Sorry I don’t have pics from the process, but my sweet husband made all 13 quart jars of this apple pie filling while I was at work. This is what I came home to! It is going to be so nice to pop open a jar and make an apple pie without feeling guilty about it not being home made. We had a little bit of filling that didn’t quite make a whole jar. I poured some on top of my pancakes the other day and that was absolutely fabulous!
Justin and I bought a bushel and a half of fresh-picked apples with intentions of making up some homemade applesauce for Wyatt {and us, too!}, apple butter, and apple pie filling. Here is the applesaucce in the food processor. There isn’t anything in there but apples and water and it is absolutely delicious! We added a bit of cinnamon to ours.
Wyatt’s are in ice cube trays ready to freeze up for perfect portion control.
I know what you’re thinking: Four posts to recap a three day vacation?!? Well, what can I say? I take a lot of pictures.
We started the morning out bright and early at the Ellijay Apple Festival. We had a good time and even ran into some friends of ours from high school that happened to be on vacation too! Justin got a flying pig whirlygig for the yard in honor of his Flyin’ Swine Smokers cook team.
Afterwards, we headed south to the Rock Ranch to meet up with some other high school friends, Katy and Mitch and their children Sadie and Eli.
We had a good time and got to see hot air balloons and the balloon glow.
This miniature horse tried to eat Wyatt’s pants!
Mitch and Sadie Rae jumping on the giant pillow. She is so cute; smart and well-mannered too! 
Wyatt and Eli are two months apart but you can’t tell when they’re side by side.
Whew! That’s all folks!
After picking some of the best apples in the world, we decided to walk around downtown Ellijay. It is such a great little town!
After a long day of sightseeing, we traveled out to a brand new vineyard, Cartecay Vineyard, for some acoustic music and wine tasting. We had small amounts of four wines each and brought home two bottles. We joke that we don’t buy souvenirs when we travel, we buy wine.
Baby toy next to my wineglass, just keeping it real.
On day 2 of our trip, we set out to see the apple orchards and to pick apples for the very first time in my life. Normally, the orchards don’t have you-pick operations on Fridays, but the one we found that did groups of ten or more let us tag along. Justin called two weeks ahead of time and got that arranged 
We were on the tour with a group of ladies {and one man!} from an assisted living facility. Mr. Marrion, the lone man on the group, turned 95 that day.
Look at these giant gourds! I had to stick my foot up there to show the scale.
This past Thursday, we took off to visit the north Georgia mountains for a little three-day/two-night vacation.
As a side note, I have decided to whip myself into shape and run the local 5K at the Fireant Festival in March, so we stopped at the Nike Outlet to pick up some new kicks and a Nike+ iPhone transmitter. I scored the deal of the month when I realized my shoes were only $22! The transmitter was only $19, so I got the whole kit ‘n caboodle for less than $50.
We stayed at a cute little inn in Jasper, Georgia called the Woodbridge Inn. Appropriately enough, it was just over a wood bridge.
Sorry for the crappy pictures. I still haven’t managed the having-a-baby-and-getting-decent-pictures maneuver.
The Inn was nice enough, but the dinner was far from impressive. Perhaps my tastes are just not as refined as they should have been. The chef, born and raised at the Inn, was a third place finalist for The Next Food Network Star. Justin and I would consider staying there again (the price was unbeatable!) but would definitely skip the restaurant.
