california bucket list: pumpkin patch

Kristin writing:
I've always loved the fall.  It's my favorite season, hands down.  I love the hot apple cider, hot chocolate, smell of a crackling fire, changing colors of leaves, and the coolness in the air.  And I REALLY love pumpkin patches.

We were really fortunate to live just down the road from an amazing pumpkin patch in Dixon, California.  The place is absolutely huge, and there's no limit to the varieties of pumpkins and gourds that you can find.  They also boast the Guinness Book of World Records largest corn maze!  Every year, I would drag Nathan out to that pumpkin patch - we'd pick out our pumpkins for that year (one for carving, one for baking) and then make our way through the gigantic corn maze.

This year, we invited a few friends from our Bible study to go with us.  We unfortunately didn't make it there before the corn maze closed (no, I didn't cry...just almost), but we still got to roam the pumpkin patch together and have a great time.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from that evening.

Yes, I like to pose with every pumpkin that I think is cute.  No, it doesn't make sense.

Monica (left) and Stacia (middle) - we were all pregnant!  

More posing with cute pumpkins.  I wanted to take this one home with me, but Nathan said no.  He had a valid point...we were moving in about a week.

Stacia and Justin.  They were expecting their baby to arrive any day.  Justin was attempting to look just as pregnant as Stacia. :)

The three of us picked pumpkins approximately the size of our unborn babies!  I begged and begged, and Nathan let me keep my "baby".

It's true...I like just about all pumpkins.

Ed and Monica were really into these cuties because they looked like the "one-up" mushrooms on the old-school Nintendo Mario Brothers games.

Oh, Ed.

Posing again with my "baby".  It was such a cute little pumpkin!  I'm so glad Nathan let me keep it.

Even though we had just gone out for a steak dinner, Monica was still hungry.  I blame it on pregnancy hormones. :)

This gourd looked like a duck.  I wanted to buy it as well, but I settled for just a picture.

Monica and Ed found Mario!!!

 My "baby"!

So, you ask...what did you end up doing with your "baby"?  Well, it rode in the car all the way from California to Plano, decorated our mantle for a few weeks, and then we ate it.  We're cannibals.

Our marbled pumpkin cheesecake tasted good, though! :)