The Orchard

We went on a little family adventure today that turned out to be very nice. Chris got back Saturday afternoon and no one was happier than me. Actually, it is possible that is not true. Austin was so excited to be with Daddy he was just doing his little happy run all over the place. He didn't act that sad when Chris was gone, but from the minute Chris got home Austin did not leave his side. Austin refused to nap, and wanted Chris to be in the room with him. I went in there at one point and Austin said "Mommy, you can go out now. Because I haven't seen Daddy in a long time and I need to be with him". Then later they went out in the backyard to play and Austin wanted to hold Chris' hand, saying "Let's hold hands Daddy, then we can be connected." They colored chalk, played football and baseball and probably lots of things I don't know about...needless to say we all were glad he was back.

So today, Monday, was beautiful. The weekend's weather was miserable...awful gray skies, a pollution index listed as hazardous and really yucky air. But Sunday night it rained (who knows whether it was a "natural" rain or not) but today was gorgeous. So some friends of ours had recently gone to an orchard not too far from here and we decided to check it out. Our friends' had driven their own car, but Chris wanted to try the bus. It turned out the bus went all the way to the orchard, though we got off a little earlier not realizing that. We picked pears and apples, had a picnic lunch, enjoyed the blue skies and mountain views and then came home. We did not know where to get the bus coming back, so we walked a good ways on a rather narrow road. At one point Austin said "I know Mommy. I think we should pray God will give us a taxi" which I thought was an excellent idea. Instead of a taxi He lead us to the right bus stop, which was just as well. So, in all a really good day. I came home and made applesauce and now I am tired!

Apples right off the tree (we did wash them first)...yummy.

A lot of the trees had low branches...perfect for little people to join in the fun.

Mmmm...Bennett eats a pear. Bennett kept picking them and eating a couple of bites and then giving it to me before I could stop him...he also ate little bites all around the fruit, so it looked sort of like a soccer ball.

Then Austin was not content with the low branches and wanted to try climbing higher with a little help.

Austin found all these sticks and "planted" them in the ground into a "forest". We had our picnic lunch in the forest and talked about how Great-Grandaddy Haney was a forester for his job.

Starting the applesauce- made lots to eat and to freeze.