The Pumpkin Patch

For the past five years, every fall that we've been in the area, we have gone with our good friends to the pumpkin patch to ride behind the tractor, play on an old tractor, greet real live animals, take pictures among the pumpkins, and eat a picnic lunch. (The only year we missed we were living in Spain.) This week was the annual visit, but it also coincided with the deadline to get job applications out, so my husband wasn't able to attend. Instead the boys and I braved traffic and went to the pumpkin patch. We didn't get as many good pictures (because I was having to help with set up, photography, discipline, and emotional breakdowns) but here are some of the pictures I liked.

I tried to get a good picture of the boys together—I've been trying for weeks to get a picture of the two boys together with both boys looking at the camera and seeming content—but, as you can see, it didn't happen.

Thanks, Amber, for helping out with this one. (If you look close enough you can see my head peaking out behind the youngest's head.)

The oldest LOVED the tractor. He thought it was the neatest thing and would have been content riding it all afternoon. The youngest, on the otherhand, had something against the hay-filled trailor. He didn't mind the noisy tractor, but started screaming the moment I would get near the trailor. Our great friends offered to take the oldest on a final tractor ride while the youngest and I watched. Here they are ready to go.

This was, hopefully, the last year for all of us to be at this particular pumpkin patch. Hopefully next year we will have tenure-track jobs somewhere near each other.