The Poco Loco Olsons: Annual Pumpkin Patch Adventure

Each year (even before the kids were born), we make the trek to a local-ish pumpkin farm in Edmonds. This year, Eric and I greatly took the weather forecast into account when picking the day (and time) to go, and are so grateful that we did. It didn't rain until we were loaded into the car, with our farm animal fix taken care of and our pumpkins rolling around in the back of the car.

Fairbank Farm is a wonderful family-run farm that is only open to the public during October and we love going there. It has escaped the commercial feel many other pumpkin patches seems to have adopted, which I highly appreciate. It isn't a "now that you've paid your entry fee, now pay to ride our train, pay to give feed to our animals, pay to have a picture taken here" place. It is a "pay your $4, here's a cup of food for the birds, have a lovely time" farm.

We got to see baby pigs (not quite as young as the ones we saw last year, but that's ok; they were still mighty cute!), a pony, pygmy goats, geese, ducks, peacocks, and turkeys. Inside the barn, the kids got to pet ducklings, baby bunnies, and chicks. We also observed a snoozing calf and were memorized by the hatching chicks in the incubator.

After wandering around the animal area and daydreaming about having farm animals of our own (ok, that is more of my daydream than Eric's, but in my daydreams he dreams about having some of them, too! Oh, and I don't daydream about having the farm birds... only the mammals), we found a wheelbarrow and made our way to the pumpkin patches. After careful consideration and evaluation, each of us found a perfect pumpkin to take home. Conor found "THE" pumpkin about five or six times, but was able to (eventually) find "THE THE" pumpkin for him. Meanwhile, Eric and Annika seemed to hone in on their ideal squash quite easily.

While Eric paid for the pumpkins, the kids and I spent some time in the farm's play area. There's a full-size tee-pee, as well as a old-fashioned wagon, cutouts for photo ops, and a few bales of hay to climb. A few raindrops started to fall, which was our signal to exit stage left, and I'm so glad we did. Getting home without being sopping wet and covered in mud is a wonderful bonus.

As we walked back to the car, we saw the farmer who had just used his tractor to pull a car out of the mud. I stopped to tell him how much we enjoy visiting the farm each year and mentioned that Eric and I started visiting long before we had kids. The farmer seemed genuinely touched by this and just as I finished talking, he scooped up Conor and plopped him in the tractor's driver's seat. That boy was in hog heaven! He gripped the steering wheel with gusto and made happy tractor driving noises like never before. Of course, as soon as Annika saw him, she asked why she didn't get to sit up there. (Ahh... sibling rivalry!). We explained that there is only one seat and she'd get her chance. (Whew, crisis averted.) After her turn in the tractor's seat, we thanked the farmer again and made our way home. Within just a couple of minutes, the sky opened up and began dumping rain. Talk about timing! :)