Year in Review: Part 9 - Family Togetherness

Apples to Apples- One of Dan's coworkers told us about an apple orchard that is up the mountain from where we live. We thought that would be a great family activity to do on a day off. Angle Orchard is a family owned orchard that let you go pick apples yourself or select from the ones that they have picked. I think they were $.44/lb (I think, they were really cheap) and they were delicious. We got a few different varieties but the golden delicious were my very favorite. It was really cool. They let you eat the apples to taste them. Orson loved it and probably ate three apples by himself. Picking apples with Daddy I had to take a picture of this cat. It was up on the roof because one of the dogs chases it. Orson kept wanting to hold it and pet it. He was a little upset that it wouldn't come down. Me picking apples Orson eating apples A very small part of Angle Orchard This kid loves apples! Orson and Mommy Orson and Daddy with their golden delicious apples Happy family Orson was so worn out from the trip the he started an apple... ...and fell asleep eating it. :) Happy Halloween Gingerbread House- One night Dan wanted to make a Halloween gingerbread house from a kit that we had from forever ago. We mixed the frostings and Orson and Dan went to town on it. While Dan and I mixed we put on Nightmare Before Christmas. Orson got a little bored at first and played with his milk. (and by "played", I mean that he made a mess) Oscar laid on the rug by the table so he could be with the family. Phoenix Zoo- Dan had been having a rough few weeks at work and on one of his days off we got up and started to get ready for the day and decided, kind of spur of the moment, that we needed a family outing and chose to go to the zoo. Phoenix is a 3 hour drive from here so we hurried to get everything ready to go. Packing a breakfast, snacks, water, sunscreen, hats, etc. Orson stayed awake the whole drive until 15 minutes before we got to the zoo. We were sad to wake him up but we knew he would be excited. The Phoenix Zoo is SUPER expensive and even more so because you pay to get in and then they have you pay for all the other extras. Petting the stingrays, riding camels, feeding giraffes, pedal boats, viewing big horn sheep through telescope/binoculars. It was pretty ridiculous. BUT... They did have some cool exhibits, including this fort that you went up to see the savannah animals exhibit (water buffalo, giraffe, gazelle, etc). The fort was cool and had wobbley stairs that Orson went up and down about 15 times. Even though it was fall, Phoenix was still about 90 degrees and the animals were all in the shade, most of them sleeping. The lioness... One of Orson's favorite animals at the zoo is the rhino. The ones at the Denver Zoo are pretty sad compared to this one. Look at those horns! Impressive! Outside the meerkat exhibit was a little cave for kids to play in. This was one of the craziest things I've ever seen personally at a zoo. There were these two little girls that were laughing at the mama and baby mandrill and I guess the daddy didn't like that. He prowled right over to the girls (only the glass separted them) and he bared his teeth and beat his chest as if to say "Mine! Back off!" It was pretty terrifying. I'm glad there was glass separating him from us. He went back to his family and herded them away. I would have gotten more pictures but the zoo was more like a hiking trip and I was pregnant and running low on energy and enthusiasm. :) After the Zoo we went to eat some Indian food and then we stayed to do a favor for Dan's coworker. Orson fell asleep on the ride home about 7 pm and slept until 9 am the next morning. All in all... great family activity!