The Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to Aldor Acres today with Corey and Carmen. It was an absolutely gorgeous October day. Sunny and 15 degrees and there hasn't been any rain in close to a week so the fields were nice and dry. This year looks like it was very good for pumpkins. Lot's of big ones and very few rotten ones.
Our family got there a bit early so we headed over to a few of the barns where they have some animals. The first barn we always go to has this singing pig in it that will probably cause nightmares with my kids for the rest of their lives. As soon as they see it it's like they're seeing the devil. We usually manage to walk by into the rest of the barn but this time Carter was also upset with the smells and loud noises from the crowds so he and I had to get out fast. We headed over to a slightly less crowded barn that didn't smell as much and he was quite happy that he 'wasn't scared' there.

The big hit with Callie was the bunnies. This year they had at least 40 of them and they were everywhere. You could pick them up and hold them and if Callie had her way she would have taken one home with her. There's something about cats and bunnies that she absolutely loves. It's only a matter of time before she asks us for one or the other. She's mildly allergic to cats so I'm expecting the bunny or hamster request within the next few years.

We did our usual things including the petting zoo, barns, hotdogs and pumpkin pie, chickens and finally a hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Everyone piles on a trailer towed by a tractor and they take us out into the fields to hunt. In past years there have been quite a few rotten pumpkins in the fields with crows pecking at the remains but this year the field was dry and full of pumpkins. Your goal is to find a nice tall skinny one as they use a wooden measuring device to price them. The farther down the trough it goes the cheaper the pumpkin. We usually try to convince the kids to get a smaller one as you can usually get good ones at Superstore for much cheaper. After that they take us back to our cars, or in our case back to the bunny cages for one last visit.

Happy Thanksgiving and GG's 90th Birthday

For Thanksgiving this year we headed up to Prince George. We don't usually go up as it's a long way to go for what turns into a one and a half day visit. But this year was a special event. My Grandmother's 90th Birthday! In our house she goes by GG in PG for Great Grandmother but at this party she and many names. Mom, Grandmother, Great Grandmother and Aunt to name a few. She's still going strong and lives on her own. We had relatives from all over including my cousins from Toronto and Vancouver Island.

The kids had great fun with their usual Prince George games including
1) Lego. This time with the aunts and uncles.
2) Playing with Dax. My parents cat.
3) The marble board. This game is older than my Dad.
4) The box of special toys.
5) A trip to Grandma's where there are more special toys.
6) A trip to Uncle Eric's to see Yoda. My brother's cat.
We didn't have a chance to get out to the lake this time.

This was also a time for Callie and Carter to have some fun with their cousins from Victoria. Erin and Kerri flew up with their kids Avan and Rovan.  These ones are my cousins kids making them my second cousins and I think Callie and Carter's first cousins once removed. I have no idea how many cousins there are now. It's hard to keep track. They had great fun rolling down the hill in the back hard and for some reason Callie decided to rake the leaves into a pile at the top of the hill. I think she convinced at least half a dozen of us to help her. She was trying to make a pile big enough for my brother's dog Misty to jump in though I don't think we ever got to that point. It was a really great weekend trip and much too short.

The Apple Barn

At the beginning of October we took a trip to the Apple Barn. This has turned into another one of annual our day trip destinations. It's mainly an apple farm where you can pick your own apples, however like many farms it's branched out into farm tourism. It's got a petting zoo, a pumpkin patch, and a giant air pillow. If you have the room (and I mean a lot of room) this is a much safer option for a trampoline. It slowly slopes off the sides into a sand walkway and for the adults it's a lot of fun creating giant ripples that send kids flying. (or so I hear.)

It was too early in the season for us to feel like getting our pumpkin and we find them cheaper at Superstore anyways, but if we had wanted to get one they had them nicely categorized by size and shape. Carter had great fun walking up and down and through the aisles of pumpkins. The funny thing about our trip was that it was too early to get pumpkins and almost too late to get apples. We did managed to get a bag of nice apples but the pickings were slim. I think early September is probably a better time.

We finished our day off with a trip through the corn maze. It was the ideal time for this as the ground was still dry and the corn was nice and full. It was a giant maze with five stations that you needed to find. You coloured each finger with a different colour and afterwards you got a task based on the order that you coloured your fingers. There were dozens of options so rather than explaining to Callie how it worked I just made her cluck like a chicken and had Carter act like a gorilla. Valid options though perhaps not matching up with their colour order.