Alcorn Apple Pressin' Festival 2011

We all headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Alcorn's place in Kennewick this past weekend. John and I got a hotel-next time we'd go ahead and throw our tent up  I think. But it went well.

Friday we went out to the farm and used Uncle Nick's  huge apple press. Apple pressing has long been a yearly tradition for our family. As kids it was often a chore. And then it became a party and now as adults it's something we all look forward to/want to do so that we can enjoy the juice all year round!

Uncle Nick's press is an actual commercial/industrial press so it made the large box of apples go nice and fast. I think we actually had it running for maybe 90 minutes and got something like 60-75 gallons out of it (I might be off on that number, but somewhere in that area). To do that much on our regular press would have taken quite a few hours I think.

We all headed back to Kennewick and jumped in the pool, pasteurized the juice, had dinner and played dice games together. It was great to have everyone there. Jason and Crystal and their family came over from Ferndale, Brig and his family from Eugene, Cori and Kari with their kids from Boise area, Beau and Joanne were in charge of food-and did an awesome job with it-and brought much of it all the way from Rexburg. Yaya and Pappy and Ole came over, and then Mom, Dad, Erik and Liz and all of us.  

On Saturday we headed to the river and took out the boat. Keira, Scharae and Jax all took turns on the innertube for the first time (as did Crystal for her very first time!) I didn't get myself out there on it, but most everyone else did. We headed back and did some more swimming out at Grandma and Grandpa's pool (so great!).  Keira has perfected her swimming and diving board technique-no water wings needed! Scharae is a little fish swimming just below the surface of the water whether she can touch the ground or not.

We had a fantastic time seeing all the family all together in one place. It made John and I miss our babies so much, seeing so many of the other families growing. But it was still a grand time to be had and we look forward to the next family fling!