This is a picture posting today. 🙂 Today was the first Saturday in a while that
we didn’t have any plans. Nothing required our time or our commitment, so we decided to have a fun family outing. Not far from here, an apple orchard was having a family day, so we thought we’d check it out. The kids had a blast! The first order of business was an awesome hayride. It was a fairly long hayride through soybean fields, past a quarry, through a woods, and ending at a pumpkin patch. There we each got to pick our own pumpkin to bring back with us. It was so cool wandering the pumpkin patch with the kids. They were both particular about the pumpkins they wanted.
we didn’t have any plans. Nothing required our time or our commitment, so we decided to have a fun family outing. Not far from here, an apple orchard was having a family day, so we thought we’d check it out. The kids had a blast! The first order of business was an awesome hayride. It was a fairly long hayride through soybean fields, past a quarry, through a woods, and ending at a pumpkin patch. There we each got to pick our own pumpkin to bring back with us. It was so cool wandering the pumpkin patch with the kids. They were both particular about the pumpkins they wanted. After we picked the pumpkins, 
we climbed back on the wagons for a leisurely ride back to the apple orchard. Unfortunately, they weren’t a pick-your-own patch, but they did have plenty of apples to select from. We picked up some Macs, Honey crisp, freshly made cider, caramel apples, and a huge bag of seconds for turning into baked delights. After our return home, I got to work on that big bag, and I’ve hardly made a dent. I made up a double batch of Cooking Light’s Juicy Apple Crisp and a big pot of applesauce. Turns out, these particular apples are very watery, so any applications I use them for will have to take that into account. But the crisp is awesome, the applesauce delightful, and all-in-all, it was a great day. We have already decided that next year we will do it again, it was so fun. Although if the weather cooperates, we may try the pick-your-own orchard down the road a bit next weekend. Abigail wanted to pick her own apples today.
we climbed back on the wagons for a leisurely ride back to the apple orchard. Unfortunately, they weren’t a pick-your-own patch, but they did have plenty of apples to select from. We picked up some Macs, Honey crisp, freshly made cider, caramel apples, and a huge bag of seconds for turning into baked delights. After our return home, I got to work on that big bag, and I’ve hardly made a dent. I made up a double batch of Cooking Light’s Juicy Apple Crisp and a big pot of applesauce. Turns out, these particular apples are very watery, so any applications I use them for will have to take that into account. But the crisp is awesome, the applesauce delightful, and all-in-all, it was a great day. We have already decided that next year we will do it again, it was so fun. Although if the weather cooperates, we may try the pick-your-own orchard down the road a bit next weekend. Abigail wanted to pick her own apples today. 
Here we made the kids wait until we got back home before they were allowed to unwrap their caramel apples. T
hey sure enjoyed them.
And, finally, here is a so-so picture of tonight’s apple crisp. I love this particular apple crisp. The crisp topping is very minimal, it really lets the apples shine. I do think that last year I doubled the topping, so if I get around to making this again, I may double the topping, as it’s really good. You can find the recipe for Juicy Apple Crisp at Cooking Light or in the Recipe Trove.
<--- Jealous!! i love you big sis!! enjoy the autumn while you can…soon it will be winter, and we know how much you love winter! all the ice skating and snowboarding and sledding…oh wait… 😉
Looks like so much fun! I never did this when I was little but would love to take my kids whenever I have some!
I miss you Rachie!
Claire, even if I didn’t have kids… the hayride to the pumpkin patch was a blast, I’d go again in a second.