Sky Top Apple Orchard 2011

Last year was our first year to go Apple Picking and we absolutely LOVED it! I've been so anxious to go back but it has been nearly impossible to find a free Saturday to do it. The kids had off school today and Monday so we headed up to Sky Top Orchard around lunch time. David had a funeral to sing at in the morning and so we ate lunch and then left. It's about a 2 hour drive, and Callie and Caleb slept a good portion of that, so it ended up working out well. It was fun to see more of the leaves changing the further north we went! :)

Jacob was SO dying to get INTO a tree and grab himself an apple!!! These are some of the Arkansas Black apples that we got - they almost looked like plums they were so dark - but still crisp and sweet. Yum.

What a difference a year makes for Caleb! Last year he was barely one year old and I carried him in the backpack carrier. He kept pointing to all the apples on the ground last year and saying "ball?" He was a different kid this year - totally loved it, walked everywhere, he was a riot. David even put him up in a tree!!

Got one Mom!

Getting some Granny Smith apples so we can make pie - Josiah has declared that he LOVES apple pie! (it's not a regular menu item in this house, so I'm curious to see if he really does like it or not...)

Callie (who picked her own outfit and I decided it wasn't worth the battle...even though I knew it would be in ALL these pictures...you'll see more of it later...)

See how high Jacob got? His feet are higher than David's head! That is high!

All 4 of my babies in the apple tree! :)

My kids are as tradition-crazed as I am. They LOVE doing the same traditions every year - they remembered taking a picture in front of this apple last year (and Jacob said "hey! It said 2010 before! Who changed it? :) )

EVERYONE remembered these! Hot apple cider donuts - to DIE for!!! I was paying for our apples (75 cents a pound!!! Love it!) and asked them if they wanted to go get our donuts. Josiah doesn't usually like to go on his own like that, but he gladly accepted when he heard it was to get THE donuts! I gave them a $20 bill and told them to ask for 1 dozen donuts and that it would be $9. They both then said "can we get 2 dozen donuts for $18"? I felt like I couldn't resist since they did the math and all :)

He ate two of them in no time flat!!! (I restrained myself and only ate one...I had 12 miles to run in the morning...)

This kid is getting WAY to grown up lately....

Like it? Her outfit? Jacob's white tshirt with pink & white striped fuzzy sweatpants? Nice right.

They had this huge playground area that the kids were super excited to play on after all that hard work apple picking!

Everyone loves climbing (or laying) on a tractor!

A spider/haystack playground...thing...

They had a bamboo maze...

When we came out of the maze, we were near some of the petting zoo animals - and David said "Whoa! Did you see that goat just jump over the fence?" I, of course, thought he was lying, only to come around the corner and SEE the goat standing there in the road - on OUR side of the fence...then the OTHER goat still inside the pen JUMPED right over the fence too! Oh my word. The kids thought it was awesome and chased the goats for a bit until I decided it was going to end with one of my children being rammed down by a goat...

We stopped for dinner in the nearby town and ate outside at this little bbq place called Hubba Hubba Smokehouse. They only take cash & checks :) Guess who tried collard greens and LOVED them!!! (again, not a regular menu item in our house...but caleb wanted more and more! Guess he IS my little southern baby!)

They were having some kind of little bluegrass band play and the kids thought it was hysterical. They'd never really heard that kind of music and weren't totally sure what to think of it. The boys were intrigued by the instruments (upright bass, mandolin, guitar, fiddle), but Callie just thought it was weird. She said to me "Mom, that music is ridiculous, right?" It's all David's fault - I tried to get him to like country music back when we were dating, but he just can't stand it.

It was a great day. I love family days like that. Making memories you KNOW your kids will remember. Precious. Priceless.