Apple and Raspberry Picking

On Saturday, we drove out to Woodstock, IL to go apple picking with our friends, the Shulls. It was about an hour and a half away, which ended up being a little too long of a drive for our happy campers in the back seat. Eli had a slight runny nose that has now turned into a yucky cough, so he wasn’t in the best mood. Charlie was just sick of being in his car seat. I kept throwing toys and cheerios back to him, but nothing worked. Eli’s crying made Charlie’s crying even worse. Poor little guys!

On Our Way to Pick Apples from Sarah on Vimeo.

We forgot to grab Eli’s sunglasses before we left, so Eli insisted on wearing these hot pink Dora sunglasses that are actually Caroline’s that have been sitting in our car (for the last year!! I’m sorry…), with the intention that we would give them back the next time we saw her. Now I don’t know if she even likes Dora?? I think Hannah Montana has taken over :)

Anyway, a lot of these pictures have Eli in these funny sunglasses. No, I don’t normally like to have my little boy in pink attire, but oh well! He didn’t care about my opinions. Eli just wanted relief from the bright sun shining in his eyes.

And here’s a lovely photo of Charlie. I should have pulled his shorts down a little, but I can’t change it now! He had fun chewing on an apple slice while we were picking raspberries.

Eli gave Tabitha a nice side hug. I thought it was sweet. It looks like Eli’s wearing reading glasses in this picture.

Tabitha LOVED the raspberries! It was cute seeing her enjoy the delicious, fresh-off-the-bush fruit.

Eli had fun running in and out of the rows of apple trees:

And Ben is the master raspberry picker – he’s efficient and can spot the ripe ones. I felt like I had a disadvantage with my short arms (and I was wearing capris and flip flops, which isn’t conducive for pushing into the bushes).

(I didn’t pick all of these by myself)

As the morning continued, Eli seemed to feel less and less well.

But he perked up when he tried some apples:

Ben making Eli laugh:

Sharing an apple:

You just can’t find apples like these at the grocery store. They are so delicious!

Charlie fell asleep in the ergo. It’s hard to keep his head from flopping around though, poor guy.

This place was great because the price of apples was very reasonable (much cheaper than the place we went to last year – Apple Holler in Wisconsin) and they even had wagons you could use… for free! We had to rent a wagon at Apple Holler. The apple guys even gave me a free apple cider donut. That makes up for this place being WAY out in the middle of nowhere :)

Woodstock Country Orchard. A fun place to pick apples and raspberries.

Charlie woke up, but was a little groggy:

My friend Heather with Tabitha:

It was nice to get out and spend the morning doing something as a family, even if Eli was grouchy for about half of it and Charlie was snoozing. We were all together! :)