Apple Picking with Mae and Pop

We are coming off a wonderful weekend, made extra special because we had two of our very favorite people in town. My parents arrived on Thursday and we made the most of their time with us by filling our days with football games, apple picking and fall fun despite the lingering summer heat.

After playing flag football for the first time this past spring and absolutely loving it, Chase rejoined his same rec team for the fall season. His coach is incredible and assembled a group of boys from his elementary school on a local rec league to play as a mini school team of sorts. Chase’s flag football coach has a connection to the high school football team and got the boys on the field for the varsity game on Friday night which absolutely thrilled them! They ran through the banner behind the varsity team at the start of the game and jumped up and town like crazy when the team scored a touchdown right in front of them on the sidelines.

I haven’t been to a high school football game since I was in high school — same for my parents — and we all said Friday night felt like nostalgic football fun!

Saturday

Saturday morning began on a very unexpected note. When I came out of our bedroom I was hit with a horrific smell and found poor Comet had experienced major doggie diarrhea. I felt absolutely awful for Comet because I could tell he tried to aim his butt out of his crate (and he succeed for the most part). His poop went absolutely  everywhere — on his crate blankets, the floor, the walls, etc. I have no idea why he didn’t whine or make any noise (we can easily hear Comet if he whines in his crate even over our noise machine, because he’s just down the hall from our bedroom) but we know he pooped in the 30 minute window between the time Ryan got up to work out and the time I woke up. We gave Comet a bath and went to town cleaning and disinfecting everything. Poor guy!

We also kept a very close eye on Comet and were relieved when he was eating and drinking normally and seemed content to sprint around outside and play like normal. Who knows what caused his emergency poop but we’re just glad he is okay and also that it happend on a weekend morning when we were all home and could quickly care for him.

After the doggie drama, we ate breakfast and hung out around the house while my dad and Ryan did a bike ride together. Once everyone was home and showered, we were off on our adventure of the day!

Apple Picking at Perry Lowe Orchards

My parents said they were up for a little fall fun on Saturday so we made the 60-minute drive to Perry Lowe Orchards in Moravian Falls, North Carolina.

Perry Lowe is a stunning family orchard nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains with more than 100 acres of apple trees. Ever since we discovered this gem a few years ago, it’s been a must-visit for our family. We’ve loved watching the orchard  expand and add new family-friendly attractions every year.

When we arrived, the boys couldn’t resist the jumping pad which helped them get a little energy out after our car ride.

We then bought bags for our apples (probably too many — we’re swimming in apples at the moment!) and made our way over to the tractor for a ride out to the orchards.

We had no trouble picking our fill of four different varieties of apples.

Our favorites were the Blondees (super sweet) and the Crimson Crisp (similar to a Honeycrisp). We loaded up!!

We then spent a little more time at the orchard enjoying the apple cannon (the highlight!), tube slide, small bike track and potato sack slide before ordering apple cider slushies to sip on the drive home.

We spent some of the drive home brainstorming apple recipes and popped by the grocery store to grab necessary ingredients before heading home and getting to work in the kitchen. Ryan, my dad and the boys headed outside for some backyard archery until the rain set in while my mom and I tag-teamed apple pie and pork tenderloin with apples for dinner and dessert! We spent the rest of the evening hanging out, playing a few games and watching college football.

Sunday

Sunday was a day of apple treats and soccer! Both big kids’ games were scheduled for early Sunday afternon so we spent a decent portion of the our day at the soccer fields cheering them on.

It was both boys’ first game of the season and after a few years of soccer games under our belts, we know that the first few games of the season always feel a little clunky as the teams begin to learn how to play as a unit. Chase’s team lost 3-1 (he scored their only goal, though!) and Ryder’s team tied. Thankfully both kids seemed to have fun despite the heat that came rolling back in with a vengeance after a more mild Saturday.

Once we were back home, we took Comet on a walk and then the boys just wanted some chill time to play before we were ready for dinner. Over the course of the day, I also whipped up two different apple treats with the apples from our apple picking haul: Pinch of Yum’s cinnamon sugar apple cake and our family’s all-time favorite apple crisp.

I’d highly recommend both recipes if you’re looking for apple recipes to make this fall after an apple picking adventure!

We wrapped up our weekend with family movie night. We started Japanorama (season 19) of Jet Lag, our family’s favorite YouTube travel competition show. We chose this season to begin watching with my parents because they have a big trip to Japan scheduled at the end of the month! If you have any Japan tips I can send their way, please share! I know they’d love to read them and I’ll be sure to pass them along.

Now my parents are back in Florida and we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming over here with our typical weekday shenanigans. I hope you guys all have a wonderful week ahead! Thank you for beginning your week with me in my little corner of the internet!