An Apple a Day....

I love that harvest time is here!  The best part about living in wine country is that we are surrounded by fruit....grapes, apple orchards, cherries, peaches, and apricots seems to be the main ones around here (corn, hops, onions and asparagus are some others).  We live just 3 miles from the best U-pick around.

Here is Tuck after his field trip to the apple orchard last week.  He was so proud of those 3 apples he got to bring home!

Then, there is Bill's Berry Farm.  They started their apple and pumpkin festival this past weekend, and we got in on the action.

Lucky us, the alpacas were visiting on Saturday, and we learned all about them!

 Bill's has some cute playgrounds for the kids...this one even has a tractor as it's centerpiece!

 And because I just have to take a picture next to something like this!  Tuckers has this thing about wearing his hoods on his hoodies...he looks like a dork!

 We ate some of the best apple cider donuts around, and will be going back to try their other flavors in the coming weeks!

 We explored the pumpkins and gourds...

 And took the token pic with our friends...

 The highlight of the day was making our own apple cider.  We weighed the apples, washed them, grinded them, pressed them, and put them in a jug from start to finish ourselves.  It is so stinkin' good!

 Here is our prize for all of our hard work :)

 It was a good day out with the Thornocks!

 Here is Tuck with his new girlfriend, Ryleigh.  They are not shy about telling each other that they like each other...so cute!  She is over a year older than Tuck.  Taking after his dad and liking the older women!

Here is the note she left for him before she left our house the other day...

And in other news...the hops are gone.  They took down the large field around our house in about 3 hours (not to mention they started at 5:30 AM).  I don't love my house quite as much now that I don't have a "forest" surrounding me!  I suddenly have all these neighbors I didn't realize were there.