apple picking

we took the girls apple picking last Saturday. i had envisioned an hours worth of us frolicking amongst trees heavily laden with ripe red apples, just waiting to be picked. i would take pictures that included lines of apple trees, bright with pops of red & green. we would fill 2 bags & happily crunch on fresh fruit as we went...damn. that sounds freaking incredible.

instead we got to the orchard only to be informed that the trees were running low & we may have to haul ass to find some.

...ok. we can still make this work.

10 minutes later: tons of trees. no apples. a squeaky wagon full of 45lbs of toddler. a sweaty mom. an annoyed dad. a vision shattered.

stupid.

but we prevailed & eventually found a few trees with apples....at the top. so the husband grabbed a ladder & got his climb on. the girls really had no interest in picking- so we did the work:

 while they hauled each other around in the wagon.

once we got going we actually filled up our bag pretty quickly. the girls humored me & picked a couples apples each:

then i decided that 20lbs of apples was probably enough. we wheeled our 60lbs+ of precious cargo back to my jeep & called it a day.

then i gave my kid a squeeze pouch filled with applesauce...it seemed wrong somehow.

i've since made 2 massive pans of apple crisp & coax the girls into eating at least 3 apples a day, & i still have 15lbs of apples left. 1st world problems.