Today Matthew and I took the kids out to Hood River to drive part of the Fruit Loop, a 35 mile scenic loop with 34 farms and winery's along the way. None of us had ever been and we chose this weekend to go because they were advertising a Gravenstein apple festival and special activities at a lot of the farms.
The first farm we stopped at was called Ramussen Farms which was a small, older farm. The kids did a scavenger hunt to find different items around the farm - an orange chair, a pink flamingo, and a old time coffee press were a few of the things we checked off our list. They also had a corn maze with a cute (but very hokey) story about Johnny Appleseed around every turn. I didn't take any pictures here, and we left just a little disappointed with what they had to offer.
Our next farm cheered us up though! We stopped a few miles down the road at Cody Farms, a very neat clean farm with very friendly people. I think they were mostly family, and you could tell they all really had a passion for farming. Our first stop here was at an apple press, where we helped make some fresh apple cider. There were two people cutting the apples, and they would throw them in the box and Killian and Matthew would grind them down:
After that bucket on the bottom was full, they put a lid on it that attached to that tall handle and started cranking. The lid lowered and pressed all the juice out of the apples into a waiting pot below:
It was so delicious! It sure isn't very efficient though - it took a lot of apples to fill that pan with just a couple inches of juice. After we had a couple sips of juice, we headed over to the tractor ride that was about to start. The kids waiting anxiously:
My two handsome guys:
They drove us through the orchard, talking about different trees and about the struggles of farming. It was interesting, but also really sad. These farmers work their whole lives, and struggle to bring us our fresh local fruit, but they are so underpaid that many of them don't make much of a profit, if any. We talked a lot about the importance of buying local, and always buying fruits and veggies from the USA. This fell right in line with what Matthew and I have decided to try to do, eat locally and seasonally. Sometimes I buypass local fruit in favor of organic fruit, which is always a struggle for me - I want to support local farmers, but with a history of cancer, pesticide free food is more important to me. I get really excited when I can find local and organic food! Anyways, one thing that the farmers daughter told us that really surprised me was that the pears they sell this August they wont get paid for until next August! They wont know how many pounds made it through the sorting at the plant or what the price is that they will get for each pound. She said farmers live on loans, trying to make it from one year to the next. I was shocked...boy does our country have its priorities in the wrong place :(
After the hayride we headed out to the next farm, called Draper Girls Country Farm. It was another well kept farm, very cute and also very crowded. I was a little disappointed that we didn't find anywhere to upick, this was the first farm that offered it, but they didn't allow opened toes shoes (Rowan and I were wearing flip flops) and you had to use ladders. They did have free horse rides, so when the kids saw that they forgot about everything else and we headed straight over. There wasn't any line, so they hopped right on. They took them for a short walk around an orchard, I love this picture of the kids heading out:
Killian just loved it, he is so interested in horses lately, and riding twice in less than a week is really increased his desire to be around them.
Rowan looked SO small up there! The girl guiding the horse kept saying that she was so amazed that Rowan wasn't scared at all for being so young - we may just have a cowgirl in the making :)
The only other thing we did here was feed a couple of goats and a sheep a little bag of grain. The sheep was very sweet and Rowan enjoyed feeding him through the fence:
The goat was a little more pushy, butting Matthew and me with his horns when we tried to pet him - he was only interested in FOOD! He was still really cute:
At this point we were all starving, and decided to backtrack and take a shortcut to the other side of the fruit loop to a place called Apple Valley Country Store and Bakery. On the way we turned a corner and captured this picture of Mt. Hood - I hadn't realized we were so close to it!
It was so beautiful up there, surrounded by country, orchards and mountains. I would love to live there if they didn't have such extreme weather in the winter. Its windy, icy and really snowy, something that beautiful views cant quite make up for!
Our stomachs were happy when we got to the country store, they had a great selection of BBQ food, and a great old guy playing guitar and singing warbly old country songs. While we were eating, Killian spied a tire swing so as soon as we finished the kids ran over to it and climbed on. They loved it, and each took a couple turns by themselves and then once together. They got going pretty high on it - I wish we had a good place for a tire swing here!
Rowan had a little bit of a meltdown while waiting for her turn on the swing. I asked her if she wanted her picture taken in front of an old tractor, and she walked over there but stood there with her arms crossed and a super grouchy look:
I started asking her to give me her best grouchy face, which made her smile, much to her dismay - she still wanted to be grumpy:
I said that wasn't grouchy enough, that I wanted to see a super duper, grumpy grouchy face and that whatever she did - she better not smile!! She was in trouble after that - nothing could keep her from smiling!
She is so cute this one - such a little firecracker, but you cant help but smile around her. After we were done swinging we headed inside the store to get the kids and ice cream cone. Killian chose strawberry, and Rowan chose sherbet. They sat outside for a minute in these old chairs, I don't know if they were barber shop chairs, dentist chairs or what...but they sure were ancient!
Then the swing opened up and I swung with them as they finished their cones:
We stopped at one last place but had failed to read that they wouldn't be opening until September, so we decided to head home. On the way, Rowan made up the silliest nonsense song and sang it full volume as we drove down the road. She kept singing that "It does not produce" and we never got out of her what it was that wasn't producing. She is such a riot. Killian had fun singing along with her, they make a great team. I have noticed in the last couple weeks that he has really been trying to have fun with her, the arguments are way less and they are really enjoying their time together. It makes me really happy, and makes days like this so much more fun for everyone!
On the way home we decided to stop at Multnomah Falls.
We haven't been here in years, and I don't think Rowan has ever been. We didn't have the energy left to climb the mile to the top, but we did climb .2 miles to the little bridge that goes over the stream coming from the waterfall. We stopped at this log along the way where Killian wanted to have his picture taken. Rowan decided she wanted to be in the picture, and struck this funny little pose:
It was so pretty, but very crowded. We headed back down to the base of the falls, and had a guy take our picture before we left. I love my family <3
We got home exhausted, but happy - this was one of those nearly perfect days were everyone has fun and enjoys each others company. I love taking day trips and road trips with the kids and Matthew. It seems like we don't do it as much as we could, and today really inspired me to start looking for more opportunities like this. I love that we can be together and make such great memories together. I am so thankful today to have my wonderful family together, and for being healthy, happy and loved!
The first farm we stopped at was called Ramussen Farms which was a small, older farm. The kids did a scavenger hunt to find different items around the farm - an orange chair, a pink flamingo, and a old time coffee press were a few of the things we checked off our list. They also had a corn maze with a cute (but very hokey) story about Johnny Appleseed around every turn. I didn't take any pictures here, and we left just a little disappointed with what they had to offer.
Our next farm cheered us up though! We stopped a few miles down the road at Cody Farms, a very neat clean farm with very friendly people. I think they were mostly family, and you could tell they all really had a passion for farming. Our first stop here was at an apple press, where we helped make some fresh apple cider. There were two people cutting the apples, and they would throw them in the box and Killian and Matthew would grind them down:
After that bucket on the bottom was full, they put a lid on it that attached to that tall handle and started cranking. The lid lowered and pressed all the juice out of the apples into a waiting pot below:
It was so delicious! It sure isn't very efficient though - it took a lot of apples to fill that pan with just a couple inches of juice. After we had a couple sips of juice, we headed over to the tractor ride that was about to start. The kids waiting anxiously:
My two handsome guys:
They drove us through the orchard, talking about different trees and about the struggles of farming. It was interesting, but also really sad. These farmers work their whole lives, and struggle to bring us our fresh local fruit, but they are so underpaid that many of them don't make much of a profit, if any. We talked a lot about the importance of buying local, and always buying fruits and veggies from the USA. This fell right in line with what Matthew and I have decided to try to do, eat locally and seasonally. Sometimes I buypass local fruit in favor of organic fruit, which is always a struggle for me - I want to support local farmers, but with a history of cancer, pesticide free food is more important to me. I get really excited when I can find local and organic food! Anyways, one thing that the farmers daughter told us that really surprised me was that the pears they sell this August they wont get paid for until next August! They wont know how many pounds made it through the sorting at the plant or what the price is that they will get for each pound. She said farmers live on loans, trying to make it from one year to the next. I was shocked...boy does our country have its priorities in the wrong place :(
After the hayride we headed out to the next farm, called Draper Girls Country Farm. It was another well kept farm, very cute and also very crowded. I was a little disappointed that we didn't find anywhere to upick, this was the first farm that offered it, but they didn't allow opened toes shoes (Rowan and I were wearing flip flops) and you had to use ladders. They did have free horse rides, so when the kids saw that they forgot about everything else and we headed straight over. There wasn't any line, so they hopped right on. They took them for a short walk around an orchard, I love this picture of the kids heading out:
Killian just loved it, he is so interested in horses lately, and riding twice in less than a week is really increased his desire to be around them.
