morning in the orchard

This morning dawned clear and chilly, as any good September day should, and after wishing my brother a happy birthday, we set out with some friends to a nearby apple orchard for a morning full of apple picking. We grabbed our baskets, a wagon from the farm and headed into the trees for some picking fun.

I certainly love Finn's take charge attitude--having never set foot in an orchard, he confidently strides with his Finn-sized basket ready to pick those apple trees clean!

Our first patch of picking trees, teeming with apples and many already spilled onto the ground, just begged us to rake them into our baskets.

Suddenly the top half of the kids went missing.

All you could see were these little hands grabbing and tugging, often finding 3 or 4 apples spill down with a gentle pull.

And how they filled those baskets! They ran from every direction, with their hands and t-shirts stuffed full.

Some even whipped off sweatshirts as the temperatures rose and filled them with apples, tied up the corners, and ran for the wagon.

After picking our full in the Fugi rows, we tracked over to the Golden Delicious trees to finish our picking.

Our friends' little girl, Stella, was a sweet little apple watcher for us. She even reorganized the baskets a few times passing the apples from one basket to another.

The Golden Delicious seemed to grow a bit higher, if bigger and beautifully yellow, so I gave Finn a lift to assist in his second filling of his basket.

Soon enough all our baskets were laden with apples, even spilling over into the wagon itself.

Together, we picked 4.5 bushels in about an hour! Aren't they gorgeous!

When the wagons were too full to cart around the little people,

we headed back out of the orchard to find the barn and pay for our delicious treats.

You can't see it here, but Finn, still carrying his basket, is toting a lone apple he saved from the wagons for his lunch. I found that incredibly sweet for some reason: his hand-picked treasure from the orchard.

Elizabeth couldn't resist spending a few minutes checking out an old barn on the way out. The beautiful weathered old wood stood out so strikingly among the green trees.

And while we paid for our bushels, the crew began eating their hard-won snacks.

When the apples were safely nestled in our cars, we found a shady spot for a picnic lunch. Charlie has the best seat in the house overlooking the picnicking.

We ate and ate in the crisp, almost-autumn air, sharing with friends, and when the bellies were full, rolling down the hillside.

They all agreed it was a perfect day, and I have to say that I'm awfully proud of our pack of pickers.