Annual Apple Picking Trip

Y’all. It finalllllllllyyyy felt like fall last week! It was absolutely amazing! Highs in the low to mid 70’s, crisp fall air and zero humidity. Oh and perfect hair weather of course! And in true Virginia fashion, it will be back in the upper 80’s this weekend so it doesn’t appear this weather was hear to stay.

Since it was finally cool, we decided to take our annual trip (which we passed on last year since I had just had Liam) to Carter Mountain Orchard for some apple picking! Liam is still taking 2 naps so we tried to leave right before he would go down for a nap so he could get a nap in on the hour+ drive up there. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite happen as our niece and mother-in-law joined us and, needless to say, it was way more exciting sitting next to your cousin than taking a nap and he ended up only getting a 20ish minute nap instead.

Not pictured was our impromptu stop at a random Walmart in Charlottesville because Tyler and I both failed to remember to pack the stroller. Amateur move. We knew it would be super hard to have to carry Liam and Paisley up and down the rows of trees and in the crowds so we thought we’d try to get a wagon they could both sit in. Well wouldn’t you know that wagons are in high demand, quite expensive and aren’t a good “quick” option to replace your stroller? That’s what we found out when they only had this one option available that also required assembly. Womp womp. We just worked on our biceps instead.

After unloading everyone we took a quick pit stop for some photos by the pre-picked pumpkins. Paisley is quite the model but Liam was a little grumpy and not about my photoshoot session. Oh well, we tried!

After snapping some pictures, we decided to beat the lines that would inevitably start growing later and fueled up with some apple cider donuts and an apple slushy. Why are apple cider donuts so good? Like I’m not even a big donut person but they’re so delicious! Between all of us, we polished off an entire dozen before the day was over. I’m not even mad about it.

After everyone had fully bellies and the kids were hopped up on some sugar, we ventured out into the orchard to pick our apples. While we arrived in the middle of the season, the trees were still fairly picked through making it difficult to pick a ton off the trees.

Fortunately, there still were a few that were low enough for the kids to be able to pick. And snacking of course. Liam just couldn’t seem to understand why we couldn’t keep the ones on the ground though…

Since the pickings were slim and our arms were getting tired and full to the brim, we ended up grabbing some apples from the pre-picked bins before making our quick exit back down the mountain. We planned it perfectly and both kids fell asleep in the car.

All in all it was a quick trip but it was quite nice to get some fresh mountain air and some delicious, local apples. We will certainly plan better next year and bring a stroller and/or already assembled wagon to tote an active toddler and a boatload of apples with. Until next year!

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