Apple Picking 2014

Late September we headed north to the Hudson Valley for our second annual apple picking trip. We had such a good time at Wright's Apple Farm in 2013 that we decided to head back to this spot again. It is pretty low frills, has abundant apples on the trees including low hanging fruit for little chubby toddler hands (some places get seriously picked through immediately), and that is perfect in my book. Plus they allow dogs.

Jaime was thrilled to get a car ride. He has been pretty obsessed with all things that go and since we don't have a car he doesn't go in one often. Shelby was pretty excited too - she alwayed loved car rides and history proved that it would usually take her to an adventure.

Apple picking was different from last year - still a blast but a different experience. This year with a very high energy two year old that has his opinions and a serious desire to show independence so there was a different energy. Jaime had a blast. I probably harrassed him too much telling him what to do (all in the name of perfect photograph memories).

Everyone was having a great time and we decided to walk to the lake. We thought it was going to be close (completely unsupported by factual knowledge) and after a pretty long walk we gave up. So we again probably harrassed our two year old way to much, this time trying to get him to keep moving back towards the car. I know he was annoyed with me at this point! But don't get me wrong, while we might have lightly ruffled each others feathers, it was still very fun.

Jaime loved picking apples and filling up his bag. He also loved finding ants on the apples that had fallen. We had to keep an eye on his bag as those slightly decaying apples with ants would find their way into our bags.

Ellie stayed in the carrier but loved taking in all of the activity. Shelby loved getting to be in a more rural setting and getting to sniff. Both of them were content being along for the ride.

After our bags were full we headed into Gardiner to our favorite spot for sandwiches. Such a good lunch after all the activity.

Then we headed home... One thing about renting a car for such an outing is making sure you rent it for long enough. We surely pissed someone off by having the car still while they wanted to head on for their plans. Oh hourly car rentals, such a convenience and annoyance.