7th Annual Apple Adventure

Yesterday was apple picking day! I know you see it every year so I will try to be brief. Of course I was trying to be brief in my last post, and you saw how well that worked out for me.

We met bright and early at the Brat Stop, as usual, and caravaned out to Oriole Springs. FYI: I have been to 5 orchards in Wisconsin and this is the one to pick at. So many trees and you can't beat honeycrisp apples for about $1 a pound. The other orchards all have their merits but this is the one we come back to year after year. Since it was honeycrisp opening day it was packed. So packed that one of the cars in our group got routed to a different part of the orchard and without any cell phone reception I was stressing out about how to find them. We had a few new families with us and I really wanted to make sure they had a good experience. Luckily I managed to get one text out to Kennon and she was able to track us down. Then I spent the rest of the time chatting while Seth and the kids filled up 3 bags of apples. I wasn't totally useless though. I did pick one perfect apple and filled my belly while I was chatting.

After apples we headed to Harvest Time, the orchard next door to Oriole, where the most supremely delicious donuts in the world are found. We had a few new families with us this year and I was so pleased to see their reaction to the donuts. They thought I was exaggerating but now they get it. If you haven't had these donuts you really need to put it on your bucket list. It is probably in all of our best interest that they are only open during picking season. Harvest Time also makes the best cheeses. This place is so Wisconsin.

After the donuts were gone and the kids had worn themselves out we all had to scatter. So many kids had football, soccer and all kinds of other obligations to meet. In the early days of apple picking we would stay all day but life just gets busier all the time. I do miss the times when we could be with our friends all day and night with no where else to go, but I am thankful to still have friends and thankful for the Smiths, Pearsons, Gotbergs, Taylors, and Bannons for making the apple trek with us this year.

As we were driving home a text popped in from our friend Doug asking where we were. We hadn't had reception and weren't sure if they made it since they didn't caravan with us. I felt terrible, but I learned later that they ran into the Meadows, who also chose not to caravan. I was grateful that they found each other so that no one got entirely left out but we still missed hanging out with them.

See how that was supposed to be short and it wasn't? Mercy, I have an illness.

I took very few pictures because I was too busy looking for missing friends and running my mouth but I did manage to at least get proof that we had been there.

Two of the Pearson girls rode out with us and on the way out Chloe grew quite attached to Kaili and proceeded to follow her around all day. Once we found Kayleigh, she also started following Kaili around.

Kennon took our family shot and told us to say "go bears" so in this picture me, Seth and Alex are all saying NOOOOOOOO! Don't know why Blogger is insisting that I underline this caption?

I wanted a group shot but we had 6 families all with a fair amount of kids, because hello we're Mormon, so I knew it wasn't going to happen. When the hubbies approached with 5 dozen donuts after waiting in a LONG line, everyone moved in like ants and I figured it was the closest thing to a group shot that I was going to get. This probably isn't even half the group but it gives you an idea of how our grub fest looked. Thank you LeShel for drinking from the cider carton right when I snapped. I think it is a good illustration of how we were diving in and LOVING our goodies.

The kids spent lots of time rolling down this little hill and I managed to shut my mouth long enough to mosey over and watch for a little bit.

And speaking of little hills....this next picture is for my Utah friends and family, or just anyone who has seen a mountain before. This is Bristol Mountain. (post edit: wait, now that I am reading this I think it is actually called Wilmot Mountain and Bristol Mountain is in NY...sorry for mixing my states.) Every year we pass it on the way to apples and every year I laugh when I see the sign announcing it because from the road you cannot even see it over the trees. This year we drove in to get a picture and laugh at it up close. Yes, those are ski lifts. Hee,hee!

Hi Wisconsin, I love you dearly and you are beautiful in your own way, but that is a hill. Just thought I'd let you know.

The kids requested I take a video of hill rolling and I wanted to post it for my friend Heather because I love how her little Alissa says at the end I got beat up.