Apple Hill

At the beginning of this month we took off work and daycare on a Thursday and visited Apple Hill with our friends Drew and Darren. It was nice to go on a low-key day; the weekend is always crazy, but in a couple years we're going to have to start going on the weekends again because some of the kid-friendly attractions are closed on the weekdays. 

This was Evey's second Apple Hill trip and I'm so glad we went again and I am excited to make this an annual thing. The drive is long, it's about 2 1/2 hours, but it's very worth the scenery, food, and fall photo ops. 

We first went to High Hill, which is the largest of all the ranches/orchards/farms. We ate lunch, perused the craft vendors, and took some lovely photos.

 

After High Hill we went to Denver Dan's where we bought pie and apple sauce. We also decided to stop and do photos. We took a bunch of Drew and Darren but I won't post them here because it was hard enough just to let us take pictures of them! But they in turn took some cute shots of us.

After Denver Dan's we drove to Rainbow Orchard, a place we've been to multiple times before. Two years ago when we visited, I have memories of purchasing apple cider and then being extremely sad after reading "unpasteurized" on the label! I was newly pregnant and so bummed I couldn't have any! But, we did give that bottle of cider to some cute little girls, so I felt better about it. 

Last year, my favorite memory of that place was nursing Evey on the hay bales! On the blog I remember stating that it was my favorite place I'd ever nursed her, and a year later, it still is! 

This year, we took a picture of Evey on the same trailer we did last year. There's only a few differences in the way she looks;)

After Rainbow we headed to Grandpa's Cellar, our last Apple Hill stop. Like Denver Dan's, we'd never been there, but it was a family favorite of Darren's. We are apple pie a la mode and perused the cute gift shop.

It was a long day, but totally worth it, and our drive back was decent until we hit some heavy traffic in Tahoe. No big shakes, Evey had napped for a little while, so there were no traffic melt-downs;)

I can't wait until next year!

Great Reno Balloon Race

Man, I am so behind! We went to the Balloon Race a month ago! Whatever, I've got awesome pics to show for it, so it's all good. 

So, I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:45am to get ready for the races and we all left at 4:30 so we could get a good spot, or so we thought. We brought along Evey's stroller and wagon, neither of which is allowed on the field where we usually sit, so we had to sit behind the rope, which was already jam packed full of people! 

So, next year we will be leaving earlier, although I can't say we'll have less stuff, we might leave the stroller behind and just plop Evey in the wagon. So yah, 3:30 wake up call for everyone and a 4am leave time, woo hoo! I'm up for it, Evey's a morning person, I can't say that Chris necessarily is, but he's very easy going, so I think we'll manage! 

First on the ballon race docket was the glow show. A little segue way here, everything is always the same at the balloon races, ALWAYS, yet we always go and always take the same pictures, but we love it and now have a new person we can take along who will be experiencing it differently each year for a while, so that makes it even more exciting:) Anyway, so the glow show was great, and Evey seemed to be interested, at least she didn't act like she wasn't, and she wasn't pissy, so win-win!

Next up is Dawn Patrol where six balloons launch at, you guessed it, dawn! It's apparently tricky business flying a balloon in the dark, and they try their damnedest to stay close together, so kudos to the pilots!

After Dawn Patrol comes the Mass Ascension where all of the balloons lift off! It's awesome to be around a crap ton of hot air balloons as they fill up and fly into the sky.

 

Evey seemed genuinely interested and I have a great video of her pointing at the balloons and saying something quite observant in Eveyish (her language, of course), which none of us understand, so, alas, her wisdom and wit were lost on us.

Did you know that it's Smokey Bear and not Smokey the Bear? I leaned something new that day.

Love the balloon races, and we really loved the unseasonably warm weather which was great because we usually bundle up in many layers under many blankets.

Evey fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the car and Chris decided to ride the wagon down a steep hill at UNR. Yep, I made a video of him doing it and someone nearby asked why I didn't follow suit and ride the stroller down the hill...

We then went to Peg's for breakfast and waited a while for a table, and then for our food, which is typical for that busy joint, but it gave Evey time to scope out apartments (she said she was moving out when all of her teeth came in, we said she should probably wait until she doesn't need to hold our hands to walk). And then we all ate tons of wonderful food and went home for family nap that lasted two hours and forty five minutes; it was a good day!