We Got the Honey Crisp!

That's a Honey Crisp!

I think every year we miss the short window for the Honey Crisp apples. This year by some miracle of schedules, we were able to get to Michigan just in time for the tail end of the Honey Crisp picking season. And boy, take a bite of a Honey Crisp apple and you really know why you don't want to miss that window. Hailey especially is a connoisseur of apples and requests them daily in her lunch. It's her favorite fruit. 

So in our short trek to Michigan this past weekend (in between soccer practice and cheerleading and soccer games as well as a charity soccer tennis tournament), we squeezed in some apple picking at our favorite Crane's Orchards. Kind of like our tree cutting tradition, Tom and I have been going to Crane's since before our kids were born. We've enjoyed picking a wide variety of apples, having our kids ride the cow tractor (I'm glad they are too big for that now as it was a bumpy ride for the adults when they were too small to go by themselves) and feasting on apple cider donuts and fresh pressed apple cider. 

As our kids have gotten older, we've enjoyed the corn maze. This year was a bit tougher of a maze to figure out. Per usual there were 10 marker posts that you must find by answering the questions correctly. Number 8 is always so hard to find - we have no problem completing the first half of the maze in 15-20 minutes but it's the second half that we get stuck on. And of course there's always a few antics like hiding in the tall corn stalks and jumping out and scaring the other siblings or parent and then seeing who is going to take charge and be the leader (we found this year that Austen is a terrible follower - he likes to take the lead even when it's not his turn!). 

But it was a gorgeous day, we got in our Honey Crisp apples and picked some Jonathan apples for pie baking before taking on the corn maze and then enjoying the donuts and cider. 

After, we ventured to Big Lakes Brewing Company in Holland for some food and a cool flight of beers. It's going to be quick weekends when we go up to Michigan now because of fall sports but I'm sure glad we got our Honey Crisp apple picking in!

So much taller than last year!

Parents have fun too!

Hailey always with a stuffed animal in hand

We need Hailey to reach the high ones

Trying to figure out how to get out of the maze

A moment of getting along

Big Lakes Brewing flight of beers