A September day...🍂 garden updates, tidying, & packing/prepping for our fall trip!

I hope you are well. Can you believe I'm wearing a jacket right now in Florida? There is the faintest breeze and it's overcast. So I am clinging to that. This outfit is from REI and I'm so thankful to be partnering with them for today's video. They are my go to spot whenever we're planning for an outdoor adventure to stock up on supplies, trail essentials, or just get inspiration. And inspiration is needed because we're we are off to our fall trip. We're headed up north. We're going to go to Acadia National Park again. We fell in love with it last year, so we're so thankful to experience it again. And then we're going to explore some other places. So really looking forward to that adventure and thankful to be partnering with them. REI is an outdoor co-op built around helping everyone experience the joy, connection, and transformation that comes from spending time outside, which of course is something I'm so passionate about because I feel like just being out in nature is the most life-giving way to spend time especially when you're with your loved ones so i have been daydreaming of this fall trip and i'm just so grateful that it's coming up so soon this camp well fleece is so cozy and i love just a half zip to pull over for an early morning hike or just when i want some coziness while we're exploring i love these trail made shorts and thankfully they're adjustable because this baby bump is getting bigger by the day i ordered some other trail and hiking essentials that i'll show you once we start packing brandon and i love to pop in especially before we have a camping trip or rv trip or really any sort of outdoor adventure something you might not know about rei too is that they have tons of nature-based classes and events at their locations so i love to check the schedule and the calendar to see what's coming up at our local co-op they actually have an upcoming edible plants of florida class that i really want to take but i just really appreciate their commitment to educating and celebrating and equipping us to enjoy the natural world around us and i'll have all of my rei favorites linked in the description so you can shop now at rei.com so today we're packing taking care of the garden getting the garden all prepped before we leave it for a while and then also just kind of tidying up so we can come home to a clean space a swallowtail just bouncing from bloom to bloom i've been seeing so many carpenter bees in our garden recently this beauty has big pollen pockets we love to see that thankfully it's been raining so frequently that i don't feel the need to have someone take care of the garden while we're away i just know we're gonna come back and this pumpkin vine is gonna be just so sprawled out because this thing grows incredibly rapidly i don't know if i ever gave you a peggy martin rose update i had shared um in the springtime i believe that i was on the hunt for the peggy martin rose and i ended up ordering it on etsy i believe and it was teensy when it arrived i knew it was going to be just like a small propagated section but it is taking off right here and i am jazzed about it because just imagine this vine covering this wall over the potting station covered in small pink roses i mean how charming of a notion so i need to add more training clips because we have a lot of vines down here but very excited i actually planted one in the front yard too but that one isn't growing as rapidly i don't think it gets enough sun so I'm thankful this one is happy our passion fruit vine is going absolutely wild it is growing all along our trellis this is where our pumpkin's gonna grow too so I'll probably cut it back I've been trying to research what to do because I am so pleased that it's so happy and thriving but I am a little perplexed that it hasn't bloomed any flowers I will insert a photograph of what a passion vine flower looks like it is absolutely unreal looks like something from a different planet and this is also a host plant for so many different varieties wait a second are these gonna be flowers what are these I haven't noticed this before this is happening in real time this looks like a flower or something oh my goodness I'm gonna go get my phone and try to identify but I was wondering okay so I haven't had this planted for even a year yet I planted it in April within the soil so maybe it's still just maturing and that's why it hasn't flowered yet but this is also a fruit producing passion vine so it'll make the flowers but then it'll also produce the passion oh sorry I thought I just saw a bug crawling on my arm um but it'll also produce the passion fruit which is so delicious it's like the most sour yummy fruit and it's hard to come by most grocery stores don't have them so i'm hopeful it'll work out and i've actually this is my third time trying to grow this but in the past the butterflies have or the caterpillars have pretty much devoured it before it can reach maturity like or even this um big of a plant so I'm excited but also I'm still learning a lot this totally looks like a flower is about to open time will tell