Did any of you ever sing the Apple Tree song in preschool? I know my friends from Kiddie Kompany did. Don’t fight it… you know you want to sing with me now…
Way up high in the apple tree
Two little apples smiled at me.
I shook that tree as hard as I could,
Down fell the apples, mmmm they were good.
My husband and kids will attest to the fact that I have a song for just about everything. Seriously. It’s bad. Stick with me long enough and you will see for yourself.
So, as you may have guessed, the boys and I had some fun at the apple orchard. Actually, it was a peach orchard that we had visited this past summer… and it’s not quite in Charlottesville but in Crozet, VA. Chile’s Peach Orchard, to be exact. We usually visit Carter Mountain once a year to do our apple pickin’ and picture takin’ but I remembered how beautiful Chile’s was and how the trees seemed to form a perfect arch in the photos.
It had rained for 7 straight days and I knew it was going to be a slippery mess so I purposely dressed the boys in old pants and boots that they never wear but I never let on to my plan of letting them get as filthy as they wanted…. until we got there. There were several fun mud puddles to play in and the boys looked at me as if I had lost my mind when I asked them if they wanted to jump in them. Maybe I had, but the pictures I imagined coming out of the experience were too adorable to miss the opportunity. I wouldn’t have minded jumping in myself but I don’t think it would have been as cute for me to pull up to the Taco Bell drive through window pant-less afterwards as it was for them. So I kept my britches dry.
While we were out there picking apples and slinging mud I was blessed with a great opportunity to see just how much God has a hand in my life.
We saw a whopping total of 11 other people while we were there on our short visit. It was a Monday morning and perhaps the local kids were in school. My kids just happened to have a student holiday and that is why we were able to take this little trip. Regardless, it was pretty desolate to say the least. I did, however, find these two…
They seemed to be soaking up the fresh air and beauty of the place just as the boys and I were. I wanted to photograph them walking down the path because it just struck me as beautiful but I feel really weird and creepy shooting people (with my camera) when they are not looking. I stepped out of my comfort zone and yelled out to them and asked them if I could photograph them walking. I explained that I was a photographer and not just some creepy person and offered to email the photos to them. They obliged. (Thanks guys!) I emailed the pics and was later contacted to ask if I only did photography in that area (Charlottesville). They asked because they liked my work but lived in Richmond, VA. Crazy, right?! Now we are in talks of getting some photos done. How awesome is that?!? It gets better though. This person is an author and play writer who’s life, book, and play are centered around their Christian faith. We’ve talked about possibly doing a photo for the back of the book. Now you can’t tell me that God’s hand wasn’t in that. Clearly we were meant to cross paths.
