Lattin's Cider Mill Adventure!

Hey guys! As promised, I'm super excited to share with you images from our trip to Lattin's Cider Mill!

After living in Michigan for 21 years, just a short drive from fantastic cider mills like Parmenter's, I suppose you could say I was spoiled in some ways by the quick and easy access to cider and donuts every time the leaves started to fall. Even if we didn't make a huge outing of it, every year, without fail, my family would always make our way to the cider and donuts so we could munch happily for a couple of days, even if it meant we just drove up the road to Wilson's Barn.

Moving to California meant that I lost this connection with cider mills (and, quite frankly, with the different seasons since California is so mild. No crunching leaves there!). For two very, very sad years I went without any semblance of the fall weather that I'm used to and no cider and donuts. It's a pathetic way to live, let me tell you. Californians have no idea what they're missing.

However, now that we live in Oregon, we do live within driving distance of a real cider mill! Unfortunately most "cider mills" in Oregon are actually breweries for hard ciders and beer (because beer and coffee are both really big around here-- shhhh, don't tell the Oregonians that I don't drink either of these things), but we were lucky enough to find a real cider mill in Olympia, Washington just a couple of hours away!

After a lengthy car ride (which was worth it!) we arrived at Lattin's Cider Mill and found that it was much more than we had been expecting! In fact, being the cider mill aficionado that I clearly am (as all southeast Michiganders are), I would go as far as saying that it was even better than any cider mill I've ever been to! Gasp! I know, I know, I'm a traitor. But you'll see why!

Lattin's Attractions:

• Farm animals that you can feed by hand
• Lots of local vendors that sell great things like hand-made jewelry, bags, and candles
• Food trucks
• Bounce houses (for the kids)
• Fresh local produce
• Apple fest!
• A huge store filled with homemade artisan products such as pies, soups, canned goods (real canned goods, aka stuff preserved in jars), etc. 
• A pumpkin patch
• A corn maze
• Animals for sale
• CIDER. AND. DONUTS. They have regular apple cider but they also have blackberry apple, raspberry apple, and strawberry apple cider! They were all great!

We met up with Patrick's sister and brother-in-law, Renee and Jake, for the fun times! We had a wonderful time with them feeding the animals (I tried it and found that it was horrible because I already hate goats and sheep, but they're the easiest to feed, so I gave Patrick my animal food), shopping around, having lunch, and picking out pumpkins. We also brought home some fantastic produce and snacks!

Please excuse the captions on some of these. I downloaded them from my Snapchat Story and there is no way to remove the text.

Ducks for sale! They were selling ducks, chickens, and bunnies here! Very tempting!

Turkeys, aka future dinner (but it's okay, turkeys, I don't like how you taste so everyone else can eat you and I'll just have the Thanksgiving sides)

Gobble gobble!

These chickens were my favorite because they popped their heads through the fence with no concern for whether or not they would get stuck-- and it did look like they were stuck because their feathers would fluff out around the fence holes! Plus all they cared about was food (like me) so if they saw that paper bag with the food in it they would all freak out and run head first towards the fence to be the first to stick their heads out through the holes. Chickens are really dumb...

Our tractor driver for the ride to the pumpkin patch.

He photo bombed us. 

Here I am, trying to take a nice picture, and Patrick is trying to attack me. Typical.

Photo courtesy of Renee Navarre

At least Renee and Jake look great!

Photo courtesy of Renee Navarre

The amazing candle that Patrick bought me while we were there! I wish we had gotten the larger one because I've been burning this one down so much. It smells sooooo good! They don't have a store yet because they're still a very small project/company, but you can find their Facebook here. They've assured me that they will do mail orders, woo! 

Much to the surprise of Patrick, Renee, and Jake, there was a LOT to do here and we had a fantastic time! We will definitely be going back here annually! The best part is that every single weekend in October is applefest, but the mill and store are open year-round! CIDER AND DONUTS FOREVER! 

*I'll be doing a post on my fall/Halloween decorations very shortly. This post was already quite long! 

One Month Update!

Hey everyone! I feel like I definitely over-blogged when we first moved here; I'm glad I documented that time and I was able to update you all on everything we were doing here (and how I was doing health-wise) but I decided to take a break and just let things settle before I updated again, which is what I'm doing now!

So far everything about living here had been amazing! The positive shift in our moods has been very obvious. We are much less stressed about a huge list of things and it definitely shows in the way we go about our daily lives and even the way we treat each other. 

So far in the past month we have moved to a different state, been to urgent care and dealt with some awful medical problems, gotten a new car, organized our new apartment in a way that we both feel comfortable, explored Beaverton, had dinner with friends, enjoyed fresh air and RAIN, and just enjoyed each other's company for the first time in many months. With the stress of moving and trying to get everything together finally gone, it feels like we can sit and relax.

In fact, we have both been sleeping much better. We both find that we have less of a need to nap during the day (for three reasons: we sleep better at night, we are more active during the day because it is less hot outside than it was in Tracy and we can actually leave the house, and it is no longer so hot that we have to have the air conditioning constantly on so the heat and the lull of the air conditioner doesn't put us to sleep. In fact, our apartment doesn't even have air conditioning).

We have both signed up for library cards and I am thrilled to have in my possession three books in a series of murder mysteries that are primarily solved by a pair of magical cats. (Side note: When is the last time you've been to the library? Did you know that many locations now have self check out? Amazing!)

I've also picked up crafts and crocheting again. I've made a couple of different crafts for Fall that I'm super excited to share and I've decorated our home a little bit for the season. It's so thrilling to actually have pride in your home!

I've finished a small afghan which, while it is nice and will keep someone warm, it's not at all how I hoped it would turn out because a couple of different factors including a strange yarn that was not at all the same thickness as the others (even though it is the same weight and brand) and also a pattern miscalculation. So it looks like my cats are getting a new blanket and I'll be starting over!

I survived my first week alone without Patrick while he went away to Minnesota for a short trip (Tuesday through Friday-- definitely not that bad).

We found a really great thrift store with a fitting room (which is almost unheard of!) and a really good selection. (Nooo, I didn't buy three flannels this month, you must be thinking of someone else...)

We drove for two hours (and then another two hours to return home) to get to a Cider Mill* in Washington that was more fun than any I have ever been to in Michigan (sorry guys!).

*I'll be writing a separate blog post about the Cider Mill because I have some photos that I'd like to share and I wanted to keep this post short and to the point.

And a bonus: our package-stealing, loud-thumping-music-playing neighbors moved out this week! Ahhhh, the silence.

Everything so far has been beyond my wildest dreams. I never knew I could love living in a place so much. It sounds crazy and very cliche, but it's true. I never felt this connection with California and while I adored and miss and love Michigan, there's a different vibe there that I didn't enjoy so much. Like I've said before, Oregon seems to have the best of both worlds! I'm so thrilled to call this place our home! Every single day I look around and tell Patrick how glad I am that we live here. It feels like home.

As a final side note, I thought I would include another short health update which is basically me telling you all that my underarm cysts have not changed (they're still painless when I move but a little bit tender to the touch and I can feel the nodules still) and now I have one on my face (kind of where I would have a sideburn if I was a male-- very close to my ear). However, it is no longer extremely painful and I think most of the swelling at this point is actually the lymph node that the cyst developed right on top of. I have hope that this will go away very soon, especially after I get on the second medication I was prescribed starting tomorrow (Monday). 

I want to thank you all for your continued interest and support in my life and for reading this blog. I'm glad there are a handful of you that enjoy it! Thanks for following along in our Oregon adventures!