Pumpkin Patch

For the second year, we visited a pumpkin farm south of the city to select our pumpkins. Of course, I use pumpkin farm liberally. I am pretty sure they are shipped in pumpkins scattered amongst some vines. Still, they have corn mazes, hay mazes, goats to feed, horse swings made of tires and tube slides propped up on hay bales. You know, the safe way all slides should be propped up.

Looking at pictures from last year, it is amazing how much the boys have grown and how much worse the weather. Last year this time, it was a perfect day. This year, walking through the patch meant choosing the from the two dry paths and not those with ankle deep mud. Last year Ben could only sit where we sat him. This year, he was climbing up hay bales to slide down slides.

2008

Now

Jessi and Nana came along with us and as the last hoorah before leaving, Jess agreed to take Joshy through the corn maze. We had walked through it earlier and it seemed like just a big circle so, 15 minutes later, I was mostly just annoyed that they were still playing while we waited, hungry, feeling the water drops at increasing intervals. Finally, I sent John in to get them because patient and starving are concepts that I cannot reconcile easily. Soon, they were filing out of the maze, Jess and Joshy cheering that they were saved. Apparently, the maze is more of a maze than I realized and they had been legitimately lost. As Jess tells it, they were turning left and then right and then back where they started, running into others who asked if they had seen the exit to which they replied, "No. Have you?". Finally, as they, too, felt the raindrops Jessi turned to Joshy, gripping him by the arms, saying "Jessi is going to get us out of here", all the while certain she was hearing animals rustling around in the corn stalks. It was then that John turned the corner, as she tells it, to her and Joshy cheering at the sight of him. Seems like, for the first time ever, my instantaneous anger when hungry actually made something better.