Owens Farm-Pumpkin Patch

I LOVE family outings! I think I'm wierd but I love exposing my children to new experiences and expanding their point of view. This coupled with my love for creating family traditions and memories makes me quite the sucker for an annual excursion to the Pumpkin Patch.

Convieniently Kaitlyn's preschool class was planning an outing and so we tagged along. (We were going to go last week as a family but Linz and Sambo were sick with fevers and the weather wasn't great). I was also so glad that Stephen, who has accrued so much extra PTO, was able to take the morning off to spend with us.

First we were a little overwhelmed when we arrived at the farm. Kaitlyn's school class is all of 12 kids and 2 teachers. Throw 3 more parents into the mix (minus our family) that was our group. Imagine our reaction when arriving at the farm there were like 8 LARGE school buses full of elementary school kids. There were HUNDREDS of parents and kids at the farm. We thought this whole outing would be a disaster for the crowds but it really wasn't a big deal. We all stayed together, there were lots of different things to do (feeding the animals, looking at horses, pigs, donkeys, cows, etc.)

The first thing we did was go on a hay ride. Sam couldn't get up onto the trailer fast enough, he was so excited!! He has a silly face in this photo--he's such a funny kid!! Kaitlyn, who normally would have been totally overwhelmed by this whole thing was for the most part uninhibited I think because we've gone here a handful of times already so she really could enjoy herself. Here she is with one of her best friends from school, Molly.

We've gone to a pumpkin patch EVERY year as a family, this year is Lindsey's first pumpkin patch experience because her birthday is the day after Halloween. Here she is with Dad. She has a pacifier in her mouth in nearly every photo because this whole activity was during her normal nap time and while she wasn't fussy and did perfectly fine, the pacifier helped I think!

Sam really wanted to see a horse. It was his only request all morning as we got ready to go, we saw a few miniature horses feeding along with some geese and ducks while on the hay ride. Sam was all over the fact a REALLY BIG TRACTOR was pulling the trailer. As soon as we got off the hay ride, he wanted to climb onto the other trailer and go again!

Then Kaitlyn's class sat down for a snack. Kaitlyn and Molly are silly snackers!! They got to the farm before us so they'd already seen all the animals in the pens but Sam hadn't so Dad took him around to see all the horses eating and pigs sleeping.

When snack time was over and we'd let the kids run around and we'd taken a photo op with the kids and thier teachers:

It was time to search for our pumpkins. Lindsey didn't get to choose one but she took good care of Sammy's cute pumpkin. Don't you think?

We had such a fun time! The weather was crisp and cool, the sun shone brightly, everyone was happy and had a good time. I love successful family outings! Tomorrow night we'll carve the pumpkins (Dad has mutual and bishopric tonight). I can't wait until next year, Happy Pumpkining Everybody!!

Here are some other great shots:

And finally a family shot. I had hoped for one worthy of our Christmas card but no dice, ah well there's always next time!!!