Gilcrease Orchard

It's no secret that we live in the friggin desert. We've been here for exactly 3 years, and it isn't getting any wetter or cooler. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't pockets of really awesome non-desert things if you know where to look for them. One of these places is Gilcrease Orchard. I know what you're thinking - how can an orchard survive in Vegas? Well, I don't have the answer to that. I'm no botanist! I am, however, the mom of a kid who genuinely loves to be in a garden. Every time we talk about Grandpa Hall's house or go to Grandpa Hall's house or see a picture of Grandpa Hall, DJ starts babbling about Grandpa's garden. So I figured I'd take my little farmer out to the orchard to go apple picking. We went last year, but went late in October on an incredibly crowded Saturday when all the apples were picked over. So we went on a Tuesday morning at the beginning of picking season and we hit apple pay-dirt!

There were so many apples that he could crouch down and pick those green orbs with hardly any effort.

Look how happy he is to be on the farm!

He was pretty pumped about the pumpkins, too. Especially because they had some green ones.

I love being his mom. He is so funny!

While having a blast, he refused to reward me with any good smiles - only goofy faces or not paying attention ones.

They have cider donuts there. We maybe ate more than I will admit in print.

Apple cider made from honeycrisp apples is the actual shiz.

 

We also went to visit the chickens. They have a bunch of different varieties, and the lady tending them took some time to show DJ the different colors and shapes their eggs come in. He made me stay there and watch those chickens for like 15 minutes.