We were very excited to go apple picking this past Saturday. We decided to go to Hillcrest Orchards in Ellijay, GA. It was a beautiful day, and the girls did great on the 1.5 hour drive up there. Here is a picture of the orchard with the North Georgia Mountains in the background.
Here is a great picture of what we were looking for:
We started out by exploring the farm area.
Our little moonshiners!
Our little moonshiners!
Lily couldn't wait to climb up on this tractor.
She loved it. Maybe someday she can ride on a real tractor.
Of course, Mia couldn't wait to give one a whirl too.
I am such a sucker for these kinds of pictures!
Meet Buttermilk the cow. A farmer was sitting next to her and would show the kids how to milk her. Neither of our girls wanted to try that, but Mia was excited to pet her.
Mia thought Buttermilk was awesome!
They also had a John Deere trike tractor area, but it was pretty crowded so the girls didn't seem very interested in it. There was also this really cool area with a jumping pillow in it. I had never seen one before. In case you aren't familiar too, it is an inflatable jumpy that is about 20 yards long by about 10 yards wide. It sits on the ground and looks like a big pillow. It was surrounded by sand, so if the child slides down, she lands in sand. Pretty cool. Lily was willing to wait in the very long line to get in, but once Ryan and Mia walked away (she was a little too small), she decided not to wait. There was a small petting zoo, but since it cost extra money, and it looked a lot like the one at the zoo, we decided not to go. They have a moonshine museum to visit, and a tethered bungee jumping set. Of course, there were lots of delicious foods to enjoy too. After enjoying all of this for a bit though, we were ready to get picking!
Each row of trees had a sign like this letting you know what variety of apples were on that row. There were tons!
Looking down an apple road. There were lots of these to choose from. We started by gathering Granny Smiths for our apple casserole. After finding a dozen or so Granny Smiths, we wanted to find some red apples, so we made our way to the Gala rows. After picking several of those, we started to head back to the barn, but we found the cutest little apples on the way! They were just tiny, so the girls loved getting them. I asked an employee later who said they are Arkansas Blacks; they were delicious and firm apples.
Lily and Daddy trying to find the perfect tree for picking.
Excited to start picking.
Mia was trying hard too.
Filling up the bag!
They were having a blast!
I love this picture even though Mia isn't smiling. She just looks so sweet to me.
S-t-r-e-e-e-t-c-h to get it.
Looking for the next apple.
Always looking for the right one.
Showing off her prize.
Standing on top of the orchard hill.
Ready for a little break. We had been doing a lot of walking!
Lily thought it was hilarious to put her sticker over her mouth.
Such a sweetheart!
The girls showing off their bag of loot. It was a really heavy bag!
After we filled up our bag with lots of delicious apples, we headed to the barn. Inside you could get samples of the different apple varieties, and purchase all sorts of delicious goodies such as fried apple pies, apple doughnuts, jellies, jams, butters and apple ciders. We sampled several things and bought a few things to bring home. Our favorite though was definitely the apple slushy. Delicious!
Here's a picture on the way home. Lily thought it was great to have her foot propped up with the window rolled down.
Ahhh, the signs of a good time!
This was such a fun day. We will definitely look forward to doing this again next year!
As a side note, Ryan and I ended the day with a date to see Joel McHale's stand up act. He is host of the show The Soup which is one of our favorites, and he also stars in Community, another show we enjoy. He was hilarious and did a great job!
