My Favorite Fall Things + Weekend Recap

Hi friends!

Hope that you had a nice weekend. Last weekend was the first time in I think 5 weeks that my hubby and I were both home for all of it, so getting to spend a few days together was nice! Before I recap it, two things to share…

1.) Don’t forget to enter my Aurorae yoga mat towel giveaway! It ends Wednesday.

2.) I’ll be sending out a new health coaching newsletter soon, so sign up below if you’d like to receive it!

 

Anywho, we kicked off our Friday night with an inaugural trip to a local wine bar called Relm. We had a few glasses of wine, noshed on some hummus, and listened to the live blues band that was playing. It was a fun and relaxing way to start the weekend!

Another weekend highlight was going for a Saturday morning hike with our pup at Elfin Forest. I hadn’t hiked there since the beginning of the summer since it’s been hot and Harley doesn’t appreciate 90 degree hikes.

Since it was around 80 degrees, we took advantage of the more moderate temp and journeyed over there for some outdoor exercise together. It was cloudy out too, so our little maniac had no problem keeping up her energy and running around like a crazy dingo.

While Southern California doesn’t have a drastic temperature change through the seasons, it does typically change from 75-90 degrees in the summer to 60-75 in the fall and winter during the day. We’ll see what happens with this El Nino year – since it has been uncharacteristically hot and supposedly we’re going to get a lot of rain in the wintertime (also not usual) – but this weekend started to finally feel like autumn a bit! I got to thinking about my favorite things this time of the year, and here’s what I came up with:

1.) More hiking adventures. This is the time of the year when I start to explore more around hiking spots in the area. Mild weather is great for hiking, and there’s usually less people around hiking than in the summertime.

2.) Pumpkin picking & carving. Last weekend we visited a nearby pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins for our annual carving contest. It’s become a fun tradition with my hubby!

3.) Pumpkin eating. Okay, I finally bit the pumpkin bullet at TJ’s last week. They have just many pumpkin products….and I think I bought about half of them:

4.) Apples. This is a fruit favorite in my house, and we eat through apples like it’s our job pretty much all year round… but I love apple season! Even though we couldn’t go apple picking around here this year because of the drought (How sad right? None of the family farms could produce enough fruit for U-Pick), expect some apple recipes to come within the next few months!

5.) Dressing Harley up in an awesome costume. I think it’s hilarious putting my dog in a Halloween costume. Seeing her run around dressed up never fails to make me laugh so hard I’m crying. On Halloween last year it was particularly funny to see her bark like a frantic guard dog at all of the trick-or-treaters while dressed like Batwoman. Here is this year’s costume….

A headless horseman rider (so I guess she’s technically a horse?). I die.

6.) Relaxing fireside. Despite the fact that the area I live in doesn’t get all that cold, I’ve had a fireplace in every place I’ve lived here… and I love taking advantage of it on cooler nights by making a fire, cuddling up with a blanket and watching a movie.

7.) Squash season. I like making a lot of squash-centered meals now that it’s all in season. Last night I made my spaghetti squash casserole  (<–throwback post) – my favorite ever squash recipe!

8.) Tea drinking. I love drinking tea, but pretty much didn’t all summer because I don’t crave it when it’s hot. When the temperature dips a bit, I often make hot cups of goodness to sip.

Tell me… What are some of your favorite autumn things?