It’s officially fall! There is the aroma of pumpkin spice lattes in the air, and if you are a Starbucks nut like me then you know the pumpkin cream cheese muffins are out too! Oh they are the best treat of the year! They are also one of those things that are just fun to eat because the cream cheese is only in the top part. Which was a huge calamity for me as is most of my life. I had been craving one all week and they were always so elusive. AKA they were out of them, like every time I went in. Well then one day THEY WERE IN!!! What made it even better was that I was in the drive thru, the baby was passed out, and we were on the way home. It was a golden mommy moment. I was going to be able to put the baby down and have a quiet moment with my coffee and pumpkin cream cheese muffin 🙂 I put the baby down, came back and the muffin was on the floor with cream cheese smeared all over. “NOOOO, dam you, you crazy dog” was what instantly popped out of my mouth. Mommies sometimes only want the little pleasures which, some times seem to allude them at every turn. Which can frustrate the hell out of any good woman. So This post is all about how much I love fall and pumpkins and all that, but again missed a potentially great mommy moment. AKA have fun at the farm while simultaneously  getting a great family picture for the Christmas card. Was that too much to ask, well yes lol. For starters (and those of you who are photographers relate) it feels like I can get my clients to understand the concept of magic hour but can’t manage to get the family to. I really need to be more forceful about planning activities around that time, but oh well we are busy, like the rest of the planet. However our trip to Round Hill Farm was  amazing even if it wasn’t at magic hour. If you live in Virginia anywhere near here you have to visit! To top it off all the crazy animals and fun, I some how always blank out that  my husband is not great with a camera. Well it’s kind of hilarious, which is why later in this post you will see some funny pictures of me I wouldn’t normally be showing the world. But we’re friends right and it’s a laugh, so please enjoy the calamity that is me and the family outing.
This was the first instance that I though ummm… maybe playing in the hay only sounded fun. As a mom sometimes you stupidly think your kid will enjoy things other kids do, but sometimes it doesn’t always work that way. Like how I stood here trying to coax my child to play in the hay. “It’s fun you can run and play in it”, I said. Then you get the look that kids always give their moms, the um… you are crazy look. Next we walked by the animals on our way to the hay barrel maze. Why with a one and a half year old this would be fun I don’t know but as always it was my husbands idea. The walk was short but fun we walked buy the, I guess you call them stables. They had pigs, baby chicks and these beautiful alpacas. Keaton’s not used to seeing anamals up close (other then our dog) so this was his hesatent stance.
This was the alpaca he was looking at, beautiful right?
And Then Keaton got a little braver and went to see the, I guess they’re cows lol. Wow I need to study up more on old McDonald’s farm lol. The bottom one is up for debate too, I said it’s a turkey. Yummy Yummy turkey lol, well thanksgiving is coming up, but yea, um I don’t’ want to be eating turkey while looking at this cute face lol. Um that is why they sell them the way they do in the super market, it never says turkey sam, he was the thompson’s family pet and he taste delicious 🙂
See what I’m saying people who wants to eat a face like that lol. No one! Now onto the maze!
This shot kinda reminds me of when I was driving with a friend and he said “hey” and I said “um yea hey what” and he said no “hay” and pointed to a field of hay lol. Cheesy but it really happened to me, I am just that slow some days lol. And my friends are that mean lol. But as I have told you before I am that random person at Starbucks you are overhearing all the time.
You will notice a lot though this outing that I am as usual not in a lot of these pictures. Can you mommies or photographers relate? I always hang in the back so that I can take pictures once everyone has moved the heck out of my way lol. It’s also my style, because my husbands style is to be first in line thru any tour so he can chat with the guide. He also likes to read all the posted things about obscure things or people you would NEVER care about, except that a sign declares they are an awesome figure in history/ life and you must know them. I find that kinda boring and I”m not that into history only photographing the cool stuff lol. Do you hang back or is it just me? Anyway, I enjoyed the thought behind this maze, because if you are an adult you can see other adult heads as you walk thru the maze so you don’t get lost.
When you let the child lead that may not work as well and you may end up down a dead end like this one. I also really enjoy when kids and adults see the way out and your instincts take over and you run!!!! You see that little bit of space, and I know even parents are like, wahoo, escape!! This is the look right before the running, the do you see me, because now I’m about to run away from you look.
For my child running is a every second event. This kid never sits still. He has, like baby ADD, that I hear my husband had when he was little too! It’s the mothers curse! The, “I hope you have a kid just like you when you grow up”. Keaton is always leading the pack with all of us trailing after him. Oh by the way that is my mother-in-law in the image on the top. She wanted to have special grandma time with Keaton. I got some great pictures of all of them, but I laughingly will call her my stand in for this post. Mainly because the images she’s in would have been great family pictures, had I acctully been in them lol.
See This is what I’m saying, wouldn’t this be a great family photo if I was in it. It’s ok that she’s in it though cause it’s cute. The bottem pictures are of my husband trying to get Keaton’s shoes off, because they are full of corn kernels. See we again mistakenly though that he would enjoy playing in the huge sandbox full of corn kernels there. It was an ordeal for him, the arms raised and crying. We pulled him out, because his sandal type shoes had filled with kernels lol. I shouldn’t laugh but really it was funny, watching a dad try and get shoes on a toddler, and also simultaneously pull kernels out of them. Once shoes were back on we headed back up to the animals again. I don’t know if you do this, but I boss my husband around, telling him “go stand/ sit over there I want a picture there”. Even being a photographer doesn’t get me the simple yes no problem, your the photographer  answer I’m looking for. No I get the, “are you sure the lights right?”, “what, here next to this ugly tire”, “Do you want us to go in it?”. You would think he was someones annoying client. which, knock on wood, but I never done get, thank God. No only the hubby harasses me with such gusto. This is the result though, I like it. I only wish Keaton wasn’t as afraid of the hay lol.
