What a beautiful day to head to the pumpkin patch! Ant found a place in Oak Glen that sounded good so off we went. It was a bit over an hour away but well worth the drive.
Much to our surprise, this is what we pulled up to: a real working New England replica farm. It was gorgeous. No frills or gimmicks, just a classic fall experience, and the views were amazing. We ate our lunch under a shady tree, boarded the hay ride to the fields, and picked our own pumpkins. We would have pressed our own cider, but we ran out of arms to carry any more!
The house was buzzing with activity because a production company was there promoting their movie,
Courage, New Hampshire which they filmed on this property. I took these photos on my phone, so they don't exactly capture the scenery, but suffice it to say, this beat any pumpkin patch we stumbled upon in Arizona. Dare I say it was way better than Brown's Harvest? That might get me in trouble...but seriously, who can argue with this....
...or this? Lots of people walked away with fresh cut bouquets of brightly colored zinnias from this field.
Vinny looked carefully for Spookley the Square Pumpkin from his new favorite story. "Is this 'pookey? Nooooo, it not 'pookey." This went on and on and on. But oh boy was he happy to find this one!
"oooh, it too heabeeeee"
This cow mooed right at Vinny, and he just didn't know what to think of that. No cow had ever mooed at him. Vinny was caught off guard. It was quite the City Slickers moment.
A view from the top of the patch.
We ventured up the canyon to find more apple orchards and little shops. The guys in this roadside apple stand allowed us to come behind the counter to watch them polish and sort the apples.
I should probably mention that our neighbors came with us! They are great people and we think we may have found ourselves some pretty good friends. Thank goodness. The next day was Sunday, so we invited them over for football and chili. Vinny had so much fun playing with his new friend Ella, he was asleep well before 8! That's unheard of! What a fun filled weekend!
Much to our surprise, this is what we pulled up to: a real working New England replica farm. It was gorgeous. No frills or gimmicks, just a classic fall experience, and the views were amazing. We ate our lunch under a shady tree, boarded the hay ride to the fields, and picked our own pumpkins. We would have pressed our own cider, but we ran out of arms to carry any more!
The house was buzzing with activity because a production company was there promoting their movie, Courage, New Hampshire which they filmed on this property. I took these photos on my phone, so they don't exactly capture the scenery, but suffice it to say, this beat any pumpkin patch we stumbled upon in Arizona. Dare I say it was way better than Brown's Harvest? That might get me in trouble...but seriously, who can argue with this....
...or this? Lots of people walked away with fresh cut bouquets of brightly colored zinnias from this field.
Vinny looked carefully for Spookley the Square Pumpkin from his new favorite story. "Is this 'pookey? Nooooo, it not 'pookey." This went on and on and on. But oh boy was he happy to find this one!
"oooh, it too heabeeeee"
This cow mooed right at Vinny, and he just didn't know what to think of that. No cow had ever mooed at him. Vinny was caught off guard. It was quite the City Slickers moment.
A view from the top of the patch.
We ventured up the canyon to find more apple orchards and little shops. The guys in this roadside apple stand allowed us to come behind the counter to watch them polish and sort the apples.
I should probably mention that our neighbors came with us! They are great people and we think we may have found ourselves some pretty good friends. Thank goodness. The next day was Sunday, so we invited them over for football and chili. Vinny had so much fun playing with his new friend Ella, he was asleep well before 8! That's unheard of! What a fun filled weekend!
Vinny can not get enough of playing "soop-ball." This makes his Daddy very happy. So he was eager to help James break in his new football along with Uncle Tom and Justin.
Vinny had a blast. Between running up and down the court at Justin's basketball game to putting together puzzles over and over and over again with Mommo, I think Vinny accomplished his mission of spreading a little sunshine. But after being away from home for nearly a month, it was nice to get back into our own beds!
