Every fall, Luke and I have a tradition that we now have decided to make time for every single year… and last week, we got the chance to take a little time out of a busy work day to make it happen!
But first, let me backtrack a little bit. For our very first date ever, Luke took me to Rader Family Farms, a huge (and adorable) farm here in Illinois that is known for its way of celebrating fall! Rader’s has everything from pumpkin donuts and apple cider to corn mazes and pumpkin patches… and so much more. It is the epitome of fall to me and a LOT of other people around here, and I always love that it is where we had our first date together!
Back on our first date, we went through the corn maze together (which was challenging, because this girl is incredibly directionally challenged and Luke caught onto that fact very quickly… and very early on in our relationship ????) and walked through the pumpkin patch to find the PERFECT pumpkin to carve. And every fall since then, we’ve come back to Rader’s together to enjoy fall… and of course, to recreate the first picture we ever took together, too!
We had the best time going back to our favorite fall spot this past week! Fall is my absolute favorite season, so I was in heaven seeing all the gorgeous fall decorations, trying a new pumpkin hot chocolate drink, munching on Rader’s amazing pumpkin donuts, and picking out pumpkins for our little deck at home! We try so hard to shut work off sometimes and enjoy time together that DOESN’T involve work, and it was so worth it this day… even if it was freezing outside!
I know that even if we don’t live in Illinois forever, someday we’ll be able to take our little family back here and show them where we had our first date and made lots of memories while we were young… and I also know that no matter where we live, we’ll find a new pumpkin patch to continue our fall tradition at! Do you have any fall traditions like we do?! We’d love to hear from you!!
And just for fun… here are all three years of photos we’ve taken at Rader’s together! The first one is the FIRST picture we ever took together… we look so young!
