Pumpkin Patch and Hay Ride

Friday night we had a special evening play group so the dads could be invited. We went to a real pumpkin patch down in Santaquin, about a 1/2 hour south of Provo. I've never been to a real, walk up and down the rows and pick your pumpkin, pumpkin patch, so I was excited. And quite honestly, I think my kids had more fun here than they did on Halloween night trick or treating.

The weather was really nice, and I was glad of that, since it had been raining on and off all week. When we got to The Big Red Barn, they loaded us all onto a big wagon that was pulled by a tractor. My boys thought it was so cool that we were being pulled by a tractor. The took us on a nice, fairly long ride, across the street and around the apple and peach orchards, and down to the pumpkin patch. They dropped us off, and told us that we could have as many pumpkins as we wanted and that they were free, since it was so close to Halloween.

We wandered through the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect pumpkins (small) to take home with us. A lot of the pumpkins in the patch had already gone mushy, but we were able to find three small ones that were good enough to take home. Lincoln was excited that he got to carry his. Ivan was for about 2 minutes, then I carried it for him. And of course I carried Adelia's too. But that's nothin', Aaron ended up carrying Adelia AND Ivan for a little stretch. He's amazing. :)

 After we'd chosen our pumpkins, we went to do the other activities while we waited for the tractor to come back and pick us up. They had a little maze made out of wooden crates. They kids had fun running through that, and the adults had fun running after them trying to make sure none of them got really lost.

 There was also a tractor sitting out in the middle of the field, so of course we had to have a photo-op, and check it out. This might have been Lincoln and Ivan's favorite part.

Then the tractor came back for us, so we all loaded into the wagon and off we went. We went a different route home, which was cool because we got to see the building where they take all the apples to make the apple juice. And where the big trucks come to load up crates of apples and peaches to take where ever they take them to sell. Here we are, all five of us, on the wagon on the way back to the barn.

Once we got back, Adi was pretty desperate to eat. So I took her to the van to feed her, and Aaron took the boys inside the barn/store where they got to sample home made apple juice and see the cold rooms where the apples are stored. Lincoln was pretty impressed with the cold rooms. I was pretty impressed with the apple juice (Aaron brought me back a sample. He loves me!), but it was $5 a gallon, so we had to pass. And Aaron was impressed that they sell 50 lb bags of wheat for $12. I guess I know where we're going when our wheat runs out.

Anyways, it was a fun night, and it felt SOOOO good to be out in the country. Aaron keeps saying I'm going to make a farmer out of him, and he'll be the only person alive who has a Masters degree in engineering that ended up being a farmer for a living. ;) We'll see about that. But I do love the country.