It's Not Fall Without It...

Any guesses as to THE thing that is the pinnacle of Autumn in our household?

If you know us & our traditions, you know that it isn't truly fall until we have made our annual trek up to the mountains to go apple picking! 

Technically, I don't even think it was even autumn yet when we made our apple picking trip this year. The apple crop has been running a few weeks ahead of schedule this season & we like to pick them early when there are plenty of apples dangling within easy reach of the kids. After consulting our quickly filling fall calendars, the weekend after Labor Day was settled upon. Earlier in the season also means warmer temps, which we will gladly take over the cold. {Little fingers sure turn numb quickly when trying to pick apples on blustery, cold, rainy/sleety days...been there-done that!} As in recent years, this year we planned to enjoy our apple picking adventure along with many other families from our life group at church. Alas, the weatherman was predicting rain & more rain on our scheduled day to go, so the class event was canceled. But we are not ones to be deterred by a little rain {and our calendar didn't hold a promising make-up date,} so we decided to brave the elements & pick anyway! As I mentioned earlier, we have picked apples in cold rainy/snowy weather before, so the chance of rain on a warm day was not too unpleasant. We loaded up our van to the gills with extra changes of clothes, rain coats & boots, umbrellas & anything imaginable that may help us weather a storm. {And we prayed that the day would be filled with fun memories & family time, and not a total bust!}

I mentioned our busy fall calendar & our chosen day was not only our apple picking day, but it was also our fall sports season opener. Darcy & Jack had their first soccer & football games, respectively. This was Darcy's first soccer game ever & she had so much fun! She is having a great season. Jack is playing flag-football again & still thoroughly enjoys it. {Their games happen to be at the same time almost every week & so I am often running between two fields or keeping up with little ones, so somehow I haven't managed to capture a good photo of Jack yet this season.}

After the games were over, we were excited to be on our way! The orchard we go to every year is about a two hour drive away, so we had a cooler full of a yummy lunch to eat in the car & a brand new movie to watch as we traveled. We surprised the kids with Cars 2 since it had just come out on DVD. Drew had not ever seen it before & to say he was enthralled would be an understatement...he watched intently giggling & smiling & commenting on Mater's crazy antics the entire time. 

We departed under beautiful blue skies & mild temps, so we were hopeful the nice weather would continue. Further & further we drove, higher & higher in elevation & the blue skies followed us. Then, all of a sudden it got dark, very dark, and the sky.opened.up! We went through a huge rainstorm {slow down on the interstate & turn on your hazard lights kind of storm} about 30 minutes outside of our destination, but we could see that the sky was clear on the other side, so we were still hopeful! And sure enough, when we emerged from the rainstorm, the sky was once again blue with puffy white clouds...and we didn't see another drop of rain the rest of the day! Praise God! 

All of the rain gear remained in the car, there were no mud-puddles to fall in to {probably Drew would have rather enjoyed that!} Just a beautiful day on the mountaintop, perfect for picking apples...and as an added bonus, the rainy forecast kept the crowds away...we could walk right up to the counter to buy the {Oh-SO-delicious!} apple cider donuts which often warrant an hour-plus wait in line! And the warm temps made cooling off with an apple cider slushy on the ride home, all the more perfect!

Here's a look at our apple picking adventure...It's just not fall with out our trip to Sky Top!

How Tall This Fall? 

It's been eight years {& three more kids!} since we first took pics in front of this sign!
Click here to see last year's apple blog & here for a retrospective on the previous 8 years of apple picking outings!

Making funny faces!

Here we go...off to pick the biggest & best apples!

Everyone hunts for their perfect pick!

Lucy gets a little help from Daddy picking the perfect apple!

Then she had lots of fun "sorting" them!

Funny thing happened..all the big kids turned into monkeys & took to the trees! All the best apples are at the top!

One of my favorite things about our apple picking trip is that the kids all have so much fun just being together, cutting up & acting silly! I pray that we will all enjoy this tradition together for many years to come...perhaps one day with a whole bunch of grandchildren!

Taking a little break from all the "hard work" to enjoy the fruit of our labors!

Balance!

Our fun didn't end once we had filled our baskets with apples...nope, there was the bamboo forest to explore...

And "wild: animals to observe & feed...i.e. the petting zoo/farm animals!

And lots of swinging, sliding & playing to be done on the awesome playground! The day was full of smiles a-plenty! We are already looking forward to our trip back again next fall...and now I'm headed into the kitchen to cut up a nice, juicy apple!