Orchard time

We wrapped up our vacation with the Jensen's with a trip to the apple orchard. We looked at the weather forecast and picked what we thought would be the nicest day. So Tuesday morning, after Khloe's gymnastics, we packed up all the kids - and Grandpa - and visited an orchard we had not been to before, Blake's Orchard and Cider Mill. We lucked out with the most perfect day! Bright blue skies, warm sun, cool air - beautiful! Days like that in October make me so happy! And what's better, we were on vacation with our family!

 Matching birthday outfits! Even Travis wasn't left out of the coordinating fox outfits.

(Cassidy thought the sun was too bright!)

 To purchase one of these large pumpkins will only set you back 30 bucks.

They had these silly animated characters in various spots throughout the property, playing instruments and singing (think Showbiz Pizza or Chuck E Cheese). The kids didn't know what to think about them; the adults just thought they were creepy.

 There were so many fun activities to do at Blake's; the kids had a ball. And at $8/ person, I'm glad we got our money's worth of activities and fun. What was supposed to be a quick 1.5 hour visit turned into 3!

 A straw climbing mountain. I want one of these in our backyard. This was the smaller of the two climbing mountains, you can see the much taller one in the background. 

 There was playground after playground after playground, it went on and on. Each time we tried to move the kids on to the next activity, they'd say "Awwwwwww! But we want to (fill in the black with:) swing/play/ride/climb/bounce more!"

 The John Deere race track was a riot. These bikes? off road vehicles? dune buggies? were so fun. The seats on them were adjustable so Aaron could ride it, I could and even Kayla could. The track was hilly, rocky and bumpy, making it even that more challenging, and exhausting! I didn't know it was going to be such hard work! This would be awesome to have in our backyard. Aaron's already thinking of a way to construct his own.

 Aaron and Kayla racing. I could barely pull Aaron away from this race track.

 Kayla taking the easy way around, on Daddy's lap

And there was a pint-sized tricycle derby race track too. 

 They had a very large and very nice petting farm area. The girls got a kick out of seeing sheep, goats, horses, rabbits, calves, a donkey, baby chicks, ducks, baby pigs, and peacocks, which is what Khloe is checking out.

 Next was this awesome jumpy pillow, or bouncy. It was so fun! I want one of these in our backyard. How could you not? This was definitely hard to pull the kids (and me) away from! (Hey, check out at the air I'm getting!)

 The fun just doesn't stop! Next up was the train ride. It was a relaxing ride through the orchards and around the property. Another 30 seconds on the train and Travis would've been asleep.

 Just take a look at the size of their pick-your-own pumpkin patch! And this was wasn't the only field of them!

 After Sarah and the kids and Grandpa headed home, we stuck around to pick apples and raspberries. 

 Kayla did a great job of picking raspberries and filling her container. Khloe, on the other hand, not so much...

After 20 minutes of picking and filling their containers with equal amounts of raspberries, this is what was left! Hmmmmmm Khloe, what happened to all those raspberries???