Saturday, October 19, 2013

Black Island Farm & Pumpkin Patch

Today I took the kids (& and my sister's kids & my sister) on a small adventure.  I was reading the news on KSL.com the other day and came across an article about the "Pick your own pumpkin farms" in UT.  I found three that were relatively close.  I found directions and whatever info I could on them and then convinced my sister she should go with me if I was feeling like I was able to rejoin the land of the living.  Fortunately for me (and the kids) I wasn't feeling as awful today as I have since Monday.  Bonus!  We headed out a little after 1 and made our way to Syracuse.  I knew the area we were headed to because my sister in law use to live just west of where we were going.  I wasn't sure what it was going to cost us to get in because they didn't have it listed on their website.  It was pricier than I would have liked, but we didn't want to go two more exits to Layton or down to Farmington, so we bit the bullet.  We did the courtyard first.  The courtyard consisted of some small farm animals, several different slides, some tires to play on (even one that was made to be like a bull that Caleb loved), a kid corn maze, a sandbox filled with corn kernels, a train ride pulled by a tractor, and a bounce house that looked like a giant cow!  We could have also done the rock wall and shoot corn on the cob, but it cost extra money.  For what we paid to get in, I think it should have been included but, oh well.  The kids were super well behaved (only one moment of B missing for just a short second or two) and they loved getting to spend time with their Bradshaw cousins.




























































After we finished up the courtyard the Bradshaws headed out.  They already had pumpkins at home.  We loaded onto a trailer pulled by a tractor and were hauled out to the pumpkin fields.  The kids were super excited to get to scour a field (of 10,000+ pumpkins) to find just the right pumpkin.  I was impressed with the fact that they listened so well and they stayed within eyesight and followed directions to the letter!

Nash hopped out of the trailer and found his perfect pumpkin almost immediately.  He asked if he could get one that weighed as much as he does.  I told him if he could carry that was fine!  I'm not carrying five pumpkins that each weigh as much as a kid!

B found her pumpkin pretty quick.  She tried to pick it up but couldn't quite get it off the ground herself! :)


Caleb looked a bit longer than B did and was quite proud of the fact that he found one he liked that we didn't have to cut off the vine.  "I just kicked the vine with my boot and it came right off Mom!"

Sam found her pumpkin after Caleb did but was too quick for me to get a picture of her with it!

Once everyone found their pumpkins and we were loaded back onto the trailer we headed back to the main farm area.  I told the kids my plan of action to get everyone and their pumpkins off the tractor without too much incident.  They followed directions to the letter again - amazing!  Twice in one day!  After we got all our pumpkins and kids off the tractor Sam & Nash headed off to find us a wagon to carry them all back to the car in!

I was SO glad when Sam came back pulling a wagon!  I had NO idea how the heck I was getting five pumpkins and four kids over to the Tahoe without a wagon!

Sam & Nash even pulled and pushed the wagon with all five pumpkins and the two little kids in it without me asking them to do it!  Sam lasted until we were only about 6 cars away and then I pulled the kids the rest of the way.





We had lots of fun today.  Brookelyn has been sick for two weeks and I know she feels just awful.  I was hoping today would put a smile on her face and help her feel better.  I think it did but it wore her out.  She feel asleep shortly after I put her in the Tahoe and didn't wake up until we came out of Sardine Canyon!  Our plan is to carve pumpkins in another week when our dad is home and it's a bit closer to Halloween.  Hope the pumpkins don't get pushed off the porch during preschool pick up before then!  I did stack them going down the stairs rather than across the front of the porch in hopes of avoiding a fatal fall!  We shall see...a lot can happen in a week when you have 20 3 & 4 year olds!