I guess we'll hopefully come back from our trip to some passion vine flowers I also wanted to update that I'm so pleased with my decision to not pull out our zinnias so to rewind typically at the end of the summer or spring season late summer I will pull out all of our zinnias all of our cosmos all of the flowers I have growing in these flower beds that we just have in old mulch beds but this year I decided to just let them go wild which wild they are going this is certainly not everybody's style but I love a wild unruly garden something about it is just so organic and life-giving to me so I really love just the unruly look of it all but what's really happy is that we still have these butterflies because obviously if I pulled all of the flowers out they would have to take months to regrow and it just makes my heart so happy that the pollinators get some yumminess and we get to enjoy all this beautiful color um endlessly so I think I'm just gonna let nature take its course and you know I cut things back here and there as need be but it really has just been a good a good choice I'm happy with the choice to just let it all run wild last night was the soup soiree so I'm still kind of putting things together and tidying up from that but thankfully it was very minimal cleanup because I didn't do a ton of decorations besides this and a couple other things because the home's decorated for fall that's enough decoration and yeah it was it was so fun I'm so glad we did that but I want to just finish taking down the signage and then of course we got to do a nice thorough vacuum we also should mop we should mop I was trying to combine vacuum and mop we should do that because that'll just be so that's one of my favorite feelings is coming home to a fresh space I'm also going to make the baking soda essential oil carpet refresher mix which just helps deodorize your your textiles and basically when I remember I love to do this before a trip and basically I will scatter it all throughout all of our rugs and carpet the morning of or right before we leave so that it is just sitting on our carpet and in our home the whole time we're away and so we come home and then i'll just vacuum it up once we get home but the home will smell so good i i always giggle at the thought because after you're out of town for an extended period of time that's typically when you like once you enter your home for the first time again that's how you know the true scent of your home because you can just get used to the scent that your home has so we try to combat that with some baking soda and delicious smelling essential oil okay before i pull out my suitcase i gotta tidy up the bedroom a little bit i've got a big clothing pile right there and then i used that clothing rack last night for our little get together so i need to put stuff back on that and it's kind of helpful because I'll sort through the the clothing rack already had a bunch of my like more fall clothes so I'll set aside anything that I know I want to take on our trip and something that we're doing which hopefully we won't regret but we are just doing carry-ons and we're going for eight days so I love a challenge of trying to squeeze everything in a small suitcase and be really mindful of, you know, what we're taking. But I, I hope that works out because of course the clothing is more thick and, you know, more boots that are going to take up more space, but I'm not above repeating outfits. So we'll see. We'll see. We'll make it work. I picked up this backpack from REI. I just know it'll be so much more comfortable for when we're hiking around Acadia and there's lots of pockets got my water bottle right here put my son's water bottle right here and we'll be good to go and then I have two pack of these Verona wool socks I love the color and it's just really nice quality and I want a little thicker sock when we're in chilly weather and then for the little lad this adorable jacket I think these look so cute together. It just started raining as I was about to talk about rain. We did get a notice from our airline that there's inclement weather up north where we're going. So prayers that we make it there and we have some time to explore. I really try not to check the weather too much before a trip because it feels kind of fruitless. It just kind of like brings your mood down but I also love a rainy moment I think rain is very beautiful but of course we do want to spend a lot of time exploring so we'll see we'll see what nature has in store for us but we don't have any activities booked like there's nothing we have booked just our lodging and the flights so in the rental car so we're really going with the wind and can kind of explore as we see fit and as we have the energy and as the sun comes out i guess i wasn't planning on packing my rain boots but maybe i should reconsider now little mister is becoming such a big boy that he gets his own suitcase now we have a carry-on for him so we're having three carry-ons which is an interesting choice because we're going to be having to carry them on the whole time and we have the car seat too that we gate check um but then we're not bringing a stroller