14th Annual Cider Festival

On the 19th of October, we had our 14th Annual Cider Festival! 

On Saturday morning we went to the orchard to pick apples.

The orchard overlooks this beautiful valley.  It is always inspiring to look out over this beautiful farmland. We always have a great time going out to pick apples.  These are the people that get the "full experience"!

Wes, Darcy, Jesse, Lucas, Mary

 This is Wes, who is my niece Darcy's friend, and this is the 3rd time that he has driven up from UT for the Cider Festival!  Thanks for coming, Wes!

Wes

 We got to meet Darcy's boyfriend Lucas for the first time.  He is from Sao Paolo, and has a Bachelor's in IT from a university there.  He served a mission in Manaos, in the Amazon, and now he is at BYU.  He was in Darcy's English as a second language class.  It was great to meet him and have them both here for the Cider Festival!  Thanks for making the effort to come!

Lucas and Darcy

 Here's Mary picking a big read apple!

Bruce, Lorena, Libby, Jesse, Mary, Darcy, Lucas and Wes

At 2:00 people started coming.  One of the most popular parts of the Cider Festival is the wagon ride.  Our friends Tammy and Lane are kind enough to lend us their tractor and wagon, and all the kids climb aboard and go down to the end of the lane and back on the wagon.  Bruce usually leads the wagon ride, but this year Lane and another friend Brian were kind enough to trade off driving the tractor.

Bruce

 Kids on the hay wagon ride!

My cousin Debbie came for the first time!  She recently moved to Utah, and it was delightful to have her travel up to be with us!  The night before, she helped me for hours mixing up doughnut dough and cutting it out.  I love being with my cousins.  For some reason, they are just delightful and make me laugh and laugh.  Thanks for your help, Debbie! 

Lorena and Debbie

 Jesse got here on Friday night with Darcy, Lucas and Wes.  We knew she was here when we heard the piano music fill the house, as only she can play it!  This is the best part of the Cider Festival - children coming home!

Mary, Jesse and Lorena

 And of course it's always a treat to have my Mom and Dad here.  Mom helped me all Thursday afternoon to make doughnut dough, and she had the idea to cut out the doughnuts and put them on cookie sheets in the fridge.  We've never done that before, but it was a great idea!  Thanks, Mom!

Mom and Dad - Jean and DeeAnne

Every year in my Journal, I list the names of all the people that I can think of that came.  This year I listed over 180. 

I regret that I don't have any pictures of the press or the doughnuts!  I am so busy frying doughnuts and talking to people that I'm not good at taking pictures.

I big shout-out to David Kofoed who fiddled for us while we square danced.  You're awesome David!

And now, I need to switch gears and post pictures in remembrance of our Quaker Parrot Cutie-Pie.

Jesse bought him clear back in 2007, as best we can recall, so we had him for over six years.  It was Joseph that took over his care, and Joseph loved this bird!  He would feed him and cover him every night, and say "Love ya Cutie-Pie!"  Jesse took care of him for five months after Joseph left, until she left to go to college, and then Peter has taken care of him since June.  So he was well-taken care of until last week when Peter and Bruce went hunting, and then, unfortunately, no one took care of him.  This is one of my worst nightmares, that I'm supposed to be taking care of an animal, and I don't do it, and it dies.  Well, it's a nightmare no longer, it was real.  (To be fair, I was never put in charge of him, but still...)

We found him Friday morning, the day before the Cider Festival.  It made for a tough day.  He laid in state all that day, and the next, until we could finally bury him on Sunday morning.  We buried him with a big rock over his grave, right by the one we put there for Lady our horse.  It's been a rough year for losing beloved animals.  Joseph was a good sport when I wrote to him about it.  I don't think he'll mind if I share what he told me.  He said that when Buck (the other Quaker Parrot we had) and JJ (a cockateel) died, he was really afraid that Cutie-Pie would die too.  He continued, "I said a prayer, and Good Heavenly Father who cares about the little cares of a 13 year old gave me the assurance that He wouldn´t let Cutie Pie die until I was gone. That´s why I loved Cutie Pie so much. Well, he´s in a better place now! Plan of Salvation!"   I was grateful he was so forgiving.

And here's some pictures from Bruce and Peter's hunting trip.
Peter getting his gear ready:

Road trip to get there:

Sunset on the first night:

Awesome view from the mountain top:

Sunset Day 3:

Their tent:

They saw some elk, but never got a clear shot at one, so the four-year streak continues...

Peter and Libby had their first band concert, too - yes - this is all in one week!