Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Gilcrease Orchard, Year #5

This was our fifth year of our traditional visit to Gilcrease Orchard, and still remains one of my favorite traditions of all our holidays, hands down.  I absolutely love fall, and each visit sort of solidifies the arrival of the season and kicks off our start of holiday events for the remainder of the year!  We've gotten smart over the years, and visited the orchard early in the month this year, and nice and early in the AM.  We arrived around 10ish and the crowds were light, which never happens, so we were instantly excited to see the lower number of people and that the weather was shaping up to be gorgeous!

We went straight to picking our pumpkins, as we know it can get super hot as the day goes on, so we made our trek down to the patches.  On our way, Nolan had to stop to climb and take his picture with the cool tractor cut out: 




Once we reached the pumpkin patch, Nolan didn't waste any time, and got to selecting his perfect pumpkin with Grandma helping out.  He was really into it this year which made it super fun and exciting for not only him, but us watching him, too!  He found a cute oval one at first, but did a lot of switching throughout the searching.  




He loved taking his pictures by the pumpkins and kept sitting on different ones, asking, "Mommy, picture please!" So of course, I snapped away.




As he continued searching, Acelyn woke up from her nap and wanted to join in.  We let her touch and see the pumpkins for the first time, and she was super serious about them and wasn't quite sure what to think (or why we were sitting her down in dirt).






After a little convincing, we got Nolan to sit with his sissy and take some a.dor.ab.le sibling pictures, which I hope we can continue every year we come!  Acelyn loves her brother SO much and can always be found watching his every move.  She wasn't too fond of us trying to make her smile, but Nolan was cheesin' it up!







Acelyn continued to check out some pumpkins, picking her favorites to add to our collection, while Nolan and Daddy ran up and down the aisle while they waited.







Once we picked all of our favorite type of pumpkins for each member of our family, we loaded them in the wheelbarrow and packed the kiddos in with it.  While Acelyn rode in her stroller, Nolan took a ride with Daddy as he pulled the pumpkins to the line to pay.  On our way back, we snapped some family pictures and Nolan spotted the tractor... which is all he talked about and was distracted by the rest of the way back.  







We convinced him we needed to grab some donuts before we could ride, and although we were ready to split up to pay and grab our spot in the usual long line for donuts, we were shocked to see how short both lines were!  We literally walked right up to both with no waiting... amazing!  This never happens, so you can guarantee we're planning on coming back early like this every year from now on!  We chowed down on our favorite donuts and drank some yummy apple cider while Acelyn also had her meal, and then waited for the tractor to make its way toward us at the pickup spot.  



When the tractor pulled up, we made our way on to fulfill Nolan's dream of the day by riding it!  Jason skipped out and decided to load the pumpkins and all of our stuff back in the car while we took a ride around.  Nolan was pumped and loved everything about it!  Acelyn had a blast, too, and got a lot of her energy out with the wind blowing gently in her face, which cracked her up.  She continued her love fest with her brother, and kept bugging him, but he wanted nothing to do with it as he was so focused on all things tractor!

















After driving around the entire orchard, (parts of which we didn't even knew existed!) we sadly had to say "Bye!" to the tractor and made our way back to the car.  Before we left, we snapped some pictures in front of the barn, just like every year, and I plan to make these our traditional photos with the kiddos, hoping that the mural changes every few years like it has in the past, so we can get some great time warp photos through the years!  




It was a great day with everything turning out great- the crowds, the weather, the food, and our experience.  Yet again, more memories were made at one of my favorite places to ring in the start of holiday season!  Happy Fall!

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