Back to the Patch, 2012!

It's the third time this season that we've walked to the pumpkin patch in the neighborhood, but it's the first time we brought along Dad! Oliver made a friend at the patch. Jo enjoyed the rocks.

Bear Creek Pumpkin Patch 2012

The Bear Creek Church's pumpkin patch (benefiting Bear Creek High School) is back! It was supposed to start this past Saturday, but they didn't get their pumpkins in until Monday. We took a stroll there Monday afternoon. The temperatures were warm but windy, and leaves blew rained down on us from the neighborhood trees. 

I love being able to walk to the pumpkin patch for a few weeks out of every October. It's a nice change. Here are the kiddos picking out a pumpkin:

Georgetown Loop Pumpkin Festival

Last weekend, took the Georgetown Loop to check out their annual Pumpkin Festival. The Georgetown Loop is a train that runs from the town of Georgetown to the town of Silver Plume. It used to be a mining route, but now the train runs for tourists and sight-seeing. It's only a couple miles long, but the elevation climbs by thousands of feet. To make it up the elevation, it has to spiral, or loop.

The Pumpkin Fest ran all last weekend and will be running this weekend. We almost went last year but were scared off by the price tag. This year, we decided to bite the bullet and go. Oliver loves trains, and so we thought it could be worth it. Children under 3 ride for free if they sit on an adult's lap, so both of our kids were free. Andrew and I each had to pay $25.50 a piece!

I wasn't sure if it would be worth the cost, but I have to admit that it really did. We had a great time.

We left the station out of Georgetown. I recommend leaving out of Silver Plume for the Pumpkin Festival because the Festival is actually at the Georgetown station (Devil's Gate). It would have been a little nicer to ride the train to Georgetown, enjoy the festival, and then ride it back to Silver Plume. Instead, We rode the train to Silver Plume (approximately 30 minutes), picked up passengers there, and then rode back for the 30 minutes back to Georgetown. Thankfully, the kids loved the train and were able to hang out in the train car for the full hour.

We bundled up because it was pretty cold outside. We expected the train to be cold since we didn't pay extra for the first class car. Thankfully, they added windows to the coach car and ran heat inside, keeping the train plenty warm.

 

Andrew and Oliver exited the train at Silver Plume to stretch and check out the engine. Then, we got back on and headed straight back to Georgetown.

Some photos from the way back:

Oliver loved looking out at the scenery from the train.

Here are the kiddos with Grandma Colleen:

When we got back to Georgetown, we enjoyed the Pumpkin Fest. The festival is free to everyone who had a ticket for the train, and every kid got to choose a pumpkin.

The kids walked through an actual maze of hay. Oliver associates hay with chickens (I guess he learned something from the Denver County Fair!) and kept looking for the chickens. At various stops in the maze, the kids could play simple games, like bean bag toss, and get their faces painted.

They'd erected a bouncy castle at the end of the maze. Imagine my surprise when Oliver actually decided to go in! He wouldn't stand and jump, but he bounced around on his knees a bit and had a good time.

The cost of riding the train is definitely expensive, but our kids genuinely had a good time. In fact, it was so much fun that we've been talking about riding the train again during the Christmas season. Rumor has it that Santa and his helpers ride the Georgetown Loop train beginning November 17!

Back to the Patch 2011

Andrew and I took Oliver back to the patch today, this time to pick out a pumpkin!  The pumpkin patch we go to is at Bear Creek Church in Lakewood, and the money benefits Bear Creek High school.

A woman and her teenage daughter were running the stand today, and, I'm telling you, that girl has a future as a used car salesman! She kept cornering me to discuss which pumpkin we were going to purchase, preventing me from spending time with Andrew and Oliver and from taking the pictures I'd hoped to capture. A few times, I thought I successfully ditched her, but she'd pop up again to remind me that she can hold a pumpkin for me while we continue looking. What a nightmare! I wish I was a more assertive person so I could have just said, "Thanks for your assistance, but we've got it from here. I'm going to take some more photos, and then we'll choose our pumpkin." Oh well. We'll get a family shot at the patch next year!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Oliver and I decided to continue our tradition from last year and walked up to the Bear Creek Church's pumpkin patch on the corner to take some photos. He did a great job walking with me the entire way and held my hand when we crossed the street. The pumpkins appealed to him, and he enjoyed arranging the small ones and "counting" all of the large ones.

We didn't buy a pumpkin today because, as it turns out, they only take cash! I have to say, the pumpkins are surprisingly affordable. We didn't buy a pumpkin at the Pumpkin Festival at Oliver's party because pumpkins ran about $15 a shot. At the grocery store, they're $8. Here at the patch, pumpkins are charged by size, and moderate-sized pumpkins run from $5 - $10. There are huge pumpkins for sale for close to $20. So, we'll walk back this weekend and make our (moderately-sized) pumpkin purchase.

Here's Oliver exploring the small pumpkins:

Oh, boy! What fun it is to run around and count the large pumpkins:

This is the face I got out of Oliver when I asked him to pause and say cheese for the camera:

Back to the small pumpkins! Oliver first took all of the small pumpkins off of the hay barrel and set on them on the ground:

Oliver finished removing them all, and I told him we had to put them back. He worked so hard!

I had such a good time watching Oliver play with the pumpkins. I don't think the church lady minded too much (I'd asked her permission to wander around and take photos, I swear).

Walking back home and enjoying autumn:

Last year and this year:

Pumpkin Patch 2010, Part 2

Oliver and I walked back to the pumpkin patch today with Andrew and our neighbors, Shawna and Owen. It was so much colder than we'd anticipated! But, since we'd made the walk, we took the boys out of their warm strollers for a few pictures: