Our trip to a pumpkin patch

It all started when teacher Tasha told us she'd been to a pumpkin patch in Gervais, which is about 20 miles away, and she said it was the best pumpkin patch she had seen.

I thought, "Really? Wow!"  and "Better than Sauvie Island?!?" because everyone in PDX goes to Sauvie Island, and everyone outside of PDX drives a long distance to go to the Sauvie Island pumpkin patch.  So, on Monday we went to that pumpkin patch in Gervais.  It was a sunny day, and I was afraid it would not be sunny if we waited til the weekend (today being Saturday, I was right to be worried), and I figured Monday would be less crowded than the weekend anyway.

It was a nice farm, but all the pumpkins were gone!  I mean, there were pumpkins on the ground, but every single one was rotten.  One nice thing compared to Sauvie Island is that you can park right next to the pumpkin patch and walk right in.  At Sauvie Island you have to take the hay ride mobile to the actual pumpkin patch.

But, despite the lack of pumpkins, it was a great place for the girls to run around for free.  And it was sunny, and maybe around 5pm so the sun was low, and we were in farm country, not forest, so the lighting was awesome for photos.

Here is when we first arrived.  There was a separate pumpkin patch for the teeny pumpkins, but even those were no good.

Inside the big pumpkin patch, I chased the girls trying to take advantage of that gorgeous light.

There was a forest fire a LONG distance away, but you can see the smoke in the sky behind Mae.  The color and light in this image is unedited.

Close up of Mae with dirt on her nose

Then we headed over to the playground that they had set up for the kids.  Libby enjoyed the tricycle:

And Mae liked the slide.  Well, she liked climbing to the top.  Then she'd sit for a while and decide to climb back down the way she came.