Whew – Long Day…

Wow, what a long day today was… We left the house at 8:45 this morning to get to Benson for the football game. It was another typical sunny, hot Arizona day for football and a visit to Apple Annies for some family fun.

The football game went in typical fashion for Sean’s team. They lost to Benson 38 – 7. Sean’s team is still winless over the last two years. It is really frustrating for him. Sean, played exceptionally well though and once again led the team in tackles. He played middle lineback on defense and was pretty hard on their run game though you cant tell it from the score. Only one run up the middle got past Sean.

On offense, he played tight end once again and is settling into that role nicely. He had three receptions today. The first two went for about 10 yards each. The third pass went for about 35 yards including 25 yards after the reception. Silly boy, though, he was pulled down at the half yard line – just short of a touchdown. The running back took it in on the next play for our only score of the game.

Once again, turnovers were their downfall as they coughed up the ball 5 times. Two of those times were on ensuing kickoffs after Benson had just scored. Both of those fumbles led to scores. Talk about tough to watch… 🙄 Though they were still thoroughly beaten, it would have been a lot closer score if they could just learn to hold on to the ball. Sean actually recovered two fumbles by his team on offense, so it could have been worse.

Savannah and the girls looked much better this week. They were in sync, loud and enthusiastic. They got several ovations from the friendly crowd and one ovation at half time when they went over to the Benson side.

After the game, we went to the Apple Annies orchard. We had apple smoked burgers for lunch with some homemade pie. I munched on a delicious crumb apple pie. Suzanne had a apple raspberry pie, while Sean and Savannah ate pumpkin pies. The lunch was a nice break from the NutriSystem diet Suzanne and I have been doing. Hopefully, we wont pay a big price for it. Well, maybe we will, since after lunch we discovered their bakery and had some homemade fudge. Shhhh – dont tell the NutriSystem folks.

We then proceeded to pick out some apples. We had thought about picking our own from the trees, but time was getting short and we definitely wanted to pick our own pumpkins, so we opted for the pre-picked. We were hoping that the Pink Lady apples were in harvest and we could stock up. Unfortunately, they dont start picking the Pink Lady apples until next Saturday – argh 🙁 I head off to Germany on a business trip next Saturday, but Suzanne and the kids might just drive back out there for the Pink Lady apples. They are that good :heart:

We stocked up on some Granny Smith, Fiji and Red Delicious apples. The apples make good diet food for NutriSystem and they will be very fresh.

After the apples, we drove to the nearby Apply Annies pumpkin patch and produce farm. We took a tractor hayride out to the pumpkin patch and proceeded to find our beauties. The kids were grinning from ear to ear and searching for the perfect pumpkins. The picked out two for Suzanne and I. Mine was big and round. Suzanne’s was tall and skinny. Hmmm, wonder what they were saying there… 😆 They then picked out two smaller pumpkins that they could carry as their own. We took the hayride back to the farm and paid for the pumpkins. And pay we did – to the tune of $46. 😯 Wow, that is a lot for pumpkins. I find the apples/fruit and produce to be extremely reasonable at Apple Annies, but that seems like a lot for pumpkins, but I dont really know the going rate for four pumpkins either. The two big ones we got were quite beefy. I was the only who could carry them and even then, I took a break on the way back to the hayride. Some of the workers came out and got them the rest of the way for us. As to size, think big beach balls and I do mean big. They must be at least 50 lbs.

After getting the pumpkins into the Mercedes, we walked over to the produce area and walked out to pick some veggies. We picked up varieties of winter and summer squash, tomatoes, green beans, peas, cauliflower, bell peppers, chiles, jalapenos and other peppers. We made quite a haul. We ended up with somewhere near 20 plastic grocery bags full of stuff. The bill? About $20. Nice. 8) Now, I have my work cut out for me making some soups and other dishes that are NutriSystem friendly with all this produce.

Dusk was approaching, so after the kids enjoyed some shaved ice, we packed up and headed for home in Sonoita. After all the hard work, folks were getting hungry, so we stopped for food in Benson on the way back. We closed our minds to NutriSystem again for dinner and stopped at Taco Bell. We have never been big fast food eaters and rarely do so. Tonight, though, fatigue and the kids won out. We tried to be somewhat good and eat a smaller portion than past visits in a slight nod to our NutriSystem efforts. The scales will tell us just how bad we were today when we weigh in on Monday morning.

Finally, we pulled into our garage at about 7:35 this evening – almost eleven hours after we left. We had a thoroughly fun day trip today. I hope I can keep my eyes open long enough to finish this post before I….. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz