Ever since the fall colors started popping around here, I've been anticipating (read: dreaming, fantasizing) about taking our boys to the pumpkin patch. The Oktoberfest Pumpkin Patch wasn't grand enough for me. Call me a pumpkin patch snob. We missed spending half of October with Mark due to his travel schedule, so I couldn't WAIT for this weekend to come. I envisioned spending time as a family, frolicking in the pumpkin patch and taking some cute photos of our boys and their first fall together. Sappy I know, but it's just what Moms do I guess. I want to soak in every little bit of what is going on and enjoy the fun stuff amidst the chaos and not so fun stuff.
Fast forward to yesterday. Poor Mark has been pluggin' away like a mad man on our basement project. He has basically done the ENTIRE project on his own all while trying to help me out, work, travel and do everything else that a loving Husband & Dad is expected to do. The basement looks fabulous by the way. The walls are up, painted and the electrical work is finished. Now the only MAJOR thing left to do is the flooring (FUN!).
Mark knew how much I wanted to head to the pumpkin patch and that Cooper was looking forward to it as well. So after Mark finished painting (the last thing he wanted to do on his weekend off), he came upstairs and announced "who wants to go to the pumpkin patch". Both Cooper and I answered at the same time "I DO! I DO!" as we did our Happy-to-Go-to-The-Pumpkin-Patch dance. And off we went.
Even though the pumpkin patch is only a couple of miles from our house, traffic was bumper to bumper due to the combination of fall color seekers, Oktoberfest and a Lumber Jack competition (yes, you read that correctly) that was being televised on ESPN. As we pulled out of our street we decided it was crazy to attempt to get caught up in the traffic and on a whim decided to hit the grocery store instead. Cooper was not pleased. Grocery store vs. pumpkin patch...which would you choose? We decided that we'd drop Cooper and Mark off at the park and Cruz and I would hurry and grab some groceries. Success! Cooper was happy and all was well when I picked them up. He hopped in the car happily when Cruz and I pulled up and immediately asked if we were going to the pumpkin patch now. The kid hadn't forgotten. We decided we'd head back home in that direction and see how the traffic looked. How bad could it really be? We only needed to go a couple of miles. Well, let's just say it took quite awhile to travel a couple of miles AND we now had groceries in the car (not smart).
We finally made it after driving about 5 miles per hour and Cooper seemed fine. Can you tell that I'm leading up (very slowly I might add) to a not so happy pumpkin patch experience? Mark and I were snippy at that point, Cooper was cranky and I could tell there wouldn't be any cute kiddos posing in the pumpkin patch photos. Mark and I both told Cooper to hurry and grab a pumpkin so we could get back in the car (luckily the traffic was heading in the opposite direction at that point). Cooper found a pumpkin and managed to find (and take a sip out of) an abandoned Big Gulp cup full of God only knows what. He only had it for maybe 2 seconds, but that's all it took. I don't even want to think of what could have been in that cup. Did you just throw up in your mouth a little bit as you read this? Because I do every time I replay it in my mind. Mark did a quick CSI investigation and noticed an empty Mountain Dew bottle right next to it. He assured me that it was probably just aged Mountain Dew and not some random dude's Jack and Coke. Because J&C would be my drink of choice if I had to deal with all the tourists and picky pumpkin patch shoppers. The Mystery Sip was definitely a sign that it was time to go (as if we needed another one).
Here are the pictures that I did manage to take. Notice how thrilled Cooper looks. Cruz slept through the entire fiasco and luckily Cooper hasn't gotten sick from the Mystery Sip. Ohhhhhhhh what a day!
Fast forward to yesterday. Poor Mark has been pluggin' away like a mad man on our basement project. He has basically done the ENTIRE project on his own all while trying to help me out, work, travel and do everything else that a loving Husband & Dad is expected to do. The basement looks fabulous by the way. The walls are up, painted and the electrical work is finished. Now the only MAJOR thing left to do is the flooring (FUN!).
Mark knew how much I wanted to head to the pumpkin patch and that Cooper was looking forward to it as well. So after Mark finished painting (the last thing he wanted to do on his weekend off), he came upstairs and announced "who wants to go to the pumpkin patch". Both Cooper and I answered at the same time "I DO! I DO!" as we did our Happy-to-Go-to-The-Pumpkin-Patch dance. And off we went.
Even though the pumpkin patch is only a couple of miles from our house, traffic was bumper to bumper due to the combination of fall color seekers, Oktoberfest and a Lumber Jack competition (yes, you read that correctly) that was being televised on ESPN. As we pulled out of our street we decided it was crazy to attempt to get caught up in the traffic and on a whim decided to hit the grocery store instead. Cooper was not pleased. Grocery store vs. pumpkin patch...which would you choose? We decided that we'd drop Cooper and Mark off at the park and Cruz and I would hurry and grab some groceries. Success! Cooper was happy and all was well when I picked them up. He hopped in the car happily when Cruz and I pulled up and immediately asked if we were going to the pumpkin patch now. The kid hadn't forgotten. We decided we'd head back home in that direction and see how the traffic looked. How bad could it really be? We only needed to go a couple of miles. Well, let's just say it took quite awhile to travel a couple of miles AND we now had groceries in the car (not smart).
We finally made it after driving about 5 miles per hour and Cooper seemed fine. Can you tell that I'm leading up (very slowly I might add) to a not so happy pumpkin patch experience? Mark and I were snippy at that point, Cooper was cranky and I could tell there wouldn't be any cute kiddos posing in the pumpkin patch photos. Mark and I both told Cooper to hurry and grab a pumpkin so we could get back in the car (luckily the traffic was heading in the opposite direction at that point). Cooper found a pumpkin and managed to find (and take a sip out of) an abandoned Big Gulp cup full of God only knows what. He only had it for maybe 2 seconds, but that's all it took. I don't even want to think of what could have been in that cup. Did you just throw up in your mouth a little bit as you read this? Because I do every time I replay it in my mind. Mark did a quick CSI investigation and noticed an empty Mountain Dew bottle right next to it. He assured me that it was probably just aged Mountain Dew and not some random dude's Jack and Coke. Because J&C would be my drink of choice if I had to deal with all the tourists and picky pumpkin patch shoppers. The Mystery Sip was definitely a sign that it was time to go (as if we needed another one).
Here are the pictures that I did manage to take. Notice how thrilled Cooper looks. Cruz slept through the entire fiasco and luckily Cooper hasn't gotten sick from the Mystery Sip. Ohhhhhhhh what a day!
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Look at that face!Not exactly what you'd call a happy pumpkin picker outer.
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I guess I'll take this one.
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Lesson learned: Not everything is Pumpkinerrific and picture perfect. Some moments and memories will simply have to be captured in my mind. Even if it's only how I wanted things to be and not how things actually turned out. Looking back, I have to laugh at the entire outing. At least we came home with some pumpkins. That actually turns the incident into a Pumpkin Patch Pass. Mission accomplished as we did indeed come home with pumpkins after all. That's what we told Cooper we were going to do and that's exactly what we did. I'm sure there will be happier pumpkin patch moments in our future. Until then, I'll just have to dream about it. Ahhhhhhhhh. I'm dreaming about it right now and it makes me smile.
2 comments:
This sounds like a pass to me. But I hear you on the dream versus the reality...
You dream about fun filled family events too?! It is nice to have Mommy brain which selectively edits these events. Next week you will only remember the pretty pumpkin colors and how well Cruz slept.
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