The Secret of Happiness

The secret of happiness (well, one of them, at least) must be having an apple orchard. This is a picture of Brother Flynn (for any reader who is not a Latter-day Saint, "Brother" and "Sister" is like saying "Mr." or "Mrs." as a polite title). I wish I would've been able to capture the "twinkle" in his eye--he's one of the happiest people I know--and it's not the happy-go-lucky, make-you-gag happy. He's just figured life out. It has to be the orchard, right??



He and his wife have lived at their home for 25 years and there is just something magical about it all. Their home is situated in a neighborhood of sorts but because it was built before the neighborhood, it has an orchard, barn, silo and such on the property. They have chickens too, but it's not a "farm" with cows or anything though.

In anycase, every year they invite our ward out to come and pick apples and make cider. As I've said before, it's magical. Emily was simply fascinated by everything there and after she picked apples, she and her friend, Holly, ran around and played little made up games all evening, as we were making the cider. At one point, they even laid down on the ground and were looking up at the stars. There IS something magical about the place--it turns soon-to-be 4 yr olds into self-entertaining sweethearts! AWESOME. We loved the evening and hope to make it back out there again when Cubby's parents are visiting...providing there are apples left to pick :-).