Fall Festivities

This weekend we continued to embrace the fall season with some apple picking and pumpkin carving. Friday we went to Mountain View Orchards in Jemison, AL with friends Mike, Kelsey, & Adalynne, and Adam & Hannah.  It's a place that Google doesn't even know about. A little orchard not too far off of I-65, with only a small apple-shaped "U-Pick" sign at the edge of the road. Once you follow the tire tracks on back you begin to notice various lines of trees along the open fields in front of you. You roll up to the "general store" where you can buy pre-picked apples. But we were there for fun!  

We paid for our box to fill, then they loaded us up on the back of a trailer and drove us out to the orchard. We all enjoyed the country ride and fresh air, almost as much as Addy!

(Some of my VERY favorite people in this picture right here!
Also many missing, so don't get jealous on me.)

The orchard guy drove us out to the rows that were ready for picking (I prefer you to read that "pickin'," because that's just what happens in the South. You don't go out picking the fresh fruits & veggies from your garden, you go out pickin'!). Then he told us how to determine is the apples were just right for...pickin', and let us loose!

We looked high and low... mostly high, thanks to Adam, until we filled half of the box with Golden delicious ...

...and half the box with Arkansas Blacks.

Then we had fun taking pictures. :)

Then Adalynne decided to take her very first steps right in the middle of the orchard. Which I didn't think of until this moment, is somewhat ironically funny because the child loves fruit. Maybe she saved this moment as her ode to fruit. Or something like that. Anyway it happened, we were all excited, then Kelsey scolded those holding cameras for not capturing the moment, so we recreated it. It went something like this:

And after all of the excitement, we strolled (every so cutely) back to the trailer and loaded up to leave.

They next day, some of our apples were turned into caramel apples and apple pie for the Pumpkin Carving Party on Saturday! I shamefully did not get a picture of the entire table spread of all the fall goodies. But we had lots of fun carving away and creating our masterpieces!