Miller’s Big Red Cider Mill & Orchards

I had my first real apple and pumpkin picking experience last weekend! And by real, I mean I actually picked the fruit off of trees and stems myself.

Fun Fact: Did you know the pumpkin is technically a fruit, not a vegetable? It’s true, friends. But we’ll get back to that in a minute.

Back to Half Marathon Training (sort of)

My Sunday started with coffee and a light breakfast. Scott had rehearsal at the arena, so I was on my own until about mid-afternoon.

I wanted to go to church, but I woke up a little too late to go if I still wanted to get my training run in.

Wait, what? Training run?

Yup. I’m officially running half marathon #3 in less than two weeks!

I’m not training as hardcore as I did last time, but I’m still completing at least two shorter runs during the week with a long run on the weekends.

Against my better judgement, I went for ten miles after not running for a week and partly struggled. I did a four mile loop, came back home to grab water and a Gu chomp, then set back out for six more.

I ended up walking every now and then, so I need to get back out there and work on that if I am hoping to break the 2 hour mark this time around! I’ll be sure to sporadically update you on how training is going.

Miller’s Big Red Cider Mill & Orchards

I returned home with enough time to stretch, foam roll, and refuel with lunch before needing to get ready to visit a new-to-us cider mill!

We originally set out to go to Blake’s Farms, which is a cider mill and orchard Scott and I made a trip over to for a Haunted Hay Ride last year.

We were tight on time, so we opted to check out a closer one called Miller’s Big Red Farms.

Who knew Big Red would provide all of our fall entertainment in one place?

We started off with a trip inside for warm cider and donuts, obviously.

Donuts are a “hole” food, right? The cinnamon sugar ones are good, but I have always preferred my donuts naked. I know I’m probably alone there.

With happy bellies, we set off for our apple picking adventure by boarding a hay-filled tractor.

We quickly arrived to our first stop, the apple orchards.

Each row of apples was labeled and we did our best to find the good ones!

Of course, the best picks were unreachable.

Good thing Scott came to the rescue with his (hilarious) long and sharp apple picking stick.

That thing was awesome and dangerous. Mostly dangerous because the boys ended up playing “orchard ball” with it and loose apples.

Embarrassing.

And… so is Scott’s “I’m a hot dog” stance.

(There we go. He loves it.)

Alex and Alex, on the other hand, have the “let’s be cute everywhere we go” thing down pretty good.

I was expecting to be able to pick apples, but I had no idea there would also be a pumpkin patch. I was a little too giddy when I heard about the pumpkin patch stop on our tractor ride!

Look Ma, I picked out my own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch!

Isn’t she beautiful?

The pumpkins were surprisingly heavy. Well, I guess that shouldn’t have been too surprising. Maybe I should just say the pumpkins were heavy.

The girls handled the apples and we left the pumpkin carrying to the boys.

We headed back to the tractor and made our final stop at the corn maze!

I had never been in a corn maze before, so I was happy to hop at the chance. Only… this one was pretty short.

You could see everyone around you, which kind of defeats the purpose of the “maze” part of a corn maze.

Oh well! It was still fun.

Scott thought it would be cute to take this photo, so at least that was a win.

We grabbed our fall goodies and walked towards the parking lot to drop them off. We noticed there was a petting zoo on our way there and quickly returned to check it out!

Animals will always have a soft spot on my heart. <3

The end of the row took us to a giant hay stack! I had never seen one this big in person before. Have you?

I shared this picture on my Facebook page and one of my friends asked if we raced those little kids to the top. My answer was:

“No, but Scott almost knocked me off of it when he impulsively did a handstand.” True story.

(Right before the incident we don’t speak of.)

Scott had another practice to get to at the arena, so we were on a time crunch to get back to our area. The three of us dropped him off and picked dinner up at the Whole Foods hot bar (<- yum!) to take home before pumpkin carving.

Welp… I found two things out that night.

1. I’m not very good with scaling my pumpkin carving designs.

2. I’m horrible at roasting pumpkin seeds.

(There’s a drafted post you’ll never see.)

It doesn’t look bad from afar, but up close it’s a real disaster. Especially now, a few days in. The letters have gotten weaker and are all caved in.

What does Cher reference in Clueless? A “full-on Monet”?

Ha… yes, that’s exactly what it was.

Dang. I really need to step it up in the fall crafting department.

Scott got out of practice right before 9 p.m. and while we should have called it a night, we all decided to go see a movie instead.

It was SO good!

I didn’t read Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, but I heard everyone raving about it. I won’t give anything away… but I wouldn’t be surprised if a sequel happens. That ending! (Gasp!)

So yeah, that was our Sunday. Now you can probably see why I drew the normal weekend recap out to two posts. I was a little overwhelmed.

It was a busy weekend filled with fun to-dos, but I’m so glad we took the time get outside and enjoy every moment of it!

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I hope you all are having a great Tuesday so far.

I’ll see you back here a little later with a new healthy snack recipe!

 

Questions of the Morning

• Have you ever been apple or pumpkin patch picking?

• What is your favorite kind of apple?

I am a fan of ALL the apples! Scott’s favorite is Braeburn apples, then Honey Crisps. I like both of those, but also buy Golden Delicious green ones on occasion. I love sour Granny Smith apples, but I have to be in the mood for them. Overall, I will pretty much eat any apple you give me!