Apple Festival

Our family loves to pick our own fruit.  We've been picking blueberries with Ryan since he was 2 months old.  Having grown up in New England, I have fond memories of apple picking, but I've never been able to find an orchard close enough to us to make it worth the trip.  So until today, my boys had never been apple picking.  But this week I heard about a place a little less than an hour from us, and since the rain decided to hold off today, we made a last-minute decision to go.  I'm so glad we did, because everybody had a blast!  

As evidenced by the number of photos, the overall highlight was probably the tire swings.  They certainly took up the majority of our time! 

Since there weren't always multiple swings available, the boys figured out how to ride two at a time.  It was really sweet to see their faces enjoying the thrill together.

There was also a pile of hay for the kids to climb on.  Ethan enjoyed throwing hay and jumping around for a while.

 Of course, the primary purpose of the trip was to actually pick apples.  We took a hay ride over to the orchard and had to wait a bit.  Perfect photo opp, except that Kaeden was not in the mood to cooperate.  Apparently, neither were Ethan and Ryan at first, but they warmed up :)

Then, it was apple picking time!  It was a fairly small orchard, so they had a limit on how many each family could pick, but that was okay.  The boys still enjoyed it in spite of Mason & I yelling repeatedly, "Wait!  Don't pick that one - it has a rotten spot!" etc :)  

Early on, the boys heard about a pie eating contest, and Ryan got it in his head that he just had to participate.  So, even though it wasn't until a few hours later, we signed the boys up and found a diner for lunch and then came back for the contest.  It was hilarious.  There was a junior division, so it was all kids, and they each got a piece of pie.  Whoever finished the whole thing first won.  Ryan was feeling pretty confident (and he actually did a surprisingly efficient job) but there were some older boys who finished first.  I think they all had fun, and hey - they got a free piece of pie out of it, so who can complain!?!

All that fun sure can tire a boy out.  Just be sure you have a book to snuggle, though :)