Our Day at Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

The first of our fall festivities was a trip to the pumpkin patch. I think Bishops is one of the best. And we learned this year if you go the first weekend it is open there isn't the crippling crowds, the parking is free- but it is a little too hot. But that is a small price to pay for this mother who hates crowded places.

We started with the barn maze that ends in the slide. The boys were happy to do this over and over for 45 min. There was a shady tree near by so we were happy to let them. There was also a room full of corn in the maze.

Then were escorted onto the train by one of the pumpkin princesses. There were really teenage girls in orange satin dresses and tiaras helping to control the non crowds.

The typically awful only picture of the whole family.

Then we headed to the Mining mountain. On one side is a water fall with a pond where you get to pan for marbles- only 10 per kid and then you get to climb the other side and do these. The boys would have done this for 45 min too but there was no shady tree and I was getting sunburnt so mom called and end to it.

I tried to get a picture of the boys before the sunflowers. Also typically successful. We skipped the corn maze because it was flooded.

Then we found some shade and some tri tip sandwiches.

Tractor seat chairs!

Can you resist one of these? We can't.

Then we fed some goats. And Alma took pictures of my boobs- I will not share those.

This was a giant jumping thing- it was mattresses covered in hay. Strange but fun.

Strangest parade ever- it had the local jr high drum section, this lady and all the free pumpkin princesses. Very strange.

We had ice cream- I love ice cream faces.

What I like best about bishops is all the simple little things for the kids. There are tree houses, wood trains, these little rocking horses, and tire mazes. Just fun little things all over.

And of course there are thousands and thousands of pumpkins.

A word to the wise- if you want cute pictures of you kids don't wait until the end of day when every one wants to go home including your husband who refuses to help you coral the kids. Even if you want to wait until the light is good to take your pictures. Cranky tired family does not good pictures make.

And then I made the fatal flaw of trying to order some pies to take to Dads. The friendly but not very bright teen age girls working the pie stand made me want to bang my head against the wall. And someone told me the rest of the weekends the wait to buy your pies can take hours- but I didn't even wait in line and it took me way too long. And then we got to the car and realized I didn't have my camera. Thank goodness when I ran back to the park there was a nice family sitting with it waiting for its owner to come and claim it. Thank you strange family. And the pumpkin walnut pie and the apple carmel pie were well worth the frustration of trying to order from the dim cheerleaders.