Peter, Peter pumpkin eater

Are you wondering if our nature-lover let a chipmunk into the house? Luke carefully selected this tiny green pumpkin, passing over all the farm’s larger, orange ones in favor of his (current) favorite color. But before it made it home I looked back to see it firmly locked in our little boy’s jaws! Of course I hastily snatched it away, and Erik almost swerved off the road as we both shook with laughter at its chewed up condition. We’d had pumpkin ice cream the night before, so maybe that gave our child the idea that pumpkins are tasty? Luke had generously applied this pumpkin principle by giving his other green one to the goats at the farm. But the goats ate much less raw pumpkin than Luke did!

While raw pumpkins may fail to intimidate us, the hayride earlier that afternoon was a more harrowing experience. We had watched as trailer loads of farm visitors enjoyed the scenic loop atop hay bales. Quaint, we thought, but perhaps a bit boring? Luke’s enthusiasm for the tractor convinced us to take a turn ourselves anyway, so we piled into the trailer’s last seats. With a lurch, the driver started down the path, and as we approached the heavily rutted lane he only sped up! Occasionally we’d come to an especially deep rut and instead of lurching over it, he would brake swiftly, causing everyone in the trailer to slam into each other. Below you see our little boy looking rather concerned, and if you could see my face it wouldn’t be looking too pleased either! As we were walking off the trailer with sighs of relief, another passenger told us that this was not the normal hayride driver who had been giving rides all day. Clearly some sort of hayride driver’s license should be offered by the DMV/MVD!

With the exception of the hayride, we enjoyed a very pleasant, relaxing autumn afternoon. Of course we took plenty of photos of our favorite pumpkin patch peruser…

 All against a gorgeous mountain backdrop!

When we weren’t picking pumpkins this weekend, we were working on a number of house projects. Maybe I’ll post a recap of those soon too. In the meantime, there are plenty more pics of our autumn outing here!