it doesn't happen often

that they both actually sit

apple pickin' '08

i remember going apple picking every year when i was younger. and ever since hayden was born i have taken him. and now talan has also been both years of his existence.
this year was a little tricky as hayden is now in kindergarten. i had originally figured i couldn't take him with us since we head out when they are first open but hayden had school. dave insisted it was no big deal to allow him to skip a day for a family outing as it is only kindergarten and he knows everything anyway. so after a week of him telling me i should take him, i finally decided to be the irresponsible person that we all know i am and do it.
most everyone in the family likes honey crisp apples which have become the "it" apple in recent years. last year we showed up a little before the orchard opened and there was a huge line. we were one of the first tractors out but there still weren't very many honey crisp apples as they had a small crop that year.
this year they started picking honey crisps on friday, september 12 so our plan was to head out at 8am to get there 1/2 hour before they opened to make sure we got some.
all week long hayden was coming home from school telling me about the gingerbread man that they made in school. they took it to the teachers room and put it in the oven and when they came back 20 minutes later...he was GONE! it was such a huge mystery! hayden told me. each day the class went to a different room looking for him and would find little clues like raisins. on thursday, hayden came home and told me that the teacher had set a trap out for him and he was very excited for the next day.
i then had to ask him if he wanted to go to school on friday or skip school and go apple picking. he very quickly said "apple picking!" then i had to inform him that if he went apple picking, he wouldn't be able to see the gingerbread man in his trap. he was pretty bummed about it and tried working it out where he could do both. but in the end, he always decided on picking apples.
as the day went on, we heard that the forecast was not looking so good. rain from thursday nite and all day on friday. we put a halt to our plans and i informed hayden he could go to school and we would pick apples another day.
i sent hayden off on the bus friday morning and ended up kicking myself as it hardly rained all morning. i called mom and jenn and we decided we would try to do it when hayden came home from school. of course as we were driving to mom's house the rain started coming down. it did stop shortly after getting there though and then the rest of the afternoon there wasn't another drop of rain!
so we all packed into the car (minus dad as he just had surgery on his double hernia) and headed over to erwin farms in south lyon. there wasn't really anyone there which was great and they still had tons of honey crisp! apparently a much better crop this year.
i remember hayden's first year picking, he just sat in his stroller and sucked on an apple. then i remember 2 years ago when he would pick an apple, take a bite, throw it down and then do it all over again. this year, hayden was a fantastic help actually picking apples. he took his job so seriously that he didn't really even eat an apple until we were done picking. he hasn't quite gotten the whole being gentle putting apples in the bag totally down yet, but other than that, he was a great help.
rainah was happy to run around eating apples while talan remained in the stroller as i knew he would take off running and i wouldn't get to pick anything. when we were done and waiting for the tractor to take us over to the empire apple trees for some more picking, i let talan out to run around. he played in the pumpkin patch for a few minutes and then saw the open road and took off running. because of all the rain we had it was pretty muddy. so in the end talan was caked with mud.
after all the picking was done we headed to the cider mill to get some donuts and then we let the kids play on the bike trail, hay maze and feed the goats. hayden and rainah loved their donuts and finished the whole thing. talan seemed to like it but only ate half and then decided to run his sugary hands through his hair. mud and sugar. sweet.
we played for awhile and then rounded everyone up so we could head back to mom's where we gave the kids a bath and then started peeling and cutting apples for our annual apple picking dinner of apple pancakes.
it was delicious, although none of the kids would eat them. with no naps, dinner that evening was somehow louder than normal. talan was yelling, hayden was complaining that he wanted something else to eat, rainah would answer talan back in yells. dad was laughing so hard he was doubled over and almost unstuck his glue. it was chaos. dave, who was able to come from work to join us for dinner, finally took talan and they headed home a bit before hayden and i did.
as soon as hayden and i got in the car he informed me that he was hungry. too bad it was bed time.
we had a great day and i'm pretty happy we got our honey crisps without having to pay the $20 for a peck that they were selling in the cider mill!
last nite we had apple crisp for catan nite and i'm thinking of making an apple pie soon. fall really is here.



i love that face...and he makes it often:
apple eatin' time:

grandma showing hayden that he only needs to pick the apple, not the entire branch:


what you do with the bad ones:
i think he was looking for the great pumpkin:
hayden giving the babies bad ideas:

this is why i rarely let him out of his stroller. he'd literally keep going until a tractor ran him down. and even then, he'd probably get back up and keep running:

talan decided to take a rest with the squash for a bit:

here was the fall that determined he would need a bath when we got back to grandma's:

going back out for round 2...the empire apples:

he's exhausted from all that pickin':



"uh oh":
waiting for the tractor:


he does this every year:
where's your nose, talan?:

mmmm, donuts:

it started out ok:



the bees loved him:
i let him ride in the road. so what:


the tunnel was his favorite part:


time to feed the goats:






one run through the hay maze before we headed home:

mom was yelling at jenn, dad and me to cut the apples faster. she didn't care that we were callused and bleeding. here, as you can see by the clock, kellogg dinner was VERY late:
pa and ma cookin' in the kitchen:

rainah and hayden decided to keep the madness going after dinner with a game over peek-a-boo under the table: