Apple Pickin' Time!

It's that time of year again. We are sure missing our fruitful apple trees from our Canada house. We even discussed planting another tree in our yard here, but we're not sure we want the mess that comes with it. We decided to head out to a nearby farm for a family outing. It was a gorgeous day Saturday and it's really lovely driving in the country in Pennsylvania. They had pick-ur-own peaches and apples, a playground, animals, double tube slides and a country market. Pittsburgh is known for it's tunnels or "tubes" as their sometimes referred to. Liberty Tunnel and Squirrel Hill Tunnel are two big ones so the farm had their tube slides named after them. You hop on a burlap sack and down you go, surprisingly fast. Hadley was all about it. Wyatt (Mr. play-it-safe) studied and contemplated it for a while, and ultimately decided to save it for the next visit. They were setting everything up for their big fall festival and it looks like it's going to be a good time. We'll definitely have to go back.

They had a little area set up to view the animals - goats, pigs, chickens and roosters. The goats had little ramps and bridges they could walk across, with a pulley system for delivering them treats. Tate absolutely loved the goats and chickens. He was alternately giggling and growling at them. It was so silly. He just loved watching them. Wyatt tried to pet a chicken and it pecked him. He was done after that.

We headed up to the orchard to pick some apples. They had Gala and Suncrisp, a more tart variety. We decided the Gala were our favorite, after sampling a few and we went to work. The kids were eating as many as they were picking, especially Wyatt who probably ate at least 6 or 7. He's an apple junkie. Tate was running around excitedly, gibbering on in his little language and pointing at apples on the ground. He kept picking them up off the ground, then he'd start running and face plant and the apples would go flying. Then he'd go get two more off the ground. We had to make sure that none of his contributions actually made it into the bag. We hung out a while longer on the playground, then picked up a few things in the country market. It was a beautiful afternoon and a great outing. We'll definitely keep this one on our list!

Three apples, up on top!

I am not going to let them drop!