Apple Picking

Our here, General Conference doesn't start until noon, so we decided to go out and try some apple picking at Applecrest Farms, because apparently the apple cider donuts are to die for.

When we got there, Oliver was really excited about the pumpkins. He loves them!

However, when he discovered that we got to ride a TRACTOR to go over and pick apples, and tractor definitely beat the pumpkins!

I know, you can't see the excitement at all, but he was quite focused on how amazing it was...

After the tractor ride Oliver was all for picking apples and had no patience for the people telling us which apples would be better than others.  We came really early in the picking season, so a lot of the apples weren't as good because we hadn't really had any good cold nights yet.  Oliver didn't seem to care, and one of the apple ladies helped him help himself to an apple.

He liked his apple so much that he decided to share it with Camilla.

We took Camilla in the stroller both to keep her warm and so that she could hopefully take a nap.  She stayed warm, and she at least got a little doze in there.  And Oliver took a ride too.

I love how our stroller can sort of be a double stroller.  Wouldn't work for jogging, but it sure works for walks to get ice cream or walking in an apple orchard.  Until the slopes get to bad, but luckily Oliver is good at getting right back up on the horse, right?

Oliver and I wore our rain boots that we got for Easter because it was a pretty gray day.  We were lucky, because Oliver decided to go bobbing for apples in the tractor ruts.

I was keeping a good eye on him, but then our friends we were with decided to do a fun climbing to get those special "top of the tree" apples, and Matthias called me away to take pictures of them.

As I was taking pictures, we heard a splash, and poor Oliver was soaked.  I did have a diaper and a spare pair of pants (just out of habit. I think he's only ever wet himself in public once though...he's really good!), but we figured that we should wait until we were done so that he wouldn't have to ride home (and fall asleep) in wet pants. He wasn't as comfortable after that, and didn't like walking around in wet socks and boots, so Matthias carried him for much of the rest of the time.  Some other friends of ours got there with their kiddos, and Oliver got down for a little bit, but didn't want to walk around barefoot, so then we decided it was time to go.  We had our expensive bag of apples, and wanted to get home in time for Conference.

Oliver was really excited for the tractor ride back to the pumpkin patch, and he just looked so cute there with his little bare feet (he totally has Matthias's feet.  Let's pray that he can keep his toe nails!). Sorry for the awkward picture angles, but I was trying to hold onto the stroller while taking pictures on a moving tractor...

When it was time to get off of the tractor, Oliver did NOT want to leave.

But eventually we aimed him back over to the pumpkins. 

And because Camilla was so good, we let her take pictures with the pumpkins too.

Meanwhile we lost Oliver who wanted to ride on the tractor again.

We finally got him back to the pumpkins and our friends took a family portrait of us that I just love because of our kids' faces!

Oliver has such an adorable smile that is hard to catch on camera these days, so that little cheesy grin just melts my heart!  And Camilla is doing her melt-your-heart gaze.  She is so busy taking in everything around her, and that gaze just captivates anyone passing by. I also love how you can see how demolished Oliver's apple is. He ended up eating half of the core.

We had some amazingly fresh apple cider donuts, that were amazing.  Seriously.  Oliver loved them too.  Oliver fell asleep in the car on the way home (with dry pants and a diaper on, *whew*) and Camilla was happy as could be. We got home in time for the second half of the Saturday morning session of Conference.  Conference was amazing, as always.  If you haven't, then you should watch, read, or listen to it now.  I know I'm going to do probably a little bit of all three even though I watched them all! Oliver's favorite part was the choir (hi, Aunt Beth!), especially when they sang "I am a Child of God".  We also had a proud moment when President Monson (the living Prophet of God) got up to speak and Oliver said "Monson!" and did a little dance of excitement.

Easter Pictures

Take a look at our little Easter boy!

Such a stud, wouldn’t you say?  

