Credle Family: Hartland Orchard

After enjoying our picnic with Granny, Lindsay and Caleb last year, we decided to head back to Hartland Orchard to pick our pumpkins this year. We went on Columbus Day so that Daddy could go along, and we wanted to do all of the activities this time, since last time we went on a weekday and the activities were closed.

Anabella and Daniel seemed to remember the wagon; they jumped right in and were ready to head up the hill! I was grateful Daddy was along to pull the wagon this time. Daniel weighs about 34 pounds; Anabella weighs 31 or so.

Thank you, Daddy! AC and DC enjoyed the ride.

When we reached the top of the hill, we realized the ticket stand was at the bottom! Anabella and Daniel checked out the pumpkin selection while they were waiting.

I like this pumpkin a lot better than the green one he picked last year!!

Too heavy, Mommy!

Once we had our wristbands ($10 for adults; Daniel and Anabella were free- this admission included a hot dog and soda as well as all activities, so compared to pricey Cox Farms in Centreville, which would have been closer, we're glad we made the trip to Markham- plus, Mommy's a little prejudiced when it comes to farms and just can't fathom going to one that is not in the Shenandoah Valley!!). Back to the wristbands- once we had the wristbands, it didn't take long at all for our toddlers to figure out where they wanted to go first!

Daniel was enthralled with this moon bounce when we visited Hartland last year, so on the way up the hill he was excited to see that it was here again! It was all I could do to distract him with the pumpkins while we were waiting for our tickets. Sadly, though, the moon bounce was a bit anti-climactic. We need one more year for this one- there were several school aged kids bouncing, bouncing, BOUNCING, which made it difficult for our lil' ones to stand without falling down, much less bounce. Not to mention, it made us dizzy, dizzy, dizzy. We bounced for a few minutes, but soon Daniel and Anabella decided it was time to move on....

Last year they had this gigantic slide, which looked fun, but we didn't use it because technically the farm was closed (they were nice to let us explore anyway, but we didn't feel it was fair to try any of the activities). Needless to say, Daniel and Anabella couldn't wait to try it this time! And, unlike the moon bounce, this attraction did not disappoint! In fact, it was all we could do to pry them away after we went down a thousand or so times.

Anabella waited at the bottom with Mommy while Daniel and Daddy tried it out first.

Once she saw how fun it was, Anabella couldn't wait to try it herself!

Then, it looked so fun, Mommy had to try it too!

Off for more fun....

This lil' guy looked fun, but proved difficult to climb onto,
especially since it was wet from the rain we'd had the day before.

Dan Credle, the farmer.

After watching the pig race, we climbed aboard the tractor for the hayride.

It's been a long time since I've been on a hayride. I forgot how fun they are! Daniel and Anabella's first hayride turned out to be an especially fun one. Not only did they get to ride on a tractor, which Daniel found especially cool, the driver stopped mid-way and let them roll pumpkins (rotten ones they couldn't sell- clever idea on their part to let the kids help out with their chore of getting rid of old pumpkins!) down the hill.

Fun, fun, fun 'til all the pumpkins were down the hill!

But the fun didn't stop there.

Next stop: raspberry field.

Task: pick all the raspberries you can! (and if you can't find any, come back next year during peak season and pick some more! ha.....we already had, we went berry picking back in June on Granny's birthday).

Most of the ripe berries were gone, but we managed to find a few.

I know this post is super picture heavy, but I loved these pictures so much, I couldn't just pick a few!

Daniel was determined to find some berries!

At her Daddy's suggestion, Anabella tasted one of the berries....these next two pictures are priceless!

After that, she decided to join her Daddy back at the tractor. They talked to the farmer, the same nice man we met when we visited last year.

Daniel took a few berries for the ride back. This same bunch of berries ended up in his bed later in the afternoon (apparently, he wanted to take a souvenir from his visit to the farm).