apples

I mean well. I really do. I want my children to have many experiences. I feel like experiences are more remembered and cherished over material things. Last week, Highland Orchards was our experience: farm animals, swings, a faster-than-the-speed-of-light slide, mums, pumpkins, apple picking and cider doughnuts were all on the list to be experienced. We were ready to have some fun adventures. It was a wonderful morning until the apple picking. First problem: the apples were picked from most of the nearby trees so I had Eli on my hip and Evie walking with me for ooohhhh, about 5 miles! Ok, maybe not 5 miles, but it felt like it! But there Eli was, holding his little apple bag and ready to pick some apples so I could deal with the walking.

Then we finally found some there were pickable, but they were up high. So I had lift Eli up. He couldn't for the life of him pick an apple off of the tree. Each time, it fell out of his hands then he would fall into hysterics. What were these apples coated with, Crisco? Then Evie would be down for two seconds while this was going on and I would look down at her only to see a rotten apple in her mouth. Lovely. This was the trend, back and forth: Eli in hysterics, Evie with rotten, dirty apples in her mouth. Then, Eli wanted to leave with only 3 apples in our bag. No way, I thought...we were getting our money's worth. I had plans....important plans for these apples. But the meltdown already was hitting astronomical proportions. So I quickly picked a bunch myself and started back with my brood. My lovely OCD son wanted me to pick him AND Evie up so that he could not step on bad apples that had fallen off of the tree. I admit, I had a few squish under my feet which is not the best feeling....but I could not hold both.

So here we came, back to our car with Eli crying, Evie falling off of my hip, barely holding onto my bag of apples. So after all this trauma and drama.....I decided to go back and get some cider doughnuts from the bakery there and we ate them outside. No more meltdowns, no more tears, just the three of us, happy as clams. Those doughnuts are fat laden pieces of heaven. So suffice it to say, I had my camera with me the whole time, but only got a few shots. And for the money shot....i.e. the three of us eating doughnuts...well I gave up on my camera b that point and will have to just remember in my mind and my heart.