Apple picking

There is a fun apple orchard that we like to go to each fall pretty close to us. It's a beautiful place and has wonderful apple turnovers. Unfortunately our trip this time was very brief. We picked a few apples and then Tori reaches in to try and pick an apple all by herself and pulls her hand back just screaming bloody-murder. We asked her what had happened, but she couldn't tell us and we couldn't see any bee or spider. There was a nice red mark on her wrist that swelled up quickly. We're pretty sure she was stung by a wasp or hornet. So, that ended our trip rather abruptly. We were pretty far out in the orchard, so we trekked back up to the orchard shop where they had a first-aid kit. We got Tori all fixed up and ate apple turnovers, which helped her feel a little better. Tori usually doesn't take naps, but once we got home she went straight to her bed and slept for quite a while. Luckily, we snapped a few pictures right before Tori got stung, so we do have a couple cute, happy pictures, but just not that many apples.

Apple Picking

Apple picking at Wilson's Orchard - one of my favorite things to do in fall in Iowa! It was a beautiful evening and we all loved picking and tasting the apples.

Even James tried to get in on the tasting action.

The best part is always the homemade apple turnovers fresh from the oven eaten outside on a crisp fall evening. (I'm making myself hungry just writing this post.)

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.