Pumpkin Patch

This gal & I, we go way back. College days, sorority life, frat parties, boyfriend drama...we were right there in the thick of it--together.

Only these days, we're no longer shopping for Homecoming dresses & planning our togas for the upcoming Saturday night Sigma Chi theme party. 

Instead, we're skimming through dates on our calendar planning our annual day trip to the pumpkin patch. It has now become a tradition that I love & look forward to so very much.

Cutie booties. 

Between the both of us we've got two super husbands, four amazing kids & a friendship that has deepened in the years following our good ol' college days.

I'd say we've come a long way from pink formal gowns & Jungle Juice.

This year we took our tradition up north where the radiance of the countryside nearly took my breath away. The colors of the changing leaves resemble nothing of the burnt up ones we see here, closer to the city. Vibrant colors of yellow, orange, & fiery red stroked the tops of the tree line. And the blue skies? Like a scene from a picture book, complete with wispy clouds drifting between them. I'm not sure why, but the view here seemed sharper amidst those glorious rolling hills. 

A real cowboy. A ride on a pony named "Picnic". This kid was in heaven.

And if the scenery wasn't enough to make the day an absolute perfect one, well then the show that the weather put on certainly was. Clear skies. A high of 56 degrees. A bursting Autumn sun. A smidge on the chilly side, enough for a sweater & boots. Complete perfection if you ask me. It could not have been a more perfect day, of that I am sure.

Our kiddos fed smelly goats, rode pretty ponies, chased one another down gigantic hills & in & out of heaping piles of pumpkins. And the best was saved for last-- a hayride pulled by a John Deere tractor.

A hayride that ended in the best pumpkin patch. Ever.

Sweet, spunky Avery has tried without ceasing for years to get Jett to hold her hand. Finally, the 2012 trip to the pumpkin patch--mission accomplished! Persistence paid off, girlfriend.

Gigantic pumpkins, all still on the vine. Ones you had to pull & yank & tug at with might. Ones that when you gather round to carve closer to Halloween, you'll be swarmed with memories of lugging away from the patch that day.

We all picked our perfect pumpkins, great big ones with flat fronts {the best kind for carving} & we waddled our way back to the tractor trailer, arms hugged around our prizes.

We sat perched, side by side on bales of hay as we took one last trip around the countryside, drinking in every sound, every smell, every beauty there was to behold. And then we closed down the farm. We took our dust covered kids, our fat pumpkins & every memory we had made & waved good-bye to the pumpkin patch.

Until next year, that is.