Apples to Apples

One of the coolest experiences in Upstate New York has to be apple picking in the Fall. I LOVE picking apples. Usually when we go, it's cool and breezy. We wear sweaters and sip on hot apple cider while walking through the orchard.

When I took my cousin and her baby girl R, it was upper 80's and felt like the surface of the sun. I'm pretty sure the trees were sweating.  I know I was. But they were only here for a week and they were going to pick apples gosh darn it!

 We rode a tractor out to the orchard.

 Then Austin and R shared the bag.

 And decided it was too hot to walk.

 But not too hot to eat an apple.

 They shared the apple too.

 And then they had JUST enough energy to run up a hill.

Austin's pretty fast for a little guy!

 Totally typical interaction for these two.

 The frequency of love/hate exchanges made for a super fun afternoon.

 My cousin Rachel and her little R.

 When we made them stand by the height chart they both had the best faces.

 The best angry faces.

R was probably still upset about the fact that Austin had just shared his handful of dirt by throwing it at her face. Then he shot her with his super hand lasers.

I honestly never thought I would be yelling "we do not shoot our cousins with lasers!" in the middle of an orchard. Yay boys.

 But they were both feeling much better after some ice cream and donuts.

Yep. Ice cream AND donuts.

Mom of the year. Right here.

And Rachel and I felt much better after eating these raspberry pastries.

All of them.

And then maybe a donut.

If you need a fabulous orchard with "pick-your-own" apples check out Bowman Orchards.

I'll be going back as soon as it gets cool enough for sweaters and hot apple cider!