This life is always beautiful: Its Apple Picking Time!

Disclaimer: It was not supposed to be 100 degrees today....not after the fall week we had last year.

Today, we visited a new orchard in the area. It was sooo much fun. We have been to lots of different ones in the past years and have without a doubt had a blast at all of them...but this one. Wow. This one blew the others out of the water! If you live in the DSM area, and have children, you MUST go to Center Point Orchard. We were there for over 4 hours and could have easily spent another 3 there. Easily. I didnt realize it would be soo hot today and the website said they had food so I didnt pack a lunch (plus I thought we'd be there an hour tops-not 4) so we had to eat an apple cider donut and apples off the trees....healthy. See the pics to see the fun! There were only about 10 other kids there (but the place is SO Huge that you felt like you were completely alone.)

Check out her face in these. She thought this cow milking was TOTALLY GROSS and weird.

this poor little dude had a bunch of leaves trapped in his horns and he couldnt see....I was too scared to help clean them out!

haha hahah hahaha.

What is more fun than a corn pool?? Corn Angels, jumping, covering herself with corn. She was COVERED in corn dust at the end of this but it was her favorite part of the day I think!

Even almost 4 year old girlies need to hold mama's hand sometimes!

This was a jumping pillow! HUGE and she loved it!!!

This slide was amazing.....maybe 300 feet long...HUGE! You can see the whole thing in the background of another picture! She LOVED it!

We went through a cornmaze. My first ever. I always wanted to do one. Never again. I was FREAKED OUT. It was over 4 acres and frankly, I was terrified after about 5 minutes. They gave you this little card that had pictures on it and then drop you off. At some of the dead ends there was a wooden "picture" like a wooden pig, hay bale etc. and a paper punch to mark that you found it. We only found 5. We started out in good spirits. The guy said he'd be back in a half hour and if we were not done then he'd be back later to check..I should have taken that as a sign. Lunch time. Hungry. Thirsty. Hot. Nap time. Tired. Corn Maze.....hmmmm....smart move. #momfail After a bit I started getting VERY claustraphobic. And scared. I could hear the tractor but couldnt see a dang thing and had no cell reception (thought about calling 911 to come get us out.) and I couldnt see how long we'd been in there because my phone was being weird. I swore it had been hours and hours. I was near tears. VE was hot and tired and she'd say "I want out of here." and then I'd whine and say "you know what? Me too. Im hot, tired, hungry, thirsty, my feet hurt, this corn is itchy and there are bugs. Dont whine to me." poor thing. We finally found our way out (obviously, since Im blogging) but it was not a fun time. I thought for sure we were bound to be in a lifetime movie..."lost in a cornmaze." I kept thinking for sure someone would come along but because it was on a monday morning it was dead there (kinda like I thought we were gonna be...dead) so no one else was in the cornmaze. I kept thinking "no one even knows we're here....I didnt tell anyone.....we'll never be found....ever." We got out and the guy who dropped us off there took the tractor back to the front so we could get food (donuts?) and water. He could tell we were miserable and angry. See the progression of faces on the pics. I can laugh now....then, I was so mad.

After the ridiculous maze experience, we got a bite and drinks and headed to pick apples! This was fun, relaxing, in the shade...nice! We even ate a few. ;)