Our friends Janny and Brian came over for Easter dinner, so we exchanged taking each others’ family pictures.  We had planned on doing it at the first snowfall, but that happened after they were already out west visiting family, so now we’re doing first sign of spring, right?

Finally some pregnant pictures, right?  I’m strangely not too sentimental about this state of being.  I’m ready to be able to give all of myself to my family and house again.  But the fact that our next family pictures will have our precious little girl in them makes it all worth it.

You know you want to see how much fun it is trying to get an almost 2-year old to take family pictures, right?

Airplane!

I guess I was oblivious to this little fight…or at least pretending to be.

Belly Button!

Rawr!

The occasional toss-up.

Car!

Profile pic….yeah.  P.S.  25ish lbs of baby weight and almost 30 pounds of Oliver.

Tickles.

Awww!

“Dad, that guy’s trying to make me smile”

Squishy kisses.

Baby going CRAZY!

We did take pictures right before dinner.  Bad idea for Oliver, good idea for his clothes.  

I love our little family!

Canobie Lake Park

Last summer we missed Matthias's company summer outing, which was a short cruise along Boston Harbor, due to Oliver being a newborn.  We were much happier to have Oliver than any cruise could have made us, but we were definitely glad to be able to make it to this year's summer outing at Canobie Lake Park!

We were a little late due to a schedule conflict with a Primary Teacher Appreciation brunch (if only someone in the presidency would have asked us first!).  But we made it in time for the food (which Oliver loved), and then we got to stroll around the park.  Being fresh from Six Flags on our vacation in California, the rides all looked like Carnival rides, so we didn't mind not having to figure out what to do with Oliver while we went on the rides, and we just enjoyed the atmosphere and had a really fun and relaxing afternoon strolling around teh park.

I hope I've posted enough pictures!

 Oliver tried on an astronaut suit.

The amusement park was literally on the lake.  It's always amazing to me how a body of water is so peaceful and calming, even with an amusement park right behind you!

A not-so-great family photo, but it's the best we had.

The Antique Carousel built in 1902.  Isn't the intricacy amazing?

The wooden coasters weren't too tempting, but they were beautiful!

Oliver in the Stocks.  I love the irony of his sweet angelic face.

Notice Oliver's zombie face.

Daddy and Oliver in front of the Zombies.  Be careful or the zombies will eat your brains.

It was a hair-raising experience.

This dragon ride looked a lot like the Dumbo ride at Disneyland.  There were also teacups, the swings, and all sorts of rides that Oliver will love when he's a few years older.

Water Bubblers are what they call drinking fountain.  Also, a shopping cart is a carriage.

As I was trying to adjust my manual focus to take a picture of this beautiful bird,

I totally missed getting Oliver's excitement in focus.

I love that boy!

He was skeptical at first, but then he grew to like the dinosaur.

Not sure how he felt about walking in his new shoes.  We've let him go barefoot for so long, and this was actually his first time walking outside with shoes on.

There was a cute bandstand with live music.  I love that they are all old and have the bandstand uniforms.  If only they had those short and flat hats!  Notice that the trombone player was also the lead singer.  

A preview of fall foliage.

The ferris wheel we tried to figure out how to take a stroller on.

There was giant food everywhere.  Giant hot dogs, giant popcorn...

Oliver posing with the King of Pop.

Matthias and the fake DDR

Oliver loved riding the carousel!  I was amazed at how fast it went for being so old, but Oliver just loved it!

It was a long day for this poor boy without much of a nap.  He's wet from drinking from a cup because we thought for sure that there would be bottled water at the catered meal, so we saved our cups on the stroller and kept filling them up.  They provided us with our own water ride as we took our jogging stroller on all terrains!

We got fake fried dough.  Apparently we need to try the real thing now.  (Remember the giant food thing?  It was seriously everywhere!)

And then we left to get this poor boy home.  He was such a good sport, and wherever we take him, we get comment after comment on what a cute boy he is, and he brings smiles to so many friends and strangers.  That has got to be exhausting!  No wonder he was so tired!