Saturday, October 6, 2012

Our 2012 Pumpkin Patch Excursion

Each year, our family visits a small pumpkin patch/petting farm that is about 20 minutes away from our house. Eric and I even went there once before we had kids... back when we were young and not sleep depraved. :)

One of the draws for this location (aside from the fact it isn't overly far from our house) is it has farm animals in addition to pumpkins. They have a miniature horse, chickens galore, pigs, sheep, goats, a calf, peacocks (not exactly a farm animal...), ducks, and turtles (again, not so much in the farm category, but they are there).

Last night, I realized our run of amazing weather will probably come to an end before too much longer, which made today an ideal day to visit the pumpkin patch. Eric, in all his wisdom, pointed out how nasty parking was last year and how we should arrive as close to when the farm opened as possible (which for us, was about a half hour .. which is pretty good for our crew!). The weather was so gorgeous this morning that we didn't even need coats. No coats in Seattle in October??? What has the world come to?

We got an amazing parking spot and scurried right in. As we paid the entrance fee, the gal told us that some piglets were born the day before and we should make sure to peek in on them. I am so glad we did! The piglets (11 total) were adorable! As we ooh'd and ahh'd over the piglets, the mama pig slept like only a new mother can. She was exhausted and snoring loudly in case anyone missed the fact she had given birth 11 times over yesterday. (Either that or she has sleep apnea and needs a CPAP machine.)

We also got a chance to visit the farm's sheep. There were two kids that were absolutely precious. They hopped around like they were made of springs. Poor Annika and Conor just couldn't move slowly enough to keep the sheep from scrambling as they got near.

After feeding the chickens and turkeys, playing in the barn, and me trying to smuggle the precious calf of the barn and into our car (ok, that last part didn't really happen, but I sure considered it for a few moments), we headed off to the pumpkin patch to pick out which orange beauties we'd take home.

In previous years, we've waited until closer to Halloween to go to the pumpkin patch and found the fields to be rather picked over. This year, we went the 2nd weekend they were open (they're only open to the public during the weekends of October), we got to pick from a wonderful selection of pumpkins.


Eric and Annika walking toward the entrance


I'm not kidding (get it??) .. one of the cutest animals ever!


Cute little piggies!!
(Compare them to the size of the mama's hoof!!)

Conor trying to haul his pumpkin with him


Annika showing her pumpkin of choice


The kids decided they were too tired of walking,
so they hitched a ride with the pumpkins

Waiting for Daddy to pay for the pumpkins

All ready to head home

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