeing them for a long while. I'll let the pictures tell more of the story from our weekend...

Their new neighborhood is very charming, established, and a great one for walking or spending time at the park. As soon as I arrived, Sarah, Maddie & I ventured out on a walk to find the water access (above) that Sarah had been wanting to explore and we also made a pitstop by the park so Maddie could play.

We arrived first thing on Saturday morning at a nearby orchard with the hopes of picking apples and pumpkins. It turned out that apple season had ended the weekend before (bummer) so we ended up enjoying a hayride, watching the girls run around a field of pumpkins trying to pick the best one, and savoring freshly made donuts at a local store instead.

The girls seemed as interested in playing with dirt as much as picking out their pumpkins!

A few attempts at a nice family pumpkin patch picture (always amusing to watch the progression)...

See Sarah's version of our pumpkin picking here.

Rather than picking apples, we stopped by the local store to "pick" apples (from a display) and to grab some of the delicious homemade donuts. (No, I actually did not eat one. Still avoiding gluten for the most part.) Avvie savoring her donut below. Love her sugar lips! :)

After our morning adventures and sugar, we went for another nice walk around the neighborhood that afternoon looking at all the many houses with Halloween decorations and stopped at the park for some fun on the swings and slides.

Gotta love the dress ups on the playground!

The girls then rested with Andy while Sarah and I took a quick afternoon trip to the boardwalk to chat and snap some pictures. It was a lovely time walking along (and on) the beach, enjoying the beautiful fall day, talking about real life stuff, and stopping every now and again to take a picture when something caught our eyes.

We finished off our great day with a girls' dinner at Firefly, an inviting and comforable bistro in Manasquan. Sarah's sister, Jessie, was able to join us as well and I was so excited to be able to spend some time with her. (Missed you, Beth!) It was the first BYOB experience for this girl from VA who was amused that you are invited to bring your own alcohol to have with your meal.