Baby Olivia's visit and trip to IL

Tori's cousin Olivia came to visit along with her mom, Danielle and Grandma and Grandpa back at the end of September. Tori loved her adorable little cousin.

She loves babies right now so she had a lot fun giving her plenty of toys and giving her "under-doggies" on the baby swing.

We love any excuse to ride the carousel at the mall, so we did that a few times while Grandma and Grandpa were here.

We also took everyone to the apple orchard to pick apples. Tori loved riding on Grandpa's shoulders and kept saying, "I want to touch the sky, I can't reach it." It was a bad year for apples at the orchard, but that didn't stop Grandpa and John from finding quite a few (I think it was actually more fun, because it really was a challenge to find a good apple.)

And, of course we had to get some of the delicious apple turnovers they make and Grandma was generous enough to share hers with Tori.

All of us, then drove to Illinois to show off cute little Olivia to all our cousins and Great Grandma and Grandpa. Above Tori is getting pushed on the swing by mom's cousins, Mandy and CG. She just loved playing with them and after we went home kept asking, "Where'd Mandy and CG go?"

While in Illinois, we visited a farm that had goats you could feed, a fun maze, an obstacle course and pony rides. Tori loved it all and was very upset when it was time to go. Below she is having her very first real pony ride. I was impressed that she wasn't scared at all, but loved it.

Apple picking

One of the things that we have done several times during the end of summer/beginning of fall that Tori loves is to go apple picking. We have a U-Pick Apple Orchard about 20mins away that is really beautiful and we have loved any excuse to go there.

These first two pictures are from when we went while Grandma Katie was visiting in August(she took the pictures). We didn't stay too long that time, because it was one of the hottest days of the year.

Then we went with a ton of friends from church. Tori thought it was really cool to pick the apples right off the tree and she always had to have one in her hand to eat while she picked.

Then Grandma and Grandpa came with Danielle and baby Olivia to visit. Tori loved riding on Grandpa's shoulders and kept saying, "I want to touch the sky, I can't reach it."

The best part about apple picking was eating one of the fresh apple turnovers that were made each day at the orchard. Above Grandma Margie is generously sharing one with Tori.

Our last trip was the public library's bus trip to the orchard. Tori loves buses, especially school buses and thought it was a ton of fun to ride on a bus (she still asks me sometimes if she can ride on the bus again).

Here are Tori, Jack, Anne and Megan getting ready to go on the "hayride" through the orchard, which Tori also thought was a lot of fun.