Pumpkin Patch: Fall Family Fun?

I'm just going to admit it.  I jsut don't enjoy going to the "commercialized" Pumpkin Patch.  It's not really my favorite fall activity and I've gone enough in the past few years to get my fill for a lifetime. However, when our church offered a fun afternoon of fellowship at a nearby patch, I knew my kids would jump at a chance to go hang with some friends and explore this "amusement park experience with a pumpkin theme."

The only thing I hadn't considered when we pack up the family for the trip was that nearly everyone in a three state area would decide to go have some fall fun on the same day. Did I mention there is but one street leading into the park.  Let's just say that traffic was horrific.  Had we not have brought along a friend, I would have bribed my family into turning around and going back home.  We did humor ourselves with the fact that they advertised slow traffic ahead at about forty five minutes into our stop and go traffic wait.

All in all, the kids did have a fabulous time; we rode tricycles, played duck derby, rode a train, cooked hot dogs on an open firepit, and had smores for a treat.   Since it had been since preschool and kindergarten that we'd been to the pumpkin patch I'm anxious to pull out some old photos and measure just "how tall this fall" these kids really are and how short they once were.  Really, they were just little tykes the other day!

Mr C and his friend had a good time with the youth, but determined that a corn maze in the middle of a drought isn't all it's cracked up to be!  Guess the corn really wasn't as high as an elephants eye this year!
The girls enjoyed a few slides, rides and treats too.  However, they quickly decided that bees really like slush syrup and that next time they will pass on the "make your own Slurpee's"

We had a great day!  We got to spend time with each other, hang with some friends and soak up some great fall weather, but next time I'd rather do that walking through an apple orchard or going to a state park and just experiencing nature without all the commercialism and crowds.