Tanner's Orchard

On the 6th we took a family trip to Tanner's Orchard to celebrate the beginning of the Harvest season. In the past, we would have gone to the local orchard, The Apple Barn, but it closed some years back and now it takes nearly an hour to reach one. Last year Freyja was pretty tiny and most likely wouldn't have enjoyed the experience much, so we decided to buy apples and pumpkins and other seasonal things at a farm produce stand in town instead, but this year we thought she would like it, so we took the trip. We'd actually never been to Tanner's Orchard, and it was nice! There were all kinds of things to do. They had covered wagon rides into the apple orchard for people who wanted to pick their own fruit, and lots of children's activities....a corn maze, a huge playground, a petting zoo, and lots of cute displays using pumpkins and gourds to recreate popular cartoon and book characters (such as a Wizard of Oz scene with Dorothy, the Tin Man, the CowardlyLion, and the Scarecrow...all with pumpkin heads....pretty hilarious!) They also had a nice market which sold apple products made from the fruit of their own orchard, as well as other farm-prepared foods, harvest decorations, and a huge selection of pumpkins and seasonal flowers, mostly different varieties of mums.

Freyja seemed to enjoy herself! She spent a lot of time walking around in the huge field of pumpkins, touching them, leaning, and climbing on them. One of her new words is "ball", and she kept yelling it every time she pointed at a pumpkin. What can I say? It looks like a ball! I also took her on the wagon tide into the orchard, and at one point we got out and walked across one row together while she held my hand. She's not quite walking by herself, but almost! She carefully walked from one tree to another, touching the fruit and saying "apple!"...also one of her new favorite words. I think she picked that up from all the applesauce and apple slices she eats! But, it was cute to see that she understood what was hanging from those little trees. We also had a chance to see some animals, and she was totally psyched (although I think a little freaked out too!) about the Emu, which she'd never seen before.

Although Tanner's had some great pumpkins, we decided to stick with apples and farm goods from the orchard and buy our pumpkins locally. But, we did come home with a lot of goodies and spent some really nice time outside in the fresh autumn air!