Johnny Appleseed

On Sunday we had our 2nd Annual Mai-DiDodo Apple Picking Trip at Oak Glen. It was a pretty busy weekend for us and I actually wasn't even sure if we'd make it. We missed a party on Saturday due to possible colds with the kids and I feared that it was going to be a miserable week with 2 sick kids and Truong traveling out of town. So we lazed around the house Saturday to rest up.

We left for Oak Glen at noon, hoping the kids would nap on the hour long ride. Kael just came from a birthday party at Pump It Up so he should have been pretty tired. Malia as usual didn't nap in the morning and she should have been pretty tired too. Yeah, sure. Kael didn't nap and Malia finally fell asleep about 20 minutes from our destination.

We pull up and try to find parking in this dirt lot that's almost completely filled. We get out, unload the wagon and load up the kids. So far so good. The weather's nice and the kids are in a pretty good mood despite not napping. Patrick didn't go apple picking with us last year and he's looking around... a little baffled. Baffled like "this is IT?" I think he was imagining acres and acres of lush, leafy green Valley of Eden apple orchards where the branches are so heavily endowed with apples that they touch the ground.

Instead he saw a dusty orchard with people all over the place carrying plastic bags, short stubby somewhat leafy trees with apples on it but also a lot of apples on the ground. We walk up the hill to the Red Delicious Apple orchard and he tells me he feels bad for the apple trees so he doesn't want to pick apples off the trees because there are thousands of apples on the ground and why aren't people getting the apples on the ground? What a waste! I start laughing when he tells Ryan to not pick the apples from the tree and instead to start getting apples off the ground. And then he starts to eat the apples off the ground. It was pretty funny. I seriously thought he was going to try and eat as many apples as he could off the ground so it wouldn't be wasted.

We were early in the season so we only had 3 apples varieties to pick: Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Rome. The Rome apples were gorgeous and very tasty (Kael's words). I let Malia pick a few apples and she really enjoyed it. She managed to eat an entire small apple that she picked herself.

Then we went raspberry picking. Well, it was more like "raspberry searching" since the bushes were picked very clean. I was kind of glad we couldn't find any as raspberry bushes are extremely thorny and I could just imagine all the blood and gore from having the boys try to pick berries.

Unfortunately the pumpkin patch wasn't in season so the kids weren't able to do apples and pumpkins like last year.

Arrival time: 1:30pm
Departure time: 2:30pm
Total time apple picking: 1 hour, including raspberry searching

On the walk back to the car, Shana asked Patrick "So, honey, what do you think? Did you have fun?" She apparently got a look, and a "I can now say I've gone apple picking" reply. I'm guessing Patrick's not coming next year and will probably try to get Truong to ditch the women and children in favor of a round of golf.

We decide to eat at Law's which I've heard is the place to eat at Oak Glen. Whenever we've driven by the place it's always very crowded with a line of people stretching way back. This can support the notion that it indeed is the place to eat. However, I personally feel that it's due to the lemming mentality: you mindlessly go with the crowd simply because there goes the crowd. It wasn't the worst place I've ever eaten but I've certainly eaten at better places. The fact that the girls were so squirrely probably played a large role in that thought.

Gina ate but couldn't sit still and would very loudly tell you that she didn't want to sit still.
Malia sat still but didn't want to eat. Unfortunately she's had a lot of experience in throwing food and can probably nail a cockroach at 6 paces. Shana spent some time playing dodge ball from across the table.

We finally leave the restaurant, much I'm sure to the relief of the other patrons. As we motor off I remember seeing a pumpkin patch at the freeway on-ramp. I call Shana and we (the women) decide to stop by. For the kids. It's always for the kids.

The pumpkin patch is huge. H-U-G-E! It was so nice. It smelled like citronella candles. Even with a petting zoo. We walk in and we're greeted by a very nice lady who takes our picture. (Can we be a little more touristy?) Each family grabs a wheel barrel and off we go hunting for the perfect pumpkin.

And we walk.

And we walk.

And we walk some more.

We pass a corn field. Then a Christmas tree lot. Then we get to a pumpkin patch. Except we can't access this patch (it's roped off) because the pumpkins are still too young. So we walk some more and finally get to the patch of pumpkins that we can harvest. Patrick is all about size and goes looking for a big one. Truong and Kael go off looking for something Kael can carry. That left Shana and I to look after the little girls. The sweet little girls. The sweet little girls who almost came to blows over Gina's kiki (her lovey). It was hilarious. Wars have been fought with less vigor and intensity.

Finally (finally!) we gather our pumpkins, pay, and head back to the cars. Shana's car is loaded up with their wagon so she used our trunk space to change Gina's diaper. The boys are playing and Patrick is putting away their pumpkin. I'm putting Malia in her car seat and in the background I hear Shana undoing the velcro to Gina's diaper. Then I hear a surprised "Oh!" from Shana and a few seconds later a "Catch it! Catch it!" from Truong. Sometime between the "oh!" and the "Catch it! Catch it!" I surmise that Gina's done a #2 and it was going someplace other than the diaper. This is confirmed with a "Geez, Shana! I can't believe you're cleaning a poopy diaper in our friends' car!" from Patrick. We're all laughing -- well, all except Patrick. He's mortified that his wife changed a diaper full of poop in the trunk of our car. "Why didn't you use our car? Our poop should be in our car!! Geez!"

It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.

(Check out the pictures!)