Apple Days

We eat a lot of apples.  Now that apples are in season and growing all around us, we eat even more apples.  Example, I bought 6 Honeycrisp apples and less than 24 hrs later all but 1 were gone.  Yum.  There really isn't anything tastier than a fresh local and crisp Washington apple.  Awhile back I saw a little flyer about farm tours in Skagit County.  I told my friend about it and we decided it would be a fun time to meet there and do the farms together.
   Good thing we pushed our date to Sunday, because Saturday morning I woke up to a text from my sister asking me if I wanted to do a race with her.  Molly and some of her coworkers have been planning to walk in an all girls 1/2 marathon.  Two of the girls dropped out morning of.  I woke up 15minutes after the text and 15 minutes after that I was out the door, bringing pajama clad kids for Uncle to watch just until Clay got home early morning basketball.  Molly and I arrived in the chilly morning at a local park where women of all ages, sizes, shape, and athletic ability gathered.  The race organizers said there was no timer, and they didn't care if you did the entire course, or just went over the hill for 10 minutes until they could turn the start area into the finish area.  Molly and I walked the trail for 5 miles, turned around and finished OUR walk at 10 miles.  It was a great morning on the trails with my sister, talking, the view, cheering for us and others.
  Sunday we all got ready, loaded into the car and met Krista and her family at one of the farms open for the tour weekend.  There was so much to do, and see and a number of people there with us.  This farm was decorated with loads of fancy gourds and pumpkins.  We did the corn maze, walked among the pumpkins, kids rode in carts and we picked apples.

 There were all of these fun murals around the farm to pose with. 

 4  in the corn

 E was trying to blend in with the corn, yes he ate some. I heard it wasn't very good.

 Spiders all around in the fall.

 Such a cute family picture, oh wait what are G and E doing? Krista took some great ones of us, but this one is my favorite.

 Hand in hand in the apple orchard.

 A bushel and a peck... 

On to the next farm after a quick lunch. This farm was so different than the first.  The 1st was fun, but was in the business of making money.  This family run farm was more about education and letting everyone have a hands on experience.  It was a creamery, and right away they handed you ice cream bars of little cartons of milk.  The kids got to go around on a treasure hunt finding out facts and getting stamps for answering questions. 

 There were newborn calfs the kids got to get up close and personal with.

 Beautiful views that matched the amazing October weather we are having.

 Face painting (G asked the girl for the big heart, in addition to the whiskers) and a "really slow" hay ride.  My kids are used to going fast on the 4wheeler at Grandpa's farm so this was not too thrilling for them.

 Squirtie Gertie to try your hand at milking.  My biggest kid was pretty pleased with his efforts.  He and I both recently milked real cows at the farm.. Me for my very 1st time ever. The kids tried it, twice!

   Beautiful Mt Baker.   

  Our night ended with dinner, than a full evening of everyone but me getting sick.  Last Thursday night E woke up crying and I found throw up all over his bed... and then he got it on the rest of the house.  We seemed mostly fine, but it hit Clay and the kids last night... and cousin C too.  Today we are all trying to recover from the night and hoping that not only are we all done with tummy troubles but that we didn't pass it on to any of our friends we hung out with in the past week.