Apple Fest at the Cider Mill

Fall is in the air and I feel like Summer really has come to an end now. No more visitors and no more planned weekend trips. I already have a bunch of places I want to see next year - not that I'm wishing time to fly by faster than it already does. Today we ventured out to the cider mill in celebration of apple fest. I just wish that there was somewhere to pick apples around here. I saw how much fun my sister in law had with her two boys and I wanted to try it out too, but my resources tell me that pick-your-own apples doesn't exist in these parts. Berries galore, but no apples so we'll have to settle for the farmers market.

Upon arriving we quickly took care of the apple fritter buying business. Their fritters are super yummy and they only make them on Saturday. I wanted to be sure that we would get some. We went and ate our fritters inside and then walked over to the animals. As usual the goats were ready to be fed.

The kids rode the little carousel while we waited for dad

The famous apple fritter

Thomas enjoying his treat

Feeding the animals isn't Thomas' favorite thing to do. I think (well, I know) that they scare him a little bit and he doesn't want to get his fingers bitten off. Here he is assuming his usual position quite a distance from the pen. Olivia and Zach love to feed the animals and show no fear at all, which kind of surprises me since Olivia is often a little more cautious. Zach spent a lot of his time scooping up hay and shavings to feed the animals after he had used up his bag of food. He was then a little put out when they didn't seem to think that his offerings were very enjoyable.

Feeding the goats

The goats are always a little aggressive

Thomas was kind enough to take a picture of mom and dad

After animal feeding we made our way over to the apple slingshot. Here are the boys picking out the perfect apples to clear the fence at the other side of the field.

Spense and Thomas giving the slingshot a good pull

I'm not sure that Olivia liked this activity too much

After everyone else had given it a go Zach of course couldn't miss out

Attempting to race the ducks using the water pump

Thomas enjoyed playing some tetherball

We headed up toward the wagon ride and saw that the local fire station were there with a rig. The kids of course had to take a quick look and climb inside.

We had fun riding the wagon. It was a little bit of a bumpy ride since the tractor took us over some pretty rough terrain.

Not long after arriving back home, Thomas, Olivia and I left to go and see Toy story 1 and 2. They just released it in 3-D for 2 weekends to preview the new Toy Story to come out next summer. We have seen those films a hundred times or more, but they still wanted to go and enjoy it in the theater. We didn't think that it was wise to expect Zach to sit for that long, so we went during his nap time. As I thought about the $50 or so I had spent on our tickets and concessions I wondered if this had been some big waste of money, but as I looked across at those 2 kids in their 3-D glasses sipping soda and eating popcorn as they giggled at the movie I couldn't think anything other than that it was money well spent.