i feel like we are just silly but we just like to be as minimal as possible and he loves to run around and walk and be active and brandon loves carrying him too we are gonna bring a carrier like a little toddler strap carrier um but we'll see we'll see how it goes but because a lot of the places where we're going we wouldn't really use a stroller like when we're hiking can't really use a stroller anyways so I don't know we're learning we're going we're just doing what feels right and seeing if that's a good choice or not so we'll see but we do like to be as minimal as possible with all the baby and toddler stuff because we found that you know they're very like adaptable and also we've really loved like the baby carriers and baby wearing which he's not a baby anymore he's a big boy so it'll just take some more muscles but Brandon always sees it as a good workout so cute so cute so cute I just thrifted that so cute this one oh my goodness can't forget my compression socks I have a varicose vein from my last pregnancy well I had it before but it was super small but then it got worse while pregnant so I'm trying to just wear them as much as possible which will hopefully become easier as the weather cools down we have to pack up Palmer's stuff too because he is going on vacation to my mom's house which he loves I think he's ready for a vacation too because you know we're in a different phase of toddlerhood and the boys love love love playing together but I also think Palmer's just tired a dog his age he's five years old I recently looked it up I'm blanking on how many hours a day they say that they should sleep but i do not think palmer gets that much sleep because if we're downstairs playing he just wants to be a part of the fun so i think he's gonna get some good rest and lots of attention at my mom's i also got him some fresh new toys rei also has dog toys they appreciate the furry friends but i'm gonna pack those how cute is this we still have the baby blanket from when wells was born because we brought it home for Palmer while we were in the NICU and it's so cute he did chew it up a little bit but you know it's very sweet a little bit look how chewed up it is he didn't chew it up until after he came home which is interesting like after we were all home but eventually he succumbed to his temptations I feel like you should start wearing your fall scarf come here buddy so handsome maybe one day we'll do a full like rv camping trip to new england for the fall trip it is pretty far for us it's a it's a short flight because we're on the east coast but to drive it would be it would be a trek so i feel like making a whole rv adventure would be really really fun okay for our carpet deodorizer simply take some baking soda and then my current favorite essential oil combination is eucalyptus peppermint I always love peppermint and then cinnamon for fall they actually complement each other so nicely and I'm just gonna put the lid on it and keep it like this until the morning that we leave and then sprinkle right before we head out the door I'm gonna do a lot because I'm gonna put it everywhere to play my favorite cleaning game of how fast we fill up the vacuum i did vacuum last night so this really shouldn't be too dramatic but we shall see the vacuum's almost completely full of palmer hair just from this rug so it must be shedding season wells is uh walking around and testing out his new suitcase just like that i'm so excited survivor's back tonight it's my favorite show and Brandon and I have our date night tonight so we are doing an at-home date night we're gonna get takeout watch survivor I'm thinking pad thai but I'm not sure we also are trying to make sure we eat all of our food before going out of town of course but we're doing pretty good we still have some pickle soup leftovers but as yummy as it is I can only eat so much of it. I only want like a small bowl of it. So we'll see. But I'm really looking forward to a cozy date night. He's going to try the pickle soup for himself. He loves the food review. Pickles. Pickles. I was like pickles. Can I get a piece of pickle? Yeah, daddy will give you a bite. Okay. The nod. We got a head nod. I feel like that's a good sign. it's good yeah are you surprised at how good it is or is it like on par with what you were expecting um i knew what i thought yeah i thought it kind of tastes like it smells it's good it's very unique and different all right now you've had it i've had pickles too but i never thought i would cheers i am showered i am going to do my washing my hair tomorrow night the day before we leave because i feel like i just always like that before a travel day just to feel fresh even though a travel day usually does the opposite but anywho that's my plan and i'm definitely gonna pack my bat book i still haven't read much of it since the last time i spoke about this book but perhaps i will get some time to read while we're away but hopefully the next time you see a video it's a travel vlog and we can share our new england fall adventures i'm so thankful for you. I really hope you and yours are well and you're having a nice fall season. I'm excited to see you next.