apple tees

If you ask Cumorah what she did this weekend, she will enthusiastically say "Apple Tees!". And then the next most important thing, "Cah, Shaww." She says this second thing very seriously because, yes, the car did indeed get a shower in the car wash. It made a big impression on Cumorah.

But the apple trees are the most exciting thing that happened. The girls and I went to Center Grove Orchard about a 35 minute drive north of here. I found the orchard last year when I was still feeling very new in Iowa and a little bit home sick. My family went to Apple Hill every year growing up (well every year that we lived in Shingle Springs and even a few when we didn't). So did Brian's family (because they live in Apple Hill). My family is still going to Apple Hill every year. I even took a couple of my second grade classes on field trips to one of the orchards when I was teaching. It just isn't Fall without visiting the apple orchards, eating apple donuts, drinking apple cider, munching on a caramel apple... I guess there was always a bunch of eating involved. It was also just the feel and the smell of the cool mountain air that made it so special. There were many years when we would go with my cousins, the Dyals. Those were good times. In more recent years, it wasn't Fall unless Dad and Crystal were making applesauce every weekend and then I figured out how to make spiced apple jelly. Yum. I'm going to try and make some jelly again this year, so I'll be making applesauce as well. I just need to find someone with a canner...

Anyway, I found a very acceptable substitute for Apple Hill here in Iowa.

Center Grove Orchard has a ton of kid-friendly attractions. Cumorah really enjoyed the corn pool (only in Iowa) and tried to bury herself when she saw other kids burying each other. She liked the ducky races, where you use old fashioned water pumps to pump water and try to push the ducks down the trough. She liked seeing the goats and was afraid of feeding them. The ducks and the chickens were okay and the little pigs were fascinating. We enjoyed our picnic lunch in the shade on the porch and also had apple doughnuts and an apple cider slushy. After lunch we went back out and found the gigantic jumping pillow that anyone and everyone is invited to try. Cumorah really liked that. We got thrown around a bit from other people jumping and she thought it was hilarious. We stopped and watched some people try out the apple sling shot. That was pretty cool, but we were content to just watch.

Last year Cumorah and I went with our friend Aupreille and picked a big bag of apples. But this time all of the activities wore us out and as I was the only adult there, I decided to just buy our apples already picked. We did, however, get permission to go into the orchard and pick an apple to eat. Cumorah was really excited about the apple trees. I held her up and she pulled an apple off a branch. That was pretty fun to find an apple on the tree, pick it and then eat it in the shade and look up at the fruit laden branches.

We're excited to go back when Auntie Crystal is here the first of November. Maybe Crystal will make applesauce again this Fall?