Pumpkin Patch 2018 - A Halloween Tradition

About five years ago, after suffering for many years with my family feeling robbed of our holiday season joy, I decided I was done pouting and wanted to REALLY embrace the holiday spirit again.

With October and Halloween being one of my favorite seasons of the year, I decided to start a family tradition where we would all go to a pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins, and afterward have a pumpkin carving party. It’s hardly a “unique” tradition, as I know many families do the exact same thing... but it felt special and exciting to me because of the many years that had gone by without us doing really ANY family holiday traditions, due to some extreme sorrow and trauma our family had been enduring.

I’ve learned over the years that when things in your life aren’t going so great, you can either wallow in your self-pitty and suffer the consequences from that garbage mindset, or you can take the bull by the horns and create your own happiness and future destiny by just putting one foot in front of the other, and make the most of what you’ve got, and find the beauty in the little victories and small blessings.

Well here we are now, 6 years later, still enjoying our Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin Carving tradition! Even though not everyone has been able to join us each year, it’s always worth it to me and I am grateful for the memories - especially now that I have children. And of course I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t take a zillion pictures at these gatherings! So here they are!

​We went to MacDonald Ranch in north Scottsdale - where we typically go every year. It was 90 degrees that day and therefore WAY hotter than I am used to now that we live up in the mountains. Next year we might try a different ranch up north to keep things cool; and just to try something different in general.

The first thing we did when we first got to the ranch was let Gavin ride the horses! It’s my favorite part, of course! And it was Gavin’s very first time so that made it extra exciting!

That last photo of Gavin kissing his horse good-bye is probably my favorite shot from the whole day!

​Being a world-champion equestrian, I was super proud to see my son on a horse and how happy his face was while up there! He looked so pleased with himself. I love that my son is brave and not afraid to try new and daring things. I hope I can teach all of my children not to be afraid of horses (and how to ride them!). It’s still on my bucket list to own a ranch and teach kids horseback riding lessons! Some day....

It was so fun having Garrett and Jason join us for the first time this year now that they both live in Arizona. Garrett was with us the very first year we went but hasn’t been since and it was great to have him back! Gavin loves his uncles so much and had a lot of fun playing with them, as always. I am so happy they live near us now so they can be here for these special occasions. I wish more of our family could have been there this year but many moved out of state or just couldn't make it. Hopefully next year we will have a bigger group again. Either way, we had a great time again this year.

After the horseback riding, we headed over to pan for gold. Gavin was so cute and really enjoyed finding the "treasures” with his daddy. He proudly carried around that little bag of gold for the rest of the day. Kids make little things like that so fun!

After we panned for gold, we headed over to the petting zoo. Gavin really loved feeding the goats and brushing the animals. He especially loved it when the goats snagged the ice cream cones from him! I think having kids around animals is so important. I can't wait to have a backyard again and hopefully enough land to finally put some animals on. I would love to own horses again. I could see us owning chickens and goats too. Ahhh one can dream.

After the petting zoo we let Gavin play some of the games; had a quick lunch break where we ate yummy Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwiches; wandered through the hay maze; and then finally made it over to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.

I think Garrett's favorite part at the ranch was the photo props. He rushed over to each one he saw to take a photo. It made all of us laugh - his enthusiasm is contagious. I love that he gets excited over simple things like I do. He’s like having a big kid around! We tried getting Gavin into it too, and at first he wanted nothing to do with it, but once he saw all the fun Uncle Garrett was having he finally decided he wanted to be part of the action too. It is funny how a 3 year old's mind works like that! Total "fear of missing out." Haha.

It was cute seeing Gavin go through the hay maze this year. Two years ago he had no clue what was going on or where to go or what to do - pretty much just followed whoever was in front of him. This year however Gavin was pretty good at finding his way through it and even had fun jumping around on top of the haybales.

Halloween is Gavin's favorite holiday so every time he saw pumpkins or scarecrows he got really excited and wanted his picture with them. I love his enthusiasm for the holidays (and just his enthusiasm in general - he is such a fun kid). It's hard not to take a million photos when there are so many great photo opportunities and special moments everywhere I turn!

On our way to the pumpkin patch this year we took the wagon hay ride instead of the train like we usually do. It was a really busy Saturday at the farm and we didn’t want to wait for it, and honestly, I thought the wagon was more fun! Not that the train isn’t fun too, but it wasn’t a big deal to miss it this year.

The boys had fun picking out pumpkins. Gentry was especially fascinated with them. Gavin loves pumpkins and all that stuff so he could have stayed there all day if we let him.

We picked out a full barrel’s worth of pumpkins and went home. We did our pumpkin carving party the next day (that’ll be another post!). I am looking forward to next year where Gentry will be walking and able to participate with his big brother.

Hope everyone has been having a great October and start to their holiday season!