Tanner's Orchard

On yet another fine, sunny, yet not-too-warm Illinois morning, our circus headed off for a bit of an adventure. We drove out to Tanner's Orchard, a lovely spot not too far from Aunt Marg and Uncle Craig's home. In the fall, Tanner's is a popular destination for families looking for pumpkins and apple picking. A little too early for that, we arrived at the height of peach season. (We were sad to miss the peach pancake breakfast by only a few days. How tasty would that have been?) However, we didn't spend any time in the orchards. Instead, we took advantage of some of the other kid-friendly activities.

For one, there's an enormous play area for the children, complete with a wooden pirate's ship, a wooden train, a firetruck, a school bus, and a number of other more predictable play structures. One of the benefits of arriving during peach season, rather than during apple season, was that the play area was practically deserted. (And it was free! I think there's an admission fee in the fall.) The girls had a blast.

Kathleen loved the ship. She'd climb in it and on it, and she couldn't seem to understand why Mama and Daddy couldn't get through it quite as quickly as she could!

We all tested out the train, although Kathleen insisted on being the engineer.

Madeline liked the horse-swings. She'd rather have ridden by herself, but Mama's not brave enough yet.

Kathleen tackled the "rock wall" with ease.

And Madeline wasn't about to be left out!

Wait, who's that in the back of that firetruck? Why, it's Grandpa!

Grandpa and Aunt Angela joined us a little later in the morning. They also supplied the quarters for the next bit of our adventure -- feeding the goats!

Kathleen had loved visiting the goats when we'd gone to Tanner's when she was smaller. She loved it just as much this time. Madeline, too! Little Madeline very bravely held out her hand for some goat food, and then let the goats lick the oats off her hand. She did, however, give Daddy quite a fright when she tried to test out the oats herself!

Once we'd rescued the baby from that bit of potentially germy (and otherwise untasty) eating, we decided we'd better mosey along and get some lunch.

Fortunately for us, Tanner's also has a great cafe. (And an extensive gift shop, but I'll spare you the details. Except for this: the yummiest smelling apple soap I've ever smelled. It was like autumn in a bar of soap!) We drank cider and ate sandwiches and followed it all up with assorted varieties of pie -- peach, strawberry, and dutch apple. We liked the dutch apple so much that we bought a whole pie! (But don't worry, we didn't eat it. Well, not all of it! We took it with us the next day as we moved our circus along to Uncle Eric and Aunt Katherine's house!) What a fun and tasty morning!