pumpkin patch

Hooray!  It's pumpkin patch time!  I was missing our comfortable, familiar little patch in Springville (2015, 2016).  I moseyed around looking for something fun here, and when a friend posted about taking her family to a pumpkin patch nearby I was ready to commit. 

I remember the pumpkin patches of my childhood being dirty and awful.  We (my elementary school classes) would walk into the field and try to pry our pumpkin off the vines.  That was never fun to me at all, and I have no fun memories of pumpkin patches at all.  In Utah, pumpkin patches are crazy.  It's like a crazy pumpkin culture thing, so I figured I could try it because it looked pretty fun.  I'm so glad I did, because now I love taking my kids every year!  I love that they have all kinds of fun activities and we can make picking pumpkins a special tradition.  I love going and doing something different besides the usual playground outings during the week!

 We went right when they opened (at 3 in the afternoon) so it was pretty quiet.  The boys went and did the corn maze, then played on the playground for a while.

 TJ was just thrilled about all the pumpkins.  He wanted to take all of them home!

 Eli had fun to, but he was a little on the grouchy side because he missed his nap.

 Also, it seems like from 2.5 to now, it's been crazy hard to get a good picture of TJ smiling!  He was anti-photo for a while, then he just made funny faces.  Suddenly he's taking the cutest pictures and smiling all the time for me.  I love it!  I'm so glad I can capture how happy and cute he is on camera again.  Funny, isn't it?  Because Eli used to be super photogenic and all the sudden he hates photos and only glares at me.  Must be that age. 

 ^This would be such a cute picture if I hadn't chopped off the top of TJ's head!

 ^This is just so TJ.  He's happy and goofy and silly!

 They had these super cool bicycle tractors.  They were really hard to peddle over the dirt but TJ did a pretty good job of it.

 Eli could not do it at all, but TJ was happy to help!  Since it was hard to steer he drove Eli right into the hay bales.  It was so funny!

 

 Of course, the animals were fun too.  They had fewer animals than we were used to, but it was still fun!  TJ liked the llama and the rabbits best.  I think Eli liked the cow and the rabbits.

 Another little boy started climbing the fence so TJ had to figure out how to do it too.

 ^This is the chicken pen

 At one point, TJ and I ventured on to look at new things and Eli stayed behind with Tyler on the playground.  When they finally caught up to us, Eli got so excited and ran right up to TJ and gave him a big hug!  TJ was having none of it and pushed him off, but it was SO cute and sweet.  I know that brothers do not always get along, but I'm so glad that they love each other and are good little friends.

 They had a few other things to do, like tires and stumps for climbing and jumping. 

 About this point, Eli was getting super done with me asking him to look at me or say cheese.  This look just says it all!

I tried to take a cute selfie with Tyler, but he looks dorky in one and I look dorky in the other.  Oh well.

 I have to tell you, every year, I go to the pumpkin patch expecting a cool fall experience, but it's always so gosh darn hot and sunny.  I mean seriously.  It was so bright.  Which makes for a nice day, but if you dressed yo self and yo family in cute fall clothes it is just too hot.  Thankfully, it was mostly cool when we weren't in direct sunlight!

 One of our last stops was the farm equipment they had for kids to sit on and "drive."

 ^Of course, the cutest picture of the kids is the one where Tyler is pointing at me and saying "look at mom!"  Tyler looks so cute in all the ones where the kids are looking away.

 ^Eli tells me what he thinks about me trying to take a cute posed picture at the end of our adventure.

 At the very end, we grabbed a wagon and picked out our pumpkins! 

 ^TJ was SO excited to show me the baby pumpkin he picked.  We got each boy a small pumpkin, one big carving pumpkin for dad, and each boy got to choose a baby decorative pumpkin.  Eli picked the pretty white one Tyler is handing him.  I love white pumpkins, so he is a boy after my own heart!

 Another fun year!