Pumpkin Patch Bust

I've been looking forward to starting a family pumpkin patch tradition. I still remember the pumpkin patch I went to as a kid so I was looking forward to providing that kind of memory for Grace. As with any good family tradition, it of course, starts with a cute outfit.

These pictures were taken before leaving for the pumpkin patch.

Everyone was still all smiles at this point.

Even though we live IN THE MIDDLE of farm country, I thought it best to drive an hour to pick out a pumpkin. That long drive would be just the right amount of time to create a spell-binding build-up that would make this the most memorable pumpkin-picking-extravaganza of all time. We get loaded up in the car and set out on our merry adventure. Or so we thought...

Grace cried and fussed the entire way to the pumpkin patch. Not having napped before we left, I was absolutely positive she'd fall asleep in the car on the way there. Strike one.

Upon arriving to the pumpkin patch, we were greeted by an unattractive smell, not to mention a handful of unattractive pumpkins. Strike Two.

Next to spending a fraction of a minute in a shopping mall, I think this pumpkin patch was the next closest thing to Hell that Court has experienced.

He was a "real happy" camper. Strike three.

If that look doesn't say "It's time to go...now!" then I don't know what does!

Oh but wait! There is more!

We still have an hour long drive home...with a 10 month old who has still yet to nap. She must fall asleep on this leg of the trip you say?

Nope.

Not for a second.

Not for a nano second.

She just cried and fussed the ENTIRE way. It was like she knew the pumpkin patch was going to be a bust and she was warning us on the way there. On the way home, she was just rubbing our noses in it.

But wait!

No...there can't be more you say? This is already the worst pumpkin patch adventure of all time.

Court and I think we know of a pumpkin patch in, of all places, our home town.

Nooo...you don't say.

There is a pumpkin patch within less that a five minute drive of your house?!

The key word folks..."think." We "THINK" there is a pumpkin patch in town.

So we pull off the highway...Grace is still crying...and start tearing...I mean...driving through the country roads trying to find a pumpkin patch that may or may not exist...trying to salvage this excruciating experience and make a GOD*#$# family tradition!

After fifteen minutes, we give up. We tuck tail and head for home.

Now mind you, I've had a vision of making this the best pumpkin patch experience ever so I am near tears. Grace IS in tears and Court can't believe he just spent his only afternoon of not working to live the story we now live to tell.

As I am wallowing in my failure at being the world's-worst-pumpkin-patch-picker-outer,

Court takes off in the car. I know not where he goes...

...the next thing I know, he has returned...

BEARING PUMPKINS!

He knew pumpkins was what I wanted (really the photo op is what I wanted) and by God,

he was going to deliver!

He went to Safeway, got the fixins for pumpkin pie, a flu shot and you guessed it...

PUMPKINS! (When he goes, he goes big!)

Our sad pumpkins....all the way from Colorado. Go figure!

At least I got some photo ops...

Look no hands!

Not the memory I was looking to create for Grace's first Halloween but now, after looking at how the day unfolded, just going to a plain old pumpkin patch and picking out a perfectly shaped pumpkin would have been sooo cliche.

I mean, anyone can go to a fantastic pumpkin patch and pick out perfectly wonderful pumpkins. How many people can pick out and travel over an hour to the worst pumpkin patch in probably the entire world?! This definitely will be a memory we will never forget!