To the Orchard, One Decade Later

What does one decade of visiting the same apple orchard look like?

It looks like this!

Syd at 3

Syd at 13!

Will at 5

Will at 15!

 On this trip, we even had a special guest star!

It turns out that he is quite useful for enabling access to formerly out-of-reach apples:

At first, Syd was timid about being up so high, but she quickly got used to it, especially when she figured out that she could essentially get Matt to pony her around so that she didn't even have to walk from tree to tree:

See the triumphant smile of a kid who's discovered her very own labor-saving device!

Will and Luna ditched us pretty much immediately, but Syd stuck by her car service, and together we treated the informative guide to apple varieties as a checklist:

I think we managed to get a sample of every single apple variety currently in season!

And then we had a break to lie down between the trees and eat apples and things that can suitably accompany apples:

Such a coincidence that our missing two managed to find us after most of the picking was done but just in time for peanut butter and cheese!

This goofball really likes cheese:

And THIS goofball is pouting because she's so full of apples that she feels sick, and yet the apples are still delicious:

Because the kids love the apple orchard so much, after a couple of hours I've got a little goodwill credit that I immediately spent on forcing them to submit to posed photos:

I didn't actually have any goodwill credit to spend on this guy, who'd basically spent the past two hours toiling as Syd's personal pack pony, but he posed for me, anyway (although who doesn't TAKE OFF THEIR SUNGLASSES for a family photo?!?):

And then he did the same for me!

The rest of the afternoon passed away just that easily, with apple-picking and lounging--

apple cider slushes and caramel apples and fudge, and the giant hay mountain that the kids adore:

We brought home a whole bushel of apples, a half-gallon of apple cider, six dollars' worth of fudge, and plans for homemade apple pie, homemade caramel apples, homemade applesauce, and whatever else we can think up, although last year we ate our entire bushel before we could actually make a thing from them and had to go buy more!

I'd like to say that we'll definitely get more creative in the kitchen this year, but it would be a shame to buck tradition...