Picking pumpkins

In all honesty, I was disappointed this summer when I asked Bryan if he thought there was a local pumpkin patch around that we could go to this fall. He laughed a little, and said he was pretty sure there wasn't...he had never heard of one. I was bummed. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I decided to check it out myself. I went online to the database that lists most of the ones in KS by county. Didn't see one. So I did my own search and ba-da-bing! There it was, what appears to be the only pumpkin patch in southwest KS. (I didn't notice it by county because I don't know the surrounding counties yet...ha!)

Pumpkin Paradise in Sublette. It was about 25 mi. away. We went this weekend since it worked good in our schedule, and they are only open Saturdays and Sundays from now until Halloween.

I know there are plenty of pumpkins to be had in town...but I wanted that experience for the kids. I love to take them places and show them new things. 

This has become a little family tradition now that we have kids, and Makenah just soaked it up this year!

We arrived and checked out the surroundings. 

 Right as we got there, the gentleman who owned the farm, caught us and said he was going to fire a pumpkin in the trebuchet. We had to watch it go flying through the air into the field. 

 The patch was cute and family friendly. There were a few small activities to do, like duck races, wagon rides, corn mazes, etc...and then a large pumpkin patch. The most impressive part though was the selection. I read that there were over 400 varieties of pumpkins, squash, gourds and melons. 

Picture attempt of me with the kids...um, not happening with cool pumpkins all around.

 So, it was me and my boy.

 Then, Bryan laughed cause this was me suggesting one more time that Makenah come stand right here. 

 Super helpful...they had different sized pumpkins setting below with price examples. 

We grabbed a wheelbarrow and headed out to the field. Bonus of being there on the first weekend---it wasn't picked over at all.

Makenah loved helping push. She's big stuff, you know.

There was a lot of stopping to pick up sticks. Sticks are pretty cool in her world right now.

 She really enjoyed tromping through and touching pumpkins. She'd talk about their size, if they were "pokey", etc.

 More sticks into the wheelbarrow. 

And, the Logster was a trooper. He trounced all through the field on my hip, just smiling, drooling, grunting and pulling my hair. 

 Come get this one Daddy...

 While there was an amazing selection of pumpkins, we opted for the traditional orange. 

We also took home a bunch of mini ones too. 

 Getting ready to push it back. 

We got to visit with the friendly owner some once we got back to the entrance. He offered to take our picture. 

Stucky Family, 2012.

Gotta love it.

 Getting so big. 

 More sticks. This time with dancing. 

Checking out the duck races while Bryan paid. 

 Showing Daddy how to pump the water. 

We bought cold drinks at the gift shop, (that was the warmest trip to the pumpkin patch yet...), drove home and had Freddy's for supper. What an afternoon! 

Note: My next mission is to find a Christmas tree farm out here. Once again, Bryan says he doesn't think that's gonna happen. I told him we may have to go back to central KS and cut one, and then tie it to the top of the jeep. He seemed to doubt that would work.