The 12 Days of Camping - Apple Picking!

For

YEARS

I have wanted to go apple picking.

It sounds like so much fun!

But we have never 

had the opportunity,

nor taken the opportunity.

So while we are in the mountain area of NC

in mid-late August,

we took advantage of the 

ALMOST 

there apple season

and 

WENT APPLE PICKING!

I was THRILLED 

that we had the opportunity.

It was not planned

and somewhat of a last 

minute idea.

And I am 

ever so thankful

that the hubs decided that he was ok with 

spending one of his

actual vacation days

taking me and the kids

apple picking.

I found a place called 

Justus Orchard

close by

and

that had some apples ready.

They gave us a basket for our apples,

a couple of containers for our blackberries

and

a wagon...

And away we went!

The basket of apples had to share their wagon

space with Mr. T.

Which I am sure was by design,

because he sat right there

and 

ate 

apple

after

apple!

Jackson was tickled by how tiny the apples were 

that we were picking.

Everyone took turns 

pulling the cart too!

Thankfully,

they told us to sample them

as we were going through

to make sure we were happy with the flavors 

we were picking...

They were juicy!

But tasty!!

We finally got Mr. T to contribute to the 

picking

and not just the eating!

 He even took a turn pulling 

the cart for us.

Once we filled up our apple basket,

we headed over to the rows of

blackberry bushes.

Caught daddy eating a couple of those!

And Mr. T

mercy!

This kid put away some blackberries!!!

So did Lex!

They thought that the object was

for us to pick them

and fill up their containers.

Tony was quick to tell us

each time he ran out!

Tony Cruz did pick one or two 

off the bush by himself...

But stuck close to dad

so he could keep filling up 

his container for him.

Lex did pick more than she ate.

They all enjoyed eating their way

through the blackberry bushes.

And, naturally,

Rico had to hot dog a little!

From the looks of the black mark

on his cheek

in this picture...

it appears he MISSED that one!

But don't tell him!

Here is our bountiful

harvest!

Unfortunately the apples

started to go bad before we could eat them all.

Fortunately,

I got the opportunity to make apple filling for 

SOMETHING!

I haven't decided what,

I froze most of it.

And what blackberries survived the trip home 

from the mountains,

got frozen

and we have been using in 

smoothies

or

in my new water infuser!

We stopped

and posed for a few pictures...

When we got back up to the 

store,

to pay for our haul...

I told them they really should 

have weighed my kids

before we went out there.

And that I should probably pay for

a few more pints of blackberries.

I was thrilled when 

they told me it was

All You Can Eat

while you are picking!

Haha!!

Even though everyone else 

was pretty full from

eating our way through the orchard

I insisted on getting a could of apple treats

when we got back.

They had apple donuts,

blackberry donuts,

apple turnovers,

apple cider

and 

a few other things.

But those are all the things we tried.

The donuts were fantastic

and 

I was anxious to try the turnovers,

since this was now the THIRD

variety 

I had tried on our trip.

These were

BY FAR

the absolute BEST!

I bought 3 more for breakfast the next morning!!

Luckily no one else liked them as much 

as me,

so after warming them in the oven,

I had a great breakfast!

Apparently we had worked up quite an appetite!

These turnovers were finger licking good!!!

This concludes 

the

epic adventures

of 

"The 12 Days of Camping"

"Phew!"