Apple Farm! (No apples, though.)

Two weeks ago, our friends the Gublers caught Ryan at church and suggested that we go with them the following Saturday to a place called Oak Glen, which is a collection of pick-your-own apple farms about an hour and a half away from here. We didn't realize that the apples were long gone from the trees, but it turned out to be an awesome day anyway. This place is out near San Bernardino, but up in the mountains, so it actually seemed like AUTUMN! A real season! I was in heaven. The kids played with sticks, learned about making cornmeal (until a grouchy lady chased us away -- I guess it was a paid tour thing,) and went on the ubiquitous inflated slide and bounce-house (no pictures of those, since we have enough from previous outings.)
We also did some archery. Connor and Elise were nowhere near strong enough or safe enough to do it on their own, so they "helped" me pull the string back and aim. We did not impress, but it was cool.

The best activity we did that day was this thing where they let you press your own apple cider. The kids got to pick out the apples, wash them in painfully frigid water, and throw them into a giant daddy-powered grinder. Then they helped turn the handle on the press to actually make the cider.



It was a pretty messy process, but the cider turned out like some kind of delicious apple-based drug. I think the whole gallon was gone by the next day, and that was us trying to ration it out.

After the cider-making, we went to a different farm to eat cider doughnuts and pet the animals. There was a miniature horse, a llama, and a pygmy goat. They were friendly animals, but every time I tried to take a picture of the miniature horse, she acted as if she was trying to eat my kids. I guess she thought it was funny.


Later that week, we got our new IKEA kitchen pantry put together (almost entirely done by Ryan - so big thanks to him!) The kids had fun helping and stepping on everything.

It turned out great, though, so now our kitchen looks vastly more tidy than when we just had dirty open shelves. We're totally moving up in the world, eh?