to apple picking we will go.Yesterday, we traveled 4 hours to go apple picking. Was it worth waking up at 430AM to get ready and get the girls out of the house by 530AM, YES!!!
My navigation in the van would not pick up the address to the orchard we visited so I had to rely on my iPhone’s GPS not knowing that it drains the battery, fast! At one point in our trip I had to tell Marie to write the directions down on a piece of paper because my battery was at 25% and we still had a good 45 minutes left of travel. Not to mention the fact that my vehicle charger was removed from the van and not returned. We ended up getting lost so I stopped in the local 7-Eleven to make sure we were headed in the right direction,that was an interesting experience. After we got back on our way we lost cell phone service all together. Thankfully we made it to the orchard about 20 minutes later. It was a bit strange not having any means to communicate with the Lt. that we had made it.
Before our official program started we were able to see the many farm animals up close and take a potty break. The animals were fun, the potty break not.so.much! McKenzie would not go because they only had porta potty’s and she said she would “fall in the pit” :-) Aah got to love that girl!
First up we did a seed sorting experiment and learned of all the seed varieties native to our state. The kids sorted and classified them by shape, texture, and size.
McKenzie tried to take home a walnut as a souvenir.
I love farm life and I could possibly see myself down the road living on a “working” farm just as long as we have working water. The first thing I noticed was the quietness, well except for the mooing of the cows and the snorting of the pigs. The trees are just starting to change color, one of my favorite parts of the fall season, Love it!
We met up with our great friends, who are just like family, the Zeno’s. The girls were so happy to see their friends again because it has only been what, 10 days since we last saw them :-)
Next up we headed on a beautiful but bumpy hayride up the mountainside to the apple orchard. All the kids really enjoyed this part. Once at the designated spot we got off the trailer to 
listen to the “Governors” speech then it was off to pick our apples. We were set loose with a 15 minute time limit and a 5 per person apple quota. We had the option of picking Golden Delicious (our top favorite, and everyone else's too since they were nearly picked over), Stayman, or the Red Delicious variety.
Mrs. Adele even lifted Mikayla up into a tree to grab a big fat apple.
Someone, who shall remain nameless, did not want to get dirty and did not like the gnats only picked 3 apples, nonetheless, this girl of mine had a great time! :-)
Back on the hayride and down the mountain we traveled to the 
packing plant. Interesting setup and display of the apples. The tour guide showed us the three different size apples available and the various ways they use the apples to make different products such as apple cider, juice, butter, and applesauce. Did you know there were such things as apple gourds? I had never heard of them nor seen an apple that big before yesterday.
After our packing plant tour our trip ended with a trip back to the farm. We all had a great time and were sad to get back on the road. On the way home we followed the Zeno’s as our country trip was a little too adventurous for my liking, especially since my cell battery was at 10%. We have already planned a few more field trips with the Zeno’s for the spring and hopefully we will be able to see them again before the holidays too.
This month is Apple Fest at a local church in our area. The apples we picked yesterday will hopefully last until mid-October and then we can fill up again at the end of the month. Which just happens to fall on Mikayla’s Level 6 test out meet (which I am stressing a bit over, but that is a whole another post.) Going to have to figure out a way to get our apples that day. We have lots of baking, sauce making, and eating of apples happening at our house this month.
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