Rowan looked SO small up there! The girl guiding the horse kept saying that she was so amazed that Rowan wasn't scared at all for being so young - we may just have a cowgirl in the making :)
The only other thing we did here was feed a couple of goats and a sheep a little bag of grain. The sheep was very sweet and Rowan enjoyed feeding him through the fence:
The goat was a little more pushy, butting Matthew and me with his horns when we tried to pet him - he was only interested in FOOD! He was still really cute:
At this point we were all starving, and decided to backtrack and take a shortcut to the other side of the fruit loop to a place called Apple Valley Country Store and Bakery. On the way we turned a corner and captured this picture of Mt. Hood - I hadn't realized we were so close to it!
It was so beautiful up there, surrounded by country, orchards and mountains. I would love to live there if they didn't have such extreme weather in the winter. Its windy, icy and really snowy, something that beautiful views cant quite make up for!
Our stomachs were happy when we got to the country store, they had a great selection of BBQ food, and a great old guy playing guitar and singing warbly old country songs. While we were eating, Killian spied a tire swing so as soon as we finished the kids ran over to it and climbed on. They loved it, and each took a couple turns by themselves and then once together. They got going pretty high on it - I wish we had a good place for a tire swing here!
Rowan had a little bit of a meltdown while waiting for her turn on the swing. I asked her if she wanted her picture taken in front of an old tractor, and she walked over there but stood there with her arms crossed and a super grouchy look:
I started asking her to give me her best grouchy face, which made her smile, much to her dismay - she still wanted to be grumpy:
I said that wasn't grouchy enough, that I wanted to see a super duper, grumpy grouchy face and that whatever she did - she better not smile!! She was in trouble after that - nothing could keep her from smiling!
She is so cute this one - such a little firecracker, but you cant help but smile around her. After we were done swinging we headed inside the store to get the kids and ice cream cone. Killian chose strawberry, and Rowan chose sherbet. They sat outside for a minute in these old chairs, I don't know if they were barber shop chairs, dentist chairs or what...but they sure were ancient!
Then the swing opened up and I swung with them as they finished their cones:
We stopped at one last place but had failed to read that they wouldn't be opening until September, so we decided to head home. On the way, Rowan made up the silliest nonsense song and sang it full volume as we drove down the road. She kept singing that "It does not produce" and we never got out of her what it was that wasn't producing. She is such a riot. Killian had fun singing along with her, they make a great team. I have noticed in the last couple weeks that he has really been trying to have fun with her, the arguments are way less and they are really enjoying their time together. It makes me really happy, and makes days like this so much more fun for everyone!
On the way home we decided to stop at Multnomah Falls.
We haven't been here in years, and I don't think Rowan has ever been. We didn't have the energy left to climb the mile to the top, but we did climb .2 miles to the little bridge that goes over the stream coming from the waterfall. We stopped at this log along the way where Killian wanted to have his picture taken. Rowan decided she wanted to be in the picture, and struck this funny little pose:
It was so pretty, but very crowded. We headed back down to the base of the falls, and had a guy take our picture before we left. I love my family <3
We got home exhausted, but happy - this was one of those nearly perfect days were everyone has fun and enjoys each others company. I love taking day trips and road trips with the kids and Matthew. It seems like we don't do it as much as we could, and today really inspired me to start looking for more opportunities like this. I love that we can be together and make such great memories together. I am so thankful today to have my wonderful family together, and for being healthy, happy and loved!