Fall

I love fall - the colors, the smells, the cooler air... And I think I truly appreciate it more than most because I grew up in Alaska where the fall season barely even exists. Seriously, the summers in Alaska are great, but it starts getting rainy in August and by October its snowing. And once the snow sticks, well...you know the rest of the story. Here we have a REAL fall season that lasts all the way through...well, Thanksgiving anyway, at which point all my fall decor is put away, regardless of the weather, so I can make the most of the Christmas season.

One thing I never had growing up in Alaska was a pumpkin patch to visit in the fall, so naturally I am determined to make that a part of Kendry's childhood memories. Okay, I know Kendry is not even six months old yet and probably won't actually recall the fall of 2009, but that is beside the point. So when our friends Josey and Jen visited with their kiddos two weeks ago I had already located a harvest festival, complete with pumpkin patch, for us to visit. What I had not planned on was the weather getting incredibly cold that week - cold as in waking up to 25 degree temperatures. Maybe I can't call myself an Alaskan anymore for complaining about 25 degrees, but since just two weeks before that it was still in the 90s here, you can imagine our struggle to get acclimated. However, we were undeterred by the cold temperatures and drove the thirty minutes up the Lewiston Grade to visit the harvest festival, where we promptly FROZE OUR LITTLE TUSHIES OFF!

Of course, we stuck it out long enough to pay the $12 to get each of our families into the festival, then another $8 or so for a tiny concession-style lunch. But we didn't buy anything from the vendors, and you can bet we weren't going to trek the 1/4 mile out to the pumpkin patch to select (and pay more money for) a pumpkin, let alone hang around and take pictures of Kendry freezing amongst the pumpkins. In about an hour we were back in the warm car and headed back home. Mission unaccomplished.

Now, as most wives know, after lugging your husband to a dud of a harvest festival once, chances are he won't be too great a sport about finding another one to attend, especially if it costs more money. Of course, little did I know that the real pumpkin patch to go to in this area is only ten minutes from our front door. So, rather than putting us all through another bad patch experience, I caved and resorted to Wal-Mart because, let's face it, you can't beat two beautiful giant pumpkins at just $2 each. This last weekend we brought home our commercial pumpkins and did Kendry's very first "pumpkin patch" photo shoot. I think it looks authentic, don't you?