I love the fall, I especially love October. Crisp, cool air, birthdays, Halloween, the excitement of upcoming holidays. I love all the things that go a long with fall, especially pumpkin patches. We try to make it to a pumpkin patch every year. (Chris really could care less, but he is a good sport and goes along with us.) Growing up in Thatcher we would go to Apple Annie’s that is near Wilcox. Apple Annie’s is a fun pumpkin patch that has hay rides, a corn maze, and u-pick pumpkins. They also have fruit orchards as well. Every year I’ve been its been fairly hot out, or I’ve had awful allergies.
In Mesa we’ve been to a few as well. One year I got a Groupon for one. It was a huge let down. We took a very small hayride to an area that had already picked pumpkins. We did not do that one again. The next year we went to a different one that had more stuff, cost more money and was super crowded and hot. Our kids were pretty young to enjoy that one. It could have been good, but it just didn’t work out well for us. Last year we went to Vertuccio Farm in Mesa. We had a lot of fun at that one. Our kids were older and they had a lot of fun things for our kids to do. I don’t think we did the corn maze that year, but we enjoyed the slides and blobby bouncy thing. The kids really had a great time, and we did as well. Still hot.
This year both my kids had field trips to pumpkin patches, but weren’t able to go. (We were in Mexico for one, and the other went later into then Lilly could go to.) Since the kids missed out on theirs with their schools I knew we needed to go to one! We decided to go to one on the first weekend we were back from our Arizona/Mexico trip.
I started looking up pumpkin patches near us. Oh my goodness there are sooo many! I got tired of looking them up and just picked one of the closest ones to us, that was also one of the cheapest (based on all the things we were able to do). I finally settled on The Farm at Swan’s Trail. It was about a half hour away from us and it cost our family $35 to do everything we wanted. (Pumpkins cost extra.)
They had a nice set up and there was a lot to do there. We went Saturday morning and while it was fairly crowded it wasn’t too bad. We were able to find a parking spot right in front, so that was nice. After we paid we started out doing the hay maze. The hay maze was a smaller maze that was set up through the barn. It was super easy, and multi levels. The kids were even able to slide down a bumpy slide.
We then went to a big slide that the kids both went down together. It looked like a really fun slide. After the slide we went into the kids play area. The kids started off going down a roller slide. I think Lilly should win a record for slowest slide ride. She was SOOOO slow. Ryan was a bit faster, but it was a pretty slow slide. Then they went on a big blobby bouncy thing. They bounced on that for a long time and had a lot of fun. It was fairly crowded there, but they had a bouncy blob for younger kids and older kids, so luckily there weren’t big kids just bouncing our kids around.
After the Blobby thing we went into a corn pit and the kids played around in dried corn kernels. I thought it was gross. It was crowded and enclosed and it just grossed me out. (It was clean and well kept, I just didn’t like it.) The kids had fun in there though, and we had to convince them to leave. After that we went to a patting zoo and were able to pet goats, and other farm animals. Both kids liked it. (We skipped a panning for gold station, and another slide that looked fun, and we passed up toy duck races. They also had real duck races that we passed up as well.)
Ryan was so excited for the corn maze, and so was I. I wanted a pumpkin patch that had a corn maze! This one was really cool, it was in the shape of Washington State. It had roads and cities inside to help you find your bearings. You entered at Eastern Washington on the boarder of Idaho so that was fun (not the real Idaho, pretend Idaho)! We made it through pretty easily. The kids chose the way, with the guidance of Chris. Both kids liked the maze. Ryan really loved it and we could have spent a lot of time in there for Ryan. Lilly was ready to be done with it.
After the maze the kids rode on a little tractor train ride that they liked. Lilly wasn’t thrilled that there was mud in her car, but she got over it. After the train ride we walked around the pumpkin patch. We decided that as much fun as it would be to pick, buy, and haul the pumpkins around with us we would go to the store and buy a pumpkin there instead. I know, we are lame. So without a pumpkin we left.
On the way home Lillian fell asleep and so Chris waited in the car with her while Ryan and I went to the store for some pumpkins. We also decided the day needed to end with a treat, so we got some pumpkin ice cream as well! (We got the Tillamook Pumpkin Cookie Butter, and it is delicious!)
We had a really great time, even though we didn’t pick the pumpkin! The only problem was it was muddy (not hot thought FINALLY!) and since we haven’t fully unpacked from our move I couldn’t find any of our boots. Chris was the only with boots, so our shoes all got gross. It was still a lot of fun and the mud only add to the fun! (cleaning shoes afterwards…not so much…) I would go back to this pumpkin patch, although I do want to try out all the other ones as well! Washington in the fall has been awesome!
We also went to a new park during the weekend, bought our bean bag chair/couch thing, and watched a family movie with popcorn!
