Apples and Pumpkins

What to do on a beautiful, crisp Autumn day when Andrew had off...


go apple picking with our friends, the Guzmans.


We arrived at Crooked Run Orchard and pretty much had the orchard for our own pickings.
There were golden delicious, red delicious and rome apples to choose from. We started off gathering some golden because the red apples looked to have been all picked.


One row down and then we found some great looking red apples, they looked like rome and so we had to taste one to see.

Yup, rome and quite delicious. Nothing tastes better than an apple picked right from the tree and then eaten. As we were picking Andrew noted a sign for pumpkins. So we decided to venture that way and see what pumpkins we could find. We walked through the forest, over a little creek and then ended up in an open field with everything plowed. Still the sign for pumpkins could be seen so we hiked down and up to find

not much. There were some rows of sunflowers and then intermixed with the sunflowers were gourds and a few pumpkins. Andrew found a few gourds and a small pumpkin (I finally found some big ones but we didn't want to carry it all the way back, we just picked up a pumpkin from the stand where we paid) and we hiked back to the orchard. As we were hiking we saw more people coming into the fields looking for pumpkins and as we got back to the orchard is was full of people. I was glad we arrived soon after opening and picked our apples before the crowds came. We found another good apple tree and picked off a few more before headed out.
Picture of the kiddos smiling after a fun morning in the orchard.


The first thing Sophie wanted to do when we got home was carve her "perfect" pumpkin (that is what she and Elanor called it thanks to daddy-o). I wanted to eat lunch and since I am pregnant and the mom I won out and she had to wait until after lunch.


Sophie is like Andrew and doesn't like to get her hands too messy. Last year I had to clean out the pumpkin because it was gross to Andrew. This year, I let him take care of it. I was tired. Here's a video that reminded Andrew of himself. Enjoy. (it might take a minute or 2 to load, just a warning)



The finished products sitting on our front steps.


And for the apples, I made some quick homemade applesauce for dinner and it was so good. We will be making it again.