Corn Maze and pumpkins

We took our yearly treck to the Sauvie Island Corn Maize this year. We always go do the maze and then go to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. The trip out was a bit frustrating. From the turn off of Hwy 30 to the Pumpkin Patch is only 2 miles. It took us an HOUR to go just that far. Seems over the years this has become a popular place. I don't remember so many people trying to get there. We've been stuck in a line of traffic before to get there but it only took like 15 mins to get through. I think in the past we may have gone earlier in the month and earlier in the day. This time was later for both. It was crazy! The funny thing was once we got into the maze we didn't really run into that many groups of people. That was surprising. I was totally fine with that though. I'm not much of a crowds person. We completed the maze in decent time and had fun doing it. My friend Lori came with us and we always have a good time together during these types of things.

After getting lost for a bit and finding our way back, we decided we all needed nourishment before heading down to the patch. They have hay rides going to get you out there and back. But while in the maze the line had grown so long we weren't sure it was worth waiting for, until we saw the food lines. Wow! They were just as bad. So Lori kindly held our place in the hay ride line while the rest of us split up into 3 different lines to get the various food items we all wanted. Timed it perfectly :)

We had just enough time to find Lori and eat our food before it was our turn to get on the truck.

Lori spotted her perfect pumpkin from the truck so she just jumped down and ran over to it and was done.





The rest of us started our wandering trying to find the perfect pumpkin. The rule is "you want it you have to be able to carry it out". Sometimes it works and sometimes we give in to the pleading and help them carry the ginormous pumpkin one would usually pick out. Fortunately the three oldest are big enough now to really carry their own. Jonathan found a huge one and managed to lug it back to the truck and from there a few more feet to the carts. I was drawn to one that had some really pretty coloring, an interesting combination of orange and green I hadn't seen before. Seth, of course, wouldn't settle for a Seth-sized pumpkin so, yes, we had to help him carry it. But since Rob and I get just one between the two of us there were still enough arms to carry it.

The hay ride back was an adventure itself. There were some serious ruts in the path they were using and some of those bumps sent us flying off our seats. Which would be ok except that there are no sides to these trucks, just flat beds. We had to hold onto each other and our pumpkins to keep either from flying over the edge! I was facing backwards and it was fun to watch the wave as it hit the trailers behind us. We'd go flying then the people behind us would go flying and then the people behind them! Got us all laughing pretty hard.

After we paid, Rob ran the pumpkins out to the car while Lori and I went into the market. Always have to go in there to get the corn, usually some pretty good corn in there. I always get some jam or syrup too, it's always so good. I just bought jam this time to put on the toast I have to eat in the morning since toast is one of the few things I can choke down first thing in the morning.

After that we decided we needed more food. I had to have another sausage, I eat such bland stuff during the day but by evening I can usually eat whatever so stuff like sausages are heaven :) I just had to have another! Then we headed home and slept well that night!

Today is the day we carved pumpkins. This time we had Elizabeth's best buddy, Jill, with us. We let her take one of the white pumpkins we grew this year to carve for herself. I usually let Rob carve the one we get for us and then I help with the kids'. Seth needed help so I went over and started scraping his out. Didn't take long before I was gagging from the smell of pumpkin guts. Being pregnant I'm having serious issues with smells. Pumpkin guts has got to be the worst one I've come across so far. Breathing through my mouth didn't help and soon I had to leave. I managed to get a few pictures in before I left the kitchen. Before I left though, Rob pulled the ultimate. He pretended to lick the pumpkin slime that was dripping off his fingers. That was too much. Combined with the smell and that image I had to run out of the room gagging. GROSS!!! We had a good laugh over it a bit later but he did feel bad for doing that to me. So he says anyway, hahaha. The smell was so bad even with doors open, I had to retreat to my bedroom. Rob was kind enough to clean everything up and rinse all the tools and bowls off so that none of the pumpkin smell would remain. I'm really hoping the memory of the smell fades before next Halloween. I shouldn't be as sensitive to it next year but I'm afraid it'll be like when you eat something and get really sick afterwards it's years before you eat that food again. To this day I can't eat fry sauce cause I got the stomach flu after eating some when I was 17!! So, I hope smells don't work the same way cause pumpkin carving is one the best parts of Halloween!!

Anyway, here are some pics of the kids' pumpkin artwork. They had fun doing it, wish I could have been involved a bit more.



Jill and Elizabeth with their jack o lanterns




The biggest of the white pumpkins we grew this year. Thought they make a good pumpkin snowman :)

 




Seth really did not like this part of it.



Jonathan gave his a scar across the eye





This poor pumpkin got shot in the head and
now his brains are falling out







Jonathan never has a problem cleaning out his

own pumpkin :)