Apple Pickin'

Today we went apple picking! This is something I have enjoyed since childhood. When I was a child we used to got to Oak Glen in California. We didn't really get to pick much ourselves, but we got to buy them and have a chicken dinner in a basket. I loved it. So did about 1000 other people every weekend in the fall. It got more and more busy as they added antique shops. What do you expect when there are 20 million people in the greater L.A. area?

Step forward 20, okay 30, okay 40 years. Dan took me apple picking for my birthday two years ago because he knew I had such fond memories of it as a child. What a difference here! It's not commercial at all. There are several small orchards in a town called Penrose, about an hour and fifteen minutes from our house. We were the only ones there on a Friday. (Dan gets every other Friday off work. Love it.) We tried to go again last year, but the apple crop was ruined due to a freeze. So we definitely put it on the calendar for this year. I think Dan likes it more than I do! He hated Oak Glen, seriously.

We left mid morning and stopped for lunch in Colorado Springs. (I wish I remembered about the cute little restaurant, Blackberry Patch Farm, right near the orchard. We'll go there next year!)

Mia took these pictures...

From there we drove to the orchard.

They have wagons which you can use to carry your apples, pumpkins and kiddos.

At first they were both excited to pick the apples off the trees. Many braches were just their height. The orchard was loaded. They said it was their best year in 20 years.

After awhile Anna was content to just sit in the wagon and eat the apples.

Daddy lifted Mia on his shoulders so she could get to some of the higher branches.

They had lots of pumpkins too! They were the orangest healthiest looking pumpkins I've ever seen.

Here's our stash!

No trip to Third Street Farm is complete without a ride on the tractor!

We stopped for ice cream on the way home at a place I had read about on someone's blog, Josh and Johns. They churn the ice cream right there in the window. Unfortunately, they weren't churning any while we were there. :( But, we still got to eat some!

Without naps, they are both sound asleep at 7:00. Dan and I are going to watch The Hunger Games.