livin' the dream

Like I mentioned last week, I'd really been looking forward to going to the pumpkin patch this year. Looking forward to it for like...you know, the three or so weeks that it's been fall/OMGPUMPKINEVERYTHING!!! but also in a different sense, looking forward to it for five years. 

Side note, but...I don't even remember pumpkin patches being a 'thing' before like...five years ago. Did they exist? Were they around when we were little? I have no recollection (or pictures) of ever visiting a pumpkin patch. We got our pumpkins at the grocery store. We did not wear smocked thematic outfits to get them, either. I don't remember them existing in my city, not even in high school...but now they're everywhere, even around my hometown, so like...do I have pumpkin patch amnesia? Or is it a new thing? Or is it just something I never even noticed or cared about until I was afflicted with infertility and suddenly became hyper-aware of every single fun parents-and-kids thing that I was missing out on?? I've been pondering this for a few days. Also, is there a correlation between the skyrocketing popularity of PSLs that somehow made ALL pumpkin and 'fall' things become more prevalent??

I should probably go back to school and study this. Obviously it's important.

So there were a lot of years of expectations piled onto Saturday's trip to the farm, and thankfully, well..

I mean, I was at a pumpkin patch with my baby. What else mattered? I could have been ran over by a tractor, pooped on by a goat, and lost my purse in the corn maze- I was at a freaking pumpkin patch with my baby and my husband; it was the best damn day ever.

And then I went home and went all-out Obnoxious Mom on Facebook and posted a million pictures, so it was pretty much the quintessential Fall Saturday of Parenting.

The weather did us a solid and acted really fall-ish all day! I mean, it was in the 50s and WINDY when we got there at 10:00 a.m. That's legit by Georgia standards. It was in the upper 80s the day before, so...yeah, this was definitely Millie's first exposure to non-balmy temperatures. Matt and I were super concerned and hyper-vigilant about keeping her warm. We added layers upon layers. We cuddled her. We pulled the sweater back around tight. We kept grabbing her hands to make sure they weren't too cold. We don't really own any infant-sized cold weather gear like gloves, so we were improvising...

For instance, we found her (way too big) sun hat in the basket under the stroller. We stuck it on her head thinking it might help keep her head warm. A few minutes later we realized we had a hooded jacket in the car, so we swapped out her (much cuter) sweater for the (much warmer) hoodie. This ended up being a really hilarious (and maybe ironic) decision when at the end of the day we realized that she was indeed plenty warm, but had unfortunately acquired a sunburn on her face. AHHHH. Poor baby. Major parenting fail. Too concerned with warmth. Forgot to be concerned about the sun that can still inflict sunburns even when it's cold. UGH.

Anyway. We met my friend Amanda and her husband and son at the patch (it's actually a huge farm) and had a fabulous time taking in all the sights and attractions.

We corn mazed (maized?? HAHAHAHA)!

Wow, this is so much fun, Mom. Not.

 We ate tiny, lady-like portions of fresh kettle corn!

 We rode on various tractor-pulled train-type things!

We posed in front of giant rocking chairs!

We saw teeny baby bunnies!!! PS. I would like a baby bunny, thanks.

We rode the 'cow train'! Matt opted to ride with Spunky. Obviously.

This is also fascinating, Dad. Can we come back every weekend?

 We watched pig races!!

We wrangled every bit of fun we could out of the four hours we spent there. It was awesome. I think I had the biggest, goofiest perma-grin on my face the whole time. Millie was asleep and/or oblivious to what was going on for like 85% of the time, but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it enough for the both of us.

Before we left, we walked through the sunflower fields for some final pictures. We would have walked for longer except for apparently sunflower fields are THE place for bees to hang out, and I'm not particularly interested in finding out if Millie has a bee sting allergy just yet. So we had to peace out quickly.

Speaking of allergies- apparently I have a really special one. See that orange bracelet thing on my wrist? You know, the thing they give you so that they know you paid for all the fun you're having? Yeah, when I got home my arm was all red and rashy around where the bracelet had been. You could see the band where the bracelet was (it was white/un-rashy) and then it was red bumps/welts around it. Really bizarre. Luckily I seem to have recovered, so...whew. I'm such an overcomer. And it totally will not stop me from going back. Can't no rash keep me down!

So we had four glorious hours to enjoy the crisp weather, the tasty food, our fun friends, and lots of cute animals. We came home with a few souvenirs (some gourds, the remainder of my kettle corn, sunburns times three, and my rash) and a lot of pictures so that I can remember how incredibly happy life can be sometimes. It really was the best day. I mean, I feel like I say that about every day now, but...it just kind of feels that way, you know? I had a lot of crappy days over the last few years...it feels really good to be living in a season where every single day feels like the best day. Gah. Bliss.