Apple Orchard Field Trip

Today, we went to Nivens Apple Farm. It was only about a 30 minute drive, maybe less. Trey was my navigator and he did a great job, even figuring out how to reverse the directions for the ride home. We all had our orange shirts on - even Rebekah had an orange onesie on! I wore her in the front pack and she seemed to love it. She even kept a hat on the whole time.

We were the only family there, although some older couples did come and go while we were there. First we went into the shop and looked around. The most intersting thing in the shop was the baby chicks with an animatronic rooster on top that had a motion sensor. He would pipe up every time someone walked by to tell about the chicks. Cute one time, annoying the thirtieth!

We went out the side door and found a porch with picnic tables on one side and rockers on the other. One of the tables had a large checkers game on it, but the children were more interested in the playground. They scampered off to crawl through some long black tubes suspended off the ground. Then they bounced on the inner tubes. Trey and Bobby both bounced very high.

Also in that area were a Little Tykes house and a teepee. They seemed to have seen better days and had many flies buzzing around them. They were from the animals that were close by. We saw a cow, a pig, some chickens, goats, and a donkey. There was a sign about a peacock, but we didn't see it.

They had some large cardboard pieces where you stick your head through to get your picture taken. The first one was farm animals with five holes. Perfect for our five big kids. The other one was a school bus with 6 holes, so I had Sarah hold Rebekah's head through one and got all the children in a picture.

They had a large wooden board cut and painted to look like an apple. It had some fold up flaps with questions about apples and the answers underneath. We learned that it takes about 36 apples to make a gallon of cider. They had another with facts about pumpkins and we learned that pumpkins can be orange, tan, yellow, and even blue!

We saw pumpkins growing in the pumpkin patch. Some were small yet ripe and some were huge and not ripe yet.

After touring the pumpkin patch, we headed back into the store. We bought Gala Apples for eating and Winesap Apples for baking plus a gallon of Apple Cider. The lady behind the counter was very freindly after we started picking out apples. She gave all the children 2 samples of cider. She also turned on the train for them to watch. We were very interested to learn that the metal buckets hanging from the ceiling were actually concealing the speakers for the sound system!

We had a fiunt time and we hope to go back next year.

Beach Day!

We went to the beach last Saturday. I have not been to the sea in a few years, so I really enjoyed this.

We left around 7:30am for Folly Beach. We stopped at one rest stop on the way down and arrived at the Folly Beach County Park at around 11:30am. They had changing rooms so we could all change into our suits. We did this a few at a time, but I think we could all change at the same time if they are not too crowded.

Rebekah spent most of her time in the stroller under the umbrella, but I did take in the water for a short while. She seemed to like it, but prefers the pool.

My favorite part of the day was bouncing in the waves with Sarah and, for a short time, Bobby. Bobby had skinned his legs early in the day and the salt water irritated it, so he didn't stay in with us very long. Trey didn't like the waves splashing in his face, so he stayed in the shallows. The little boys had a blast just playing in the shallow waves and the sand.

Nice note - I mixed up some baby cereal for Rebekah with bottled water but she doesn't like it cold. There was a spot selling snacks and the guy there heated it up in the microwave for me. :)

After showering off the sand and getting changed, we headed into Charleston to drive around. We found White Point Gardens and got out to wander around. We went on the wall (The Battery?) and looked out at Fort Sumter, which is on our "To Do" List for another trip. We also had fun looking at (and climbing on) the cannons in the garden.

After driving around some more, we went over to Mount Pleasant to look at Patriot's Point. When we first saw the planes at the Patriot's Point Museum, Trey started screaming "Thank you! Thank you!" It broke my heart to have to tell him we weren't going there this trip, but it was at the top of the list for next time.

We had seen signs about the Hunley so we followed them to a museum. It is in a very scary part of town and the admittance price seems very high ($12 per person), so I don't think we will return there.

We stopped briefly at a LaQuinta Motel before heading home. I just wanted to see the rooms, which were very nice, for future reference.

I hope we can return to Charleston soon!