So do all kids love apple picking? Is it just a thing? I think so. I remember I did. A few minutes on any apple farm and you will hear the tell-tale signs of joy. Little people joy. Shouts of excitement, leaving swishing under the scurry of little feet anxious to pick and eat as many apples as their parents will let them.

I usually cut mine off at four, lest I want their joy to quickly turn into a tummy ache on the ride home.

Which, is the farthest thought from their mind when they’re running around like apple-drunk miniature hooligans, on the cusp of yet another autumn. Yet another winter. I’d have to say some of our top traditions as a family involve food in one way or another. Strawberry picking, apple picking and pumpkin picking have quickly turned into excursions that Wyndham now has fond memories of.

It’s a monumental development (to me), when a child can start to remember stuff like that. Where the traditions we’re building aren’t just for us anymore. When our kid(s) start to really get it, when they start to remember how the seasons change and the special things we do as a family; it sets in. The realization that this is it. I’m building memories for my kids and myself too.

It’s in the way they grow each year. To be able to go back and reminisce, to compare photos of each apple picked by chubby little hands, each obligatory brother/sister pose. It’s pretty to special. To me, anyways.

A look…at this year’s apple picking and the last…