pickin' apples.

alternatively titled, "the obligatory fall outing wherein we pick fruit."


apple picking just oozes fall, doesn't it? i have such fond memories of going apple picking as a child. or rather, i have fond memories of the first hour or so of apple picking and then complaining about being tired and wanting to go home for the rest of the time. yes, sadly, i was *that* kid. ;)

a few weeks ago, we took choi boy on his inaugural apple picking trip and it did not disappoint. unlike his momma, cb could have picked apples all day long! we had such a blast picking apples and enjoying all the orchard had to offer...as you will soon see by the insane number of pictures i'll be posting. apologies in advance. ;)

we joined cb's ladyfriend's family for our outing, and you can bet there were many awesome photo ops of the two littles. right from the start, actually. :)


kate's baby brother showed us his own share of adorableness, too.

love him!

cb and kate enjoyed some play time before we headed out into the orchard.

the sandbox was a big hit!

as was this super cool airplane!


and unfortunately, so were these porta-potties.

cb saw them and excitedly shouted, "red house! red house!" not really, little dude.

after the porta-potty clarification, it was finally time to pick our apples. the hubs and i are not fans of warm or cooked fruit (sorry, pie lovers!), meaning our picked apples were going to be strictly for eating as is. so we opted for a small bag that cb insisted on carrying.

the excitement about that was (thankfully) greater than the porta-potty excitement.

as you can see, we wore our wellies to combat the wet and slightly muddy grass.

and also partially because they were super fun (and cute!) to stomp around in. ;)

and, we were off!


and once choi boy realized what we were doing, he was unstoppable!



cb and kate got into the groove together and even got some pickin' pointers from kate's pops.



and pretty soon, cb was giving his own pointers.



we tried to stop for some posed pictures, but our little guy was far too busy to stop.

"there are apples to be picked, appa!"


"that's right, appa, stay focused."

soon enough, cb realized that eating apples straight off the tree was much more fun than picking.

so he proceeded to eat apples.


a lot of apples.


so many apples we later paid for them in a stinky way.
sorry, that one was for beth. ;)

he couldn't even stop eating long enough to look at the camera for a family shot.


and then he was so busy eating, he photo bombed kate's family's (minus her daddy who was trying to find cell phone reception!) shot.


classy.

one might even say choi boy seemed a bit...intoxicated by them apples.


but i'll leave that up to you to decide.

after picking and eating, we headed back up to the market and play area and munched on some yummy apple donuts.


we also got to ride the cutest little barrel train that you ever did see!


cb wouldn't let me get in the car with him, but insisted that i also come, so i was the totally lame grown-up riding in a cow all by herself. i felt like tom hanks in that carnival scene in "you've got mail." complete with eyeroll from a child and all. ahem, cb. ;)

we had lots of fun riding around the farm and cb had a mild freak-out when he saw his latest obsession:

"coo bus!! coo bus!!!!!"

after a second ride, this time, sans lame umma,



we picked our pumpkin,


checked out some mums,


and called it a day.

a delicious day, actually.

:)




p.s. elizabeth asked about the instruments from this post. they are from the 'B' line at target, but i haven't seen them since the summer...they are fantastic, though, and i hope you find them!