Flashback Friday

To avoid another fun-filled day of cabin fever, we decided to take the boys to Becker Farms and go apple picking.

The day started off pretty cool and the house was pretty cold so I made sure to bundle the boys up in warm clothing for the experience. Boy was that a mistake. Mike warned me and I should have listened. By the time we go to the apple orchard, it was pretty clear that I had dressed the boys inappropriately. We only stayed for about an hour or so because the boys and I were absolutely miserable in the heat.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the experience….

Walking in towards the farm…away from the parking area:

First we explored the little area where they had pumpkins on display:

There were signs all over the place that instructed the parents to keep their kids off the hay bales…which I promptly ignored in an attempt to get a good shot of the boys:

Ian found a pumpkin that he wanted to bring home:

Those pictures reminded me of a series of pictures from our last Becker Farm visit (September 2007):

After visiting with the pumpkins, Mike and Ian purchased bags to take with us when we went apple picking.

Matthew and I explored while we waited for them:

After they got our bags, we stood in line to take the tractor ride out to the apple orchard.

Ian standing in line and in complete denial about the fact that he’s going to be forced to face his fear of tractors:

I had to do some fast talking to get Ian on the tractor and he still made a scene. I promised him I’d hold him tight and make sure he was completely safe. Here we are on the wagon. Notice he’s assessing the situation?

Mike and Matthew

After about 3.5 seconds of tractor-riding, Ian decided it was the coolest thing on Earth. I bet everyone’s really surprised about that, right? lol

Once at the orchard, Ian got right to work finding the best apples to take home with us.

Matthew got right to work looking for apples that were disgusting and rotting on the ground. He had a real eye for it….

Ian particularly liked when he got to pick an apple that was way up high:

I got in on the action too!

We had lots of fun but the heat of the sun was wearing on us pretty bad. None of us had sunscreen on and Matthew was dying in the fleece pants he had on.

We made the long trek back to the tractor ride and then headed back to the car for the long, air-conditioned drive back home.

Last weekend, Ian and Matthew were feeling under the weather so we stayed in all day Saturday. After nap time, everyone was feeling a little stir-crazy so we drove down to Orchard Park and went to Chestnut Ridge Park. We found a pretty awesome playground and the boys had a great time.

The playground we visited was dedicated in honor of Jim Kelly’s son Hunter who died in 2005:

It was a really cool playground. Totally worth the drive:

Matthew looooved the wood chips (imaging me rolling my eyes here):

Ian looooved this climbing, ladder thingy:

Matthew found this stick and we realized he’d “play” fetch with it. 🙂

You already saw that Matthew enjoyed the slide (a few posts back):

Ian liked it too:

Mike and I liked the slide because it made for silly, static-y hair pictures!

It was a really cool park [read: Ian threw a massive fit when we had to leave. The better the park, the bigger the fit!] so I’m sure we’ll be back again. 🙂