Apple Weekend Number 8 ~ 2019

We are so blessed to have this as an annual thing and are so sad this was probably our last year going. This was our 8th year! Isaac has been celebrating in this tradition his whole life <3 p="">


We arrived late Friday evening, got the kids tucked in a little although they didn't stay there, lol. Had a short adult visit around the campfire before going to bed ourselves. The next morning we woke up and the kids jumped right into playing. They loved driving these cars around.






We got started on the apple picking as other families began to arrive. There were so many apples on a couple of the trees. Some of the big trees that were there 8 years ago are no longer there and some of the tiny ones are growing strong.

 

Once we had all the trees picked at it had started to rain a little bit. Not much and nothing big, but suiting for God's signs of the tears as we do our last of many annual events. 

With clear skies ahead we started the cider pressing process. This year Bri's Dad had a new grinder, basically a big blender for the apples. So we were able to get a lot more juice from not as many apples. They were also all in really good shape so we didn't have to do as much cutting out of bad parts like we have had to do in the past. 

The kids even got to swim before we left. We were going to leave before dinner because we wanted to get home early (I was doing a triathlon the following day), they bumped up dinner early so we stayed for that then headed home. Not as much text this year because I'm already a month behind in getting this posted.

Apple Weekend 2018

Last weekend we drove down to La Crosse to attend the annual apple picking and cider making with our dear friends. We were not able to go last year, Thomas was little and not handling the car well and we really didn't want to listen to him scream for three hours straight. And we were adjusting to a family of six and just didn't want to overwhelm our friends.

But after hearing how much Isaac enjoyed it and he started to ask when we were going to go back to that place and sleep in the basement and pick apples again. I knew we had to say yes if we were asked. And we were :-) so blessed our friends are so loving to include us year after year!

So we drove down Friday evening, had a fun bomb fire and smores. Surprisingly the kids all went down really well and we even got to have some adult conversations before bed. It's amazing what talking to other adults without little interruptions can do for the spirit.

Saturday we woke up ready to work. I spotted a family of deer outside and rushed to grab my camera.


We enjoyed breakfast and it was a little chilly which felt amazing.




Bri doing Emma's hair, amazing how she sat so much nicer for Bri than she does for me.. go figure, lol.


The kids were obsessed with these cars!








A couple of other families arrived and it was time to get pickin!










They had a few less trees than last time we were there. It looked so different. But that didn't effect the apples, a couple of the trees were LOADED with them! I had never see so many on one tree before!








Don't be fooled, the kids did help but not the ENTIRE time! The excitement quickly wore off, haha.










Thomas is such a cutie!






Emma loved playing with the dolls
















We picked all the apples and got set up for pressing. Mary taking a snack break. We were making pretty good time so went right into pressing before lunch.
























Jeff had a new press this year. It was a water press, the balloon in the middle filled with water pressing the ground up apples up against the wire screen. We still used the old fashioned press to chop up the apples then moved them over to this press




Hand sorting the apples and cutting out any bad spots or tossing the bad ones.


Everyone came running when it was time to taste the cider!


The music drew Thomas in and he created his own little dance floor. He sure does love to dance!






Isaac had fun playing croquet:










Lunch time came so we found a stopping point. After lunch the kids hopped in the pool as the day had warmed up. They didn't last too long because it wasn't that warm. But glad they could get in because they kept asking about it all morning. I put Thomas down for a nap while Kyle watched the kids in the pool for a short while.



















The kids couldn't get enough of the cars




We got all the apples pressed and ended up with 95 gallons! Could have been the new press or the amount of apples. I think some of it was the new press - it smooshed them pretty dry. Here is our count and link to previous years blogs:
2017 they got 72 gallons
2016 we got 45 gallons
2015 we got 87 gallons
2014 we got 50 gallons
2013 we got 23 gallons
2012 we got 11 gallons

We had a lovely dinner, cleaned up the yard, and loaded up the cars. We headed back Saturday evening. We had the twins game to attend the following day. It was a super fun packed day! All four kids fell asleep on the way home.