Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The pumpkin patch, Washington style


Recently we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. I adore the pumpkin patch. I make sure to take my kids every year. It has become a tradition and I am totally a tradition kinda girl. I love predictability and I am convinced that kids thrive on it. My kids know that when the pumpkin/fall decor comes out our trip to the pumpkin patch can't be far behind. Its my thing.





I probably am so into it because it wasn't a part of my childhood. I didn't discover pumpkin patches until I was already a mother. I am not even sure they grew pumpkins anywhere I lived as a child, which was lots of places. Maybe they just didn't advertise well enough. Dan knew all about them though and was shocked that I was unaware of this fall staple. At the time I was expecting and we were on the brink of moving to California. We had our first little bundle of wonderful soon after. Just like every other first time parents we thought it was our duty to expose baby Vanessa to every single kid friendly activity available. It didn't matter that she couldn't walk or talk yet. It had to be done.



My first trip was to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm and let me tell you, it is so cool. They have a train and a hay jump and slides and yummy food and I think I enjoyed it more than Vanessa. I have since compared every pumpkin patch to Bishop's. Its my ultimate. It only made sense that when we moved to Washington we had to find a pumpkin patch at least as good as Bishop's. Luckily my friend Mauni who is also psychotic with fall fever, turned me on to a wonderful place that we visited last week.


This one has a huge vat of corn. Logan loved it. All he wanted to do was jump, dive, swim and run in the corn. I am still finding corn kernels in random places. Vanessa was all about the hay pyramid. It had fun little tunnels for her to explore and she was more than proud of herself when she made it to the top. Lorelai dug the petting zoo. She doesn't mind animals as long as they keep their distance. She had many conversations with goats, sheep and pigs. Dan is all about the food. The second we got there he was instantly famished and was in desperate need of a chili dog.....or two. I just took the pictures. I was very impressed to see my little man ride a pony this year. Last year was quite traumatic for him. You would think that we had tried to make him sit on the loch ness monster the way he went on, but this year he was more than willing and even gave an occasional yee-ha!



I wonder what next year will be like. Lorelai will be old enough to actually do stuff. Maybe we will even tackle the corn maze. There is no way I am walking around a corn field carrying or pushing a baby in a stroller. The pumpkin farm always reminds me of one important thing though. No matter how much I glamorize farm life in my head or how much I think I want to live in the country, I am by no means a country girl. My main complaint was the dirt. I noticed its everywhere on a farm and don't get me started on the animals. Once a year is nice, but I think for the everyday stuff I will stick to suburbia.

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