Fall Fun | Jaxon's First Pumpkin Patch

I'm a kid at heart.  My favorite idea of a date has always been something like ice skating, visiting the zoo or science center, going to a fair, etc.  For as long as I can remember, I've dreamed of the day I would have a little family to enjoy these fun activities with, especially seasonal activities, such as the pumpkin patch.

Last year we visited Connor's A-Maize-Ing Acres and all I could think about was the tiny baby growing in my belly and how fun it would be to come back in a year with our little one.

Unfortunately, the trip didn't go as well as we had hoped.  Jaxon slept the entire way there, which was about a 40 minute drive.  We put his car seat carrier in the stroller, then headed into the farm.  After about 20 minutes, he was still asleep and Nick was growing impatient.  He wanted Jaxon to wake up so he could "have some fun".  I advised against it, knowing it'd make for a crabby baby, but Nick tried to reassure me, "Oh, he'll be fine!"

Wrong.  So wrong.

He woke him and he was okay.  Not his normal happy self, but not upset.  So we snapped a few photos and gave him a couple of minutes to wake up.

Nick was pretty eager to get him in the corn pit but Jaxon was not a fan of it!

After all of one minute in the corn pit and Jaxon screaming crying, we took him out and wandered around a bit.  We came across this scarecrow, and oddly, Jaxon was okay with him.

As we made our way around the farm, we came across a little tractor.  What boy doesn't love tractors?!  Clearly my son.

Note to self:  Don't buy Jaxon a tractor to ride.  I guess he's more of a city boy like his parents; prefers his daddy's M3 to John Deere, clearly.

Since Jaxon wasn't enjoying the day, we decided to go get him a baby pumpkin and head out.  We headed over to the pumpkins but sadly there were no small ones!  I really, really, really wanted to get a picture of Jaxon surrounded by pumpkins.  And Jaxon really wanted to ruin that moment ;)

I thought maybe standing him on the pumpkins would be better since Jaxon is currently in this stage of preferring to stand.  No dice.

Since he was content in our arms (content, not happy), we opted for photos with him on our laps.  Thankfully I got one with him smiling (even if Nick's eyes are closed).

We snapped a few family photos, complete with Jaxon's stank face in them and then called it a day.
We plan to visit a local church's pumpkin patch to attempt pumpkin photos and pick out a baby pumpkin for him.

I'm disappointed that this trip didn't go better, but such is the life with a baby.  I was a little shocked though because Jaxon is a SUPER happy baby all day long (until about 7pm then the fussies set in) and he's even more happy when outside.  But I guess we're all entitled to our bad days, huh?  At least it's a funny memory we have ;)

Celebrating an Anniversary & Fall Fun!!

Happy Monday y'all!!!  I haven't done a weekend recap in quite a while.  I know, you've all missed them.  In all seriousness, I know only my parents and a few friends truly care how I spent my weekend.  I really do these recaps for myself.  I love looking back each year and seeing what I did.  It's my like my online scrapbook.  Which becomes a real scrapbook because there's an awesome site where you can turn your blog into a book!

But now I'm rambling.

This weekend was rather busy.  The last few weekends we haven't done too much because either Nick's been working, I've been feeling crappy, or we've just had too much to do around the house.

Friday, after I arrived home from physical therapy (more on that in another post), I showered and we went out to celebrate our engagement anniversary.  Friday marked 5 years since Nicholas flew into St. Louis (I had no idea he was there), sent me to a spa to get a massage and manicure (while he showed up at my parents house to ask for their blessing), then sent me all over St. Louis on a scavenger hunt to places that had significance to us before finding him, on one knee.  (Followed by dinner at Ruth's Chris then off to see Phantom of the Opera and the next day, a hot air balloon ride at sunset).  It was seriously one of the best days of my life!  We usually celebrate each year, nothing big or fancy, but just a way of recognizing that this day is still important to us.  We went out to dinner and then headed next door to see Gone Girl (sooooo good!!!  I'm normally disappointed in books turned movie but I really loved it!  Although bitty be CRAZY!  So much creepier watching it!).

Afterwards we just came home and snuggled up in bed reminiscing about this day five years ago.  We love to relive these old moments, talking about the thoughts and emotions running through us at that time.  And who doesn't love going to sleep with happy thoughts??

Saturday we decided to engage in some fall fun.  It definitely didn't feel like fall at 90 degrees and sweating our butts off, but if you wait for fall weather to do fall things here in Florida, you'll be picking rotting pumpkins in December.  So off to the "farm" we went!!! We arrived and walked around to see what all they had going on.  There were so many various games, lots of food, a pumpkin patch, animals to pet, horse back rides, a hayride, corn maze, etc.

We hopped on the hayride and rode over to the corn maze.  This was the design for this year at Conner's A-Maize-Ing Acres

via

The maze wasn't too difficult and I think that's because the corn wasn't very high.  It was a little easy to just glance over the corn stalks and see what direction you needed to take and which was a dead end.  None the less, we had a lot of fun!  (Other than sweating off about 10 pounds).

Afterwards we headed over to the pumpkin patch and picked out our pumpkins.  We don't yet know what we'll be carving, which made choosing the right pumpkin a little difficult.  I just randomly picked a medium sized pumpkin and Nick chose a one a little bit larger.  I forgot take photos there so we snapped a quick photo before hopping in the car.

The rest of the evening was spent at home, unfortunately watching our Redbirds lose Game 1 of the NLCS to the Giants.

(clearly taken at the start of the game when I was still happy)

Sunday was just a productive day around the house.  We did laundry, cleaned and organized the dining room, did some work in the garage, pulled our fall decor out of the attic and I got a very small start on the fall decorating.  Unfortunately I leave tomorrow to go out of town for work so I won't be getting to do more decorating until next weekend.  But this shall do for now.  At least anyone who comes to the door will think we've got it together.  But if they come further than the entryway, they'll realize this is all I've done.

The evening ended with a walk because Yadi is fat (we've been saying this for a while, but the vet confirmed it...in nicer terms.  But that's a post for another day) and we met the cutest little 7 month old German Shorthaired Pointer!!!  The woman saw our little pointer pack (we were walking with our neighbor and her Vizsla) and she came out.  We're definitely want to plan a puppy play date soon!

Now the evening is winding down as I'm fully packed for my trip, we just consumed a delicious dinner (that I didn't cook, which is a win), and we're currently watching our Cardinals.  They're winning 2-0 right now so let's hope we can keep this lead!

Pumpkin Carving

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch and picked out our pumpkins.

A few days later Nick and I carved our pumpkins.  I decided to carve the Mizzou Tiger logo into my pumpkin and Nick decided to carve the Cardinal on a bat onto his pumpkin.  I don't have the patience to carve onto it like he did, so that's why I did the traditional carving into as I did.

Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of my pumpkin lit up.  Not even 48 hours after I carved my pumpkin, we kept smelling something AWFUL in our house but couldn't figure out what it was.  Nick finally realized it was my pumpkin, sitting on the kitchen table, and it was peeing all over.  It was sitting in a pool of yellow liquid and smelt so badly!!!  My pumpkin was also rotting at a crazy rate.  We decided we needed to throw it away =(  But before we threw it away, I wanted just one photo of it lit up.  That never happened because when I removed the top, it was filled with about 2 inches of that nasty liquid.  I was super sad.  Into a trash bag and into the trash can it went.  Pumpkin fail.  I'm not sure what happened because I've NEVER had a pumpkin do that.  Never pee some crazy yellow liquid.  Obviously they rot but not within less than 48 hours!  And Nick's was still 100% okay!

Oh well, at least we got the fun of carving them and I had a few pictures of it before this nasty episode.

Better luck next year, right?!

Sunday Funday: Fall Fun

It might still be 80 degrees here but we wanted to partake in some fall fun so today we headed to Holland Farms with our good friends Charlie and Elizabeth.

We went to Holland Farms last year and while it wasn't the best, it had a hayride and a pumpkin patch, which was all we were concerned with.  We decided to head there again this year and it turned out to be even better than last year.  It would have been even more fun if we had a little one because they have a lot more for kids to do now (like a mini zip line!).  But regardless, we got a hayride, a pumpkin, and a sunflower!!!

We arrived, bought our wristband, waited in line and enjoyed the hayride around the farm, which also took us through the woods (???)

Awkward pose lol

He stopped and got out and explained to us how peanuts are planted, grown, and harvested.

Here he is pulling up the peanuts.  He brought them over for us to try.  They had been out in the sun (purposefully) and were really dry.

Then we hopped off the wagon and scoured the pretty bare pumpkin patch for our perfect pumpkins.  (It's obvious they give their best pumpkins to stores or churches or somewhere because there were far too few pumpkins out there.)  Around this time it started to rain so we quickly found a pumpkin then headed over to the sunflowers and chopped some down for ourselves to take home.  It was hard to find the smallest ones (I wanted them for vases) but I managed.  We snapped a few quick pictures then it was back to the car to head home.

I had a really good time but wish it would have been cooler.  It's hard to get into the fall-like events when it's 80+ degrees outside and you're in short sleeves, capris, and flip flops.  But because I love these fall things, I refused to not wear a scarf.  I didn't care that the back of my neck was sweating.  Scarves represent fall (in the fashion world anyway) and I was going to wear one no matter how hot it was!!!!

Now to decide what to carve on my pumpkin???


We finished off our Sunday Funday with the Walking Dead!!!  Season 3 Premiere was on tonight so we invited over some friends to watch it with us (so they wouldn't have to find it online the next day).  Unfortunately, it aired during the Cardinals game so after Walking Dead, we went back and watched the game that we DVRed and we won Game 1 of the NLCS!!!!

Now THAT is what I call a Sunday Funday.... my husband, good friends, fall fun, Walking Dead, and a Cardinals win!