The Great Pumpkin Outing(s)

Well, now I'm feeling inspired to get in on today's DC Five blog action.

This past Saturday we had a scheduled outing to a pumpkin patch at a place called Sauvie Island just outside of Portland. This was an organized outing as part of Point B's annual Fall Family Fun Day. Actually, I just made up that name. I don't know what it was called. But it was a Point B outing. Anyway, I'm learning that Sauvie Island is the place for all things U-Pick around Portland. You may remember some shots from strawberry picking in the spring...

So, Saturday morning we wake up to one of those really crummy, stormy winter days where it started pouring before dawn and just didn't stop. These are the days where I normally like to sit by the fire with a little Neil Diamond on, but instead, we were headed out to the muddy, cold pumpkin patch. Okie dokie. Well, at least we'll get some good pics (and pumpkins) out of it, right? I'm big on the Halloween pics and celebrating this year since Ian was jipped out of his first Halloween last year due to that whole moving thing. (Halloween day was the day the movers were at our house, so while kids were coming around trick or treating to our doorstep, we were - okay, I was - tearfully saying our goodbyes to our then-empty house and heading off to a hotel - with sick child in tow, no less. )

It so turns out that pumpkins in the rain and mud can actually be kind of fun when dressed appropriately. Jeff didn't want to lug his nice camera, understandably, so we decided on my little one for the all-important pumpkin patch shots. And I got some great ones! For once, Ian actually seemed into posing (instead of running toward, or grabbing for the camera). It was wonderful. We got pics in the cart surrounded by pumpkins. Pics in the patch with a sea of pumpkins behind. Pics next to the mooing cow on the farm (Ian's first real cow experience). Pics sitting on bales of hay. We had an organized barbecue dinner on the farm and then headed home where I enthusiastically downloaded the goods...only to find out that apparently my camera broke sometime in the last couple of weeks. My one-of-a-kinds were merely shots of black. Major bummer.

Muy disappointed, I was, needless to say. Until, Jeff brings up, jokingly, well, we could go back on Sunday and just snap some shots. Hmmmm.... not a bad idea. So, of course on Sunday morning I make us all trek back out there to relive the experience. (Actually, Ian needed an outdoor outing anyway to burn off some energy, so a pumpkin patch is as good as the park...) But we all know that you can never relive the glory days. First of all, the farm we went to on Saturday is not open on Sundays. To that I say - who the *bleep* runs a pumpkin farm and closes two Sundays before Halloween??? But never fear, pumpkins are a plenty on Sauvie Island and I found another one that was open. Apparently, so did the rest of Portland because this place was a madhouse - and a marketing machine, I might add. Unlike the quaint little place we had been the day before - this place had a (very crowded) petting zoo, they had the corn maze, they had the hayrides (which were necessary to get out to the pumpkin patch approximately 15 miles out), they had the $2 cow train. You name it, they had it. Along with the people to prove it. They did have a lovely fresh produce market, though. So, between the mud, the people and the fact that Ian was being slightly less cooperative than the day before, we didn't stay long - but we did get some fresh produce at the market, and oh yeah, a couple of pics.