Apples, Pears and Pumpkins Oh My!

We had another awesome weekend together! I had been wanting to go pick apples for weeks and hadn't found a good time to do it yet so I asked that we go and combine it with pumpkin picking. We had a few things to do around the house on Saturday and the weather was going to be questionable (potential rain) when we started to plan the weekend, so we decided to go Sunday.

Saturday morning turned out to be beautiful. A welcome change from all the rain earlier in the week. Gavin was being silly with carrying toys around and exploring so I got a couple of funny pictures.


Attempting to climb Scott's desk by using his hands and mouth/teeth...


Dune buggy!


Hmmm.... this is a new angle...


Loving the view from the chair!


We had a low key day and got a few things done around the house and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Sunday morning we got things ready so that after Gavin napped and we had some lunch we could head over to the farm that I always go to. There are lots of places to go apple picking and we pass at least one (maybe more) on our way and there may be lots of places that are closer. I choose to go to the same place every year because it is more than just apples. They have tons of apples, at least 15 different kinds with many long rows of trees for each, which are awesome. They also have pears, peaches, plums, tomatoes, grapes, pumpkins (what is available depends on what is ripe and in season), animals, pony rides, play village for kids, tractor rides, festivals and they have all kinds of awesome baked items they do all themselves (donuts, pies, jams, salsa, candies, etc). Plus, you don't have to pay to go, you only pay if you want to buy anything. They also encourage you to sample the fruit (just don't be excessive and wasteful). It is awesome!

So, we set off to the farm! I was so excited for Gavin to see the animals, play in the village, pick pumpkins! It was busy when we got there, busier than I usually see because I used to go earlier in the day but as we were coming in, many were clearly at the end of their visit so it worked out. We headed up to see the animals first. They changed things around a bit this year because they had some new additions to their animals. They have lots of ducks, geese and chickens, ponies, sheep (and some cute little lambs), llama, and several goats (they are really cool). Gavin wasn't sure what to make of them. I wasn't totally surprised, he has a similar reaction to most new things. Maybe next year he will enjoy it more.

After the animals, we headed over to the village so Gavin could get down and walk around. There were a lot of kids around, so we picked a house that no one was in to start with. He was very hesitant at first, but Scott walked in and then Gavin was willing to go in and check things out.


Then he made a friend. She was very sweet.


After that, Gavin realized that there was fun to be had. He watched the older kids run around and tried to keep up.


Checking out another "house"... we suspect this was intended to be a mini horse stable.




What are they doing? I can't climb like that (yet)!


I'm out of here...


We went to check out the pumpkins they had in the less crowded pumpkin patch (they actually had picked all of them and moved them so it was easier to get to them, the pumpkin patch is actually on the other side of the farm, a bit of a walk). Gavin immediately took off to explore all the pumpkins. He had a great time!


People watching but still not willing to let go of the pumpkins.



Hmmm... what's down there?


Then we picked a few apples and pears before we picked out our pumpkin. It was an easy decision on the pumpkin. There were lots of great ones but the first one we picked up was perfect. So we headed to pay (and pick up some apple cider donuts because we can't leave without some of those too!) and waited for the tractor to take us back to our car. Gavin wouldn't take his eyes off the tractor once it started up and started moving.




We headed home and Scott started working on getting the gate at the top of the stairs fully installed. We ended up needing to get one when Gavin stopped ignoring the stairs and kept trying to dive down them head first. It is a tension gate, but the extension piece that it came with made it too wide to fit the opening but without the extension the opening is too wide to get enough tension for it to be safe. So, Scott was creating clamps to mount to that will also protect the handrail. While Scott worked on that, Gavin and I played, checked out the power tools Scott was using and made dinner.

Another awesome fall weekend together has come to close. I can't wait for our next trip to the farm!