For as long as I've lived in Virginia, we've gone to the same pumpkin patch every October. Lance has been 5 out of his 6 years as well, so needless to say, it's become a family tradition.
This year we went to the Pumpkin patch Oct. 10th with my mom and Glenn, Jason, Laura and Mason, and George's parents with Allen, Callie and Bryce. It was a lot of fun! It was a big group to try to keep together, but it was neat to be there with both sets of Grandparents.
Great Country Farms has grown in the last several years to include a large array of attractions perfect for kids. We stayed a little over 4 hours and still didn't get to do and see everything we wanted.
Word of caution: there are 76 pictures on this post (I took about 500--the glory and the curse of digital photography), so feel free to scroll really fast. :) I couldn't decide which ones I liked best and since this will become our family journal once it's printed, I figured I'd include a lot.
They have a sort of petting area with many different kinds of animals that the kids thought were fascinating.
Emu.
The kids kept trying to feed the poor bird grass.
We also got to see the "pig races". Sounds more exciting than it actually was, but the kids thought it was pretty neat.
Callie in her cute Halloween outfit.
Lance watching the race.
Go, piggies, go!
Watching the piggies.
And of course it wouldn't be a proper visit without jumping on the huge pumpkin bounce!
Callie, Lance and Bryce
Jude tried so hard to get up to the top, but just couldn't quite make it.
There were too many big kids to put him all the way up there, but he had a good time playing on the sides.
Jason with little Mason. Mason was only about 4 or 5 weeks old last year when we went.
Jude trying to bounce with Aunt Laura and Mason.
And then it was on to more animals!
The kids thought this shetland pony was super cute.
Pop pop showing how to pet the horse.
Jude wasn't scared of the animals at all and tried to touch as many of them as he could.
Even Mason liked him. (Apparently the horse liked Mason's shoes as well.)
Uncle Jason and Mason.
Pig. :)
Feeding the cutest little goat. George officially hates goats because when he was just a little older than Jude he was at a petting zoo and got knocked over by a goat who butted him in the stomach. Notice George is not in any of these pictures.
Slide time! They have some great slides at the farm made of huge tubes. They are long and pretty steep and fairly fast. We all had a great time taking our turn down the slides.
Callie running to get back in line.
Bryce and Jude racing each other.
I think Lance won whoever he was racing.
Me and Jude. George was the photographer. Thanks, Love!
Lance and Callie having a good time.
Jude actually liked going on his stomach.
You get a better idea as to how long these slides really are with these pictures. Probably about 100 feet!
Callie (that's Lance in a heap behind her in the green shirt).
Watching. Love the face, Jason.
Mom and Glenn. I don't have too many pictures of them (probably because I was busy snapping them of the kids), but they were with us the whole time having fun.
We got to watch their mechanical dinosaur munch some rotten pumpkins.
Jude wasn't a huge fan, but Lance thought it was awesome.
Lance on another slide.
Corn pit!
Mason and Jude
Cousins--Bryce, Callie, Jude and Lance.
Boys playing with trucks in the corn.
He's grown a lot...
...since last year.
I think this picture is funny. They're looking at Callie and Bryce who are sitting on the tire right next to them.
Cute picture. :)
Cousins. These guys are thick as thieves when they're together!
Guineas, I think. They were surprisingly fond of grass...
Enjoying some lunch before getting our pumpkins. I think this was the first time Lance has ever eaten more than a bite of a hamburger. He downed the whole thing! I also LOVE Jude's hotdog. Haha!
Eating on the lawn.
Sweet shades, Mason.
Pumpkin picking time! We accidentally caught the hay ride before my mom and Glenn could get on, so we rode to the patch with the Glass family and waited until my family caught the next ride over.
Jude and George. Jude was pretty tired.
Lance was with Callie and Bryce on another part of the wagon.
Jude was super excited about the pumpkins and kept pointing to all of them and yelling "Punkin! Punkin!"
Grandmom with Jude and George.
Allen
Pop pop carrying the prized pumpkins Callie and Bryce picked out.
On the hunt for the perfect pumpkin. It's serious business!
I think they found a bug. Whatever it was, Lance was impressed.
An attempt to get all four cousins in the same shot. Jude had other ideas.
Mom and Glenn with their three grandbabies.
Family
Grandmom and Pop Pop with Allen and their four grandkids.
Laura and Mason. Tyler had to work and couldn't make it. We were also missing Amy who wanted to come but had to work as well. I tell you what, being a responsible adult is terrible!
On the wagon ride back to the farm.
And of course we had to do the cow ride. Lance asks to do this every time we come.
Jude and Bryce with Allen a few "cows" behind.
Lance and Callie waiting for the ride to start (you can see Jude and Bryce behind them as well).
Allen chaperoning the little kids.
Coming back after the ride.
Enjoying some wonderful apple pie together.
The whole group.
And this was Jude about 5 minutes into the ride home:
I love my boys!
We had a great time at the patch with our family! We had just enough time to make it back to Grandma's house to pack up our things, get a bite to eat and head home to Charlottesville. Well, the boys and I drove back to Charlottesville and George drove to my Aunt Linda's house where he's been staying during his away rotation at Georgetown. Thanks, Aunt Linda!
Of course, we did have time for one or two games of Uno with Grandma and Uncle Jason while I ran around collecting everything we needed to take home.
It was a great day!
