In order to ease our driving experience, we decided to leave on Friday night about bedtime, so the kids would sleep in the car. BIG MISTAKE! Neither one of them had much interest in sleeping, and they ended up staying up pretty much the entire way there. Oh well.

Saturday morning we picked apples at an orchard, for making into applesauce. This was something we did every year when I was little, so we thought it would be fun to continue the tradition with the kids (oh yeah, and stock up on delicious and healthy applesauce – high fructose corn syrup need not apply). It was really nice. We had perfect fall weather, sunny but a little cool. Now that I’m used to picking blueberries, raspberries, etc. apple picking goes pretty fast. Plus we picked some, but we bought probably more than half already picked.

When we were done with that, I went off and played some paintball for about 5 hours for a bachelor party. As always, paintball was a lot of fun. I got shot in the neck again, but it wasn’t as bad as last time. I took one in the pinky that hurt pretty bad too, but I didn’t really have too many welts or anything, compared to some of the guys. We played one game where the bachelor could only get out if he was shot on a little square on his chest. I think they counted 16 welts on his torso. Ouch! Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and a lot of fun to hang out with a bunch of old friends.

When I got home, we had to make applesauce late into the night. We made 35 quarts and 11 pints. Not all of it was just for us, but we took the lion’s share. I don’t know what our final count was, but it was substantial! We still haven’t found room for it in the pantry. It was quite the operation, with 5 people all working at the same time, including two canners going.

The next day we went do my dad’s house. The plan was to go swimming and close out the pool for the season, but it had been so cool that we figured it wouldn’t happen. However, the pool temperature was surprisingly pleasant. We also found some time top play Pretty Pretty Princess, and dad won both times…I guess he’s a natural Pretty Pretty Princess. We also came away with an alarming amount of produce, including 7 squash, 5 zucchini, and 2 pumpkins (although one of them is big enough to count for 2 or 3).

Since we were in the canning mood, we decided to come back for round 2: salsa. We had tomatoes from our garden, plus everybody decided to drop off more tomatoes; so many in fact, that we ended up not even using our tomatoes when we canned! But we made 9 1/2 pints of salsa, and again canned late into the night. We’re really putting our canning skills to the test this year!

Finally, Monday was Labor Day and we spent it the way Labor Day aught to be spent: grilling out. Some family friends came over and Evie entertained us with tunes while we ate (as usual). Unfortunately we had to eat and run, since we had the drive back, and driving with 2 small children takes a lot longer than it would otherwise. It was nice though, we were in no hurry, so we even stopped and did some shopping on the way home. Of course, once we got home we had about a zillion things to do, so I ended up exhausted (especially since I spent the previous two nights canning instead of sleeping).

So, in summary, dessert.

Yes, everywhere we went had desert. Not just store bought stuff, but homemade deliciousness. I probably gained 5 pounds over the weekend. But it sure was delicious! If you count all the canning, I’d definitely say this trip was all about food. What better reason to take a trip?