Get on the Jane Train!: October 2008

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Light Painting

Some fun with a great camera, lights and a long exposure...what we like to call light painting. This was in Union Square. Fun! Fun! Fun!

The Crew: Jane, Richard, Jess, Peter (the brains behind all this), Adrienne, Zack and Linda

Hula hooping (is that a verb? it is now!)

Giddy up, cowboy!

My initials

Any guesses on what this one is??? :)

Saturday, October 25, 2008

A few weeks ago, my roommate and dear friend Adrienne wanted to go apple picking for her birthday in true East Coast tradition. And boy did we ever pick! Four of us headed about an hour and a half outside the city (Adrienne, Sara Borg, Jess White and myself) to Lawrence Orchards Farms.

Adrienne, myself, Jess and Sara...just the beginning of the picking!

This was not just a short, morning outing like you might expect....it was a marathon of all days, but much, much more fun than a marathon. We started driving out of the city around 8:45 that chilly Saturday morning, making it to the orchards just after 10:00.

We started off pulling our wagon and picking, picking, picking. We had no idea so many different types of apples existed! And the best part was that we got to eat as much as we wanted to! My favorite of the day - Pink Ladies (thanks Annie for introducing me to them!).

Picking an apple. No, this wasn't posed at all :)

Now this was Conference weekend, so we didn't have all day at the orchards. We made our purchases - apples, squash, jams, apple butter, apple donuts, corn on the cob and pumpkins - and rushed to a nearby church that was broadcasting the session of Conference. We made it!

Some of the gourds

After hearing about the new temples (who wants to go to Rome?!) and the great talks by the leaders, we went shopping at some great outlet stores! We actually loved it so much that we had to go back after the second session of Conference! And luckily we had some coupons that helped us out a little bit. You gotta love a great deal!

On our way back to NYC, we stopped in New Jersey at Target (we are easily pleased!) to stock up and to eat at the Cheescake Factory. Sooo good! And despite Adrienne's best efforts and requests, she still was serenaded with "Happy Birthday". We got back to the city all tucked safely at home a little after 11pm. Needless to say, we had a blast!

And we carried the fun to the next day, making all sorts of goodness from our spoils - apple sauce, butternut squash soup, corn, and apple crisp (all from scratch...domestic goddesses, if you will, and I think you will). Can't wait for next year!

Le Tour de Vermont

A big thanks goes out to my brother Nate for putting together the second annual Tour de Vermont! Luckily, I was able to make it for a few days after missing the inaugural tour in 2007. This is something that I will definitely make it to every year that it happens! This year's participants: Bard and Adele Madsen; Nate, Amy, Beth and Sam Madsen; Josh, Jessy and Will Madsen; Jane Madsen; Annie Christensen. We hope to get the entire Madsen fam out next year.

One of the hillsides somewhere near Middleberry, VT

What a great time we had bicycling through the countryside (and there's a lot of it!) in Vermont, seeing all the beautiful fall colors. Seriously, we saw the peak of the colors. "It's like it was on fire!" And true, it was just like that. For anyone who has never been to New England in the Fall, you HAVE to put this on the list of places you'll go in your life. I really have never seen such beautiful changing colors. And we even all got "Le Tour de Vermont" shirts!

Amy and baby Sam

I've decided that once I move out of the city I'm buying a road bike. As much as I'd like one now, New York apartments just aren't really accommodating of luxuries like a bike (due to lack of space). And I might even be convinced to try clip-in pedals again, despite a few mishaps (Madsen clan, you know what I'm talking about).

Some of the biking crew - kiddies in being pulled behind the bikes, Nate, Jessy, Josh's arm, Annie and Bard

Besides bike riding, we had many other fun excursions! Adelee was a champ and drove the whole time - we could not have done it without the relief van! We had a blast playing Catch Phrase, even if we didn't play by the rules so much. The kids were so fun to be around! Cute little Beth just has a personality all her own, and knows just what she wants ("Jane, we're going to play...I'm going to tell you what to do, and you just do it." Gotta love that girl!). Will and Sam are great sports, too. And hopefully recovered from too much time in the car.

Beth and Gran (Adelee) "making a hike"

We also got to visit Shelburne Farms, right on Lake Champlaign. Because it doesn't have any heat (the metal that was once there was all given to help the war effort during WWII), it's only open in the summer. So we were lucky to make it just two days before it closed for the winter. We had a delicious breakfast (pancakes, apples, real Vermont maple syrup...mmmmm)! And took a little hike above the farm. It was the perfect ending to a fun, memorable week!