This was the most beautiful animals there. This sheep reminded me of going to the fair’s in the mountains with my grandfather and getting to hold baby sheep. Don’t you just love all that wool. Duane’s mom knits and after she petted the sheep she said, ” oh hello sheep, how’s my wool?”. Which was just really funny, wearing her knitted sweater, and all that 🙂
Keaton has this routine with our dog that he sticks his face out and the dog comes to give him a kiss. So here is Keaton sticking his face out for kisses with the adorable little billy goats. He was not prepared for the lambs to came running up for kisses too! I just love his little pout lip it’s so cute!
This was the offending sheep, definitely too cute to be upset at. And even funnier that such a cutie could make my cutie cry lol.
The barnyard area was full of beautiful animals that just had such personality, I mean just look at these characters.
After seeing all these guys or gals lol, Keaton decided he was “done”, Â because this guy was so loud. The turkeys where making so much noise. It was so funny to hear them chatter to each other, but Keaton was so confused that he just decided he was done lol.
I stayed behind a couple minutes to get these shots, of Lord help me whatever this hilarious animal is. I really do need to study old McDonald’s farm lol.
Can you tell that he really liked me? Wanted to give me kisses, he was really playing it up. I told you these animals were really friendly lol.
So on the way back up the hill to the hayrides they have donkeys, and even a zebra. There is something else that I really liked about this farm and that was the sign below. It thanks some of the other farms and local people (who probably had the chickens) for bringing their animals out for show. I really liked this because It means these animals aren’t there all the time they are real farm animals or pets and have open fields and pens at home too. Also you know if another farmer is willing to loan out an animal to another farmer they must trust that person a great deal to take care of their animals, which I like. You could also just tell that these animals are very well cared for.
This is the view as you walk up the hill with the barn, and then the back of the truck for hayrides. Pretty, right? I love the barn, a red barn at that. My friends in Wyoming used to say you can’t call it a barn if it’s not red lol.
These are my favorite shots from the hayride. There are a lot, but I just though it looked so cute with the barn in the background.
This is my mother-in-law enjoying the hayride. She didn’t say much but anytime you get to enjoy the fall its always a serene time. Plus she loves taking pictures of Keaton and she was ready once we stopped bumping around to start snapping away.
Here is one of Keaton when we finely stopped. He’s just sitting there pulling on the hay. It’s always kind of funny to try and get a one and a half year olds excited about stuff, when they can’t talk and have never seen certain things before. “Honey look pumpkins”! He doesn’t know what pumpkins are yet, he can’t even say pumpkins.
When we got off though, and he got to see the pumpkins he made sure to try and pick up one bigger then his head. He threw a fit and looked up at grammy like, if you loved me you would pick up this heavy thing and take it home for me lol. Here is how that went.
Yep,oh here baby lets get this heavy pumpkin for you. He so has grammy wrapped around his finger. This is the point in time I decide what a great picture, that would be great if I had a picture like that of Keaton and I at the pumpkin patch too! So I called my husband over to get some pictures of Keaton and I. This is what you get with him. Notice that my head is cut off and I’m making CARAZY faces at him. This would be, because the whole time he is asking me “don’t you want to turn around so the sun is in your face”? “Why do I have to be on green mode?” “You should smile, you know your not smiling, right?” “I dunno, these don’t look all that great.”. He can drive me a little crazy lol. So please enjoy his attempt at photographing me with the baby. I would normally not post such obviously horrible pictures of myself but I though you would get a laugh out of them.
Then you have these of me hiding behind Keaton lol. Then the other two where the lighting was not great and of course, I didn’t get the red barn background either lol. Oh well, I make the best of  it. We just say it’s Duane’s overly artistic eye. What do you guys think, are they too funny or what?
Alright now pay for the pumpkins and where done right? No. I put him up on the tractor and then we have to get one more picture by the haystalks, or at least that’s what Duane’s mom wanted.
So here is my shot of Duane and Keaton first.
Then this is the one I get to be in that Duane’s mom took of us.
This is the one I took of Duane’s mom and Keaton and then the “family” ones at the bottom. It would have been really great had I been in these.
I know what your all saying get a remote or put it on a timer and tripod and stop complaining. And I hear you, your right, your right. But the truth of it is that, at this age and as much as he likes to run I was surprised that he would sit still for any type of family photo. Lesson learned though. I know what I’ll be getting myself for christmas, because lets face it as a photographer you so rarely get to be in pictures and if you are you might as well go all out and make it perfect right?Well This by far was one of the best farm/ pumpkin patch experiences I’ve ever had. The animals where adorable, the people super friendly. We have already decided that this is our pumpkin patch central for the fall. We went on a week day, and they have even more stuff on the weekends, like a little train that goes around for the kids, adorable! The prices were great and I even got one of these awesome white pumpkins, still don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet, but they are so cool. Hopefully in the future I will be showing you all some better family portraits, like ones that I’m in or whatever craziness I decide to use for the Christmas card this year lol, cliffhanger. And for heaven sake get a pumpkin spice latte, and pumpkin cream cheese muffin and enjoy all the fall stuff. Oh and FREAK OUT!!!!! Christmas is all most here lol.
