Just in case you were wondering, Fall happens to be my favorite time of the year. I love the crisp air, the smell of wood burning in fireplaces... and I really love the smell of jack-o-lanterns lit with a real candle. Weird I know...but just one of those childhood smells that you never forget. We are going to have plenty of pumpkins to carve, because we came home with two more today! Today, I had the pleasure of attending Carson's first field trip in Kindergarten to Westmoreland Berry Farm as a chaperon. The kids took a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch and picked their own pumpkins, and gourds. They had several story and song times with the wonderful ladies at the farm, who did an outstanding job keeping 5 and 6 year olds entertained. It was the coldest day we have had yet this season, about 40 degrees with a real stiff wind. So it was well below freezing with the wind chill.... at least it wasn't raining!
I haven't ridden on a school bus in years, and that was interesting to say the least. I know I enjoyed myself tremendously, the kids had a blast, and we all enjoyed the beauty that is Virginia in the Fall. I am hesitant to post too many pictures of other peoples children on this blog without their permission, so what you see is but a small sampling, or difficult to see who is really in the shots.
When we first drove in there is a large contraption of sort that crosses over the road, with obvious perches and ledges. We all kinda wondered what that was for. As we were eating lunch we were treated to a show from the resident goat. There is a pulley and machine to buy goat feed from. You put the feed in the bucket and use the pulley to bring it up to the top perch. The goat must have smelt our food, because he wandered up and looked around waiting for someone to offer him a bite.
When he didn't get any food, he calmly trotted back down the ramps on the other side.
The kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Did I mention it was COLD???
By the way.... I was informed by two little girls that they are Carson's girlfriends....He was indifferent to the whole thing, but he did tell me that they were beautiful... he's right... they are cuties.
Apples, Apples, Apples, all sorts of apples... acres upon acres of Apples! After our peach picking trip earlier in the Summer, Carson, Wayne and I knew that we would head back up for APPLES.....This time we headed to 
The trees were just loaded with fruit...so much so that anytime you put your stick up, you would come back with several apples.
Of course, Dad had to hold Carson up to reach some...it is just more fun that way.... Almost......
Reach a little bit higher.....
Got IT! Almost knocked daddy's glasses off... but it was worth it!
The Mighty Gatherer, returns with his abundant harvest....
We picked about 25 pounds of apples, and then went to the Bake and Cider House ..BIG mistake...if you are hungry. They had fresh baked apple pies, apple butter, apple danish, apple cider, apple jelly and cinnamon apple raisin bread...It smelled heavenly in there! We bought a little of everything except apple pie... I figured I have enough apples to make 20 pies...at least.
You can't really tell from the picture how steep of a slope it is... but trust me..it was enough to keep things rolling. Carson would find the perfect pumpkin, and as soon as he broke it off the vine, and try to pick it up, gravity would take over and the pumpkin would roll down the hill. This happened a couple of times, before we realized that we needed to be down slope of the pumpkins and use the gravity to our advantage. 
Carson finally found the perfect one, and it didn't get away from him....
While we were pumpkin hunting... we came across the carcass of a deer, Carson was entranced....he thought we had found dinosaur bones....We explored it a bit, without touching...it was past the odor phase, so it wasn't too bad. Little Boys...gotta love them!
He informed me that this was a sharp tooth (tyrannosaurus) dinosaur, because it had sharp teeth....
Then there is the Great Pumpkin Cart that almost killed a village.... well...ok... a small child and a woman. Wayne had rolled a cart up the side of the hill (small mountain...if you are from the flat lands of Texas) and he had loaded all the pumpkins he had picked into the cart. He set the cart down for a second...and the cart took off down the hill (you say hill, I say mini-mountain). It was going very fast and headed right for the fruit stand at the bottom of the hill and a small child. This brave woman, jumped in front of the cart and stopped it from hitting the stand and the child.... SCARED all of us to death... the poor little boy was clinging to his mother for the rest of the day... he was terrified, THANK GOD, no one was hurt, it really happened so fast, and that woman was lucky, she didn't get hurt...definitely had us some angels on patrol.
Ham anyone???
The next year, we drove up North to Etter, Texas to go to the Pumpkin Patch and Corn maze. We had a blast with friends from church.
Last year, there was FINALLY a pick your own patch and corn maze close to Amarillo. We went with friends and family and had a ball. 
I forgot to even mention the corn mazes.... We LOVE corn mazes... I mean whats not to LOVE...getting lost, chasing one another, sneezing uncontrollably, and spending priceless time together as a family. 
