The Search For The Great Pumpkin

We walked down one row, then the next, then another.

We surveyed. We searched. We scavenged. It's never easy to find that perfect pumpkin, is it?

For about two hours on Saturday, we patrolled an immense pumpkin patch in Colorado in hopes of finding our "Great Pumpkin." In the end, we found a few of them -- including a mini-sized one for Taidyn that has quickly become one of her favorite possessions.

The search for Taidyn's "little" pumpkin, which she had requested before we left Laramie to go to the pumpkin patch, was actually over within minutes. After walking past several rows, I decided to hang a right and lead the family down a row of pumpkins. A minute later, I spotted a little pumpkin hiding beneath a few vines and retrieved it for Taidyn. "Ooooohhh!," she exclaimed. She was sold!

It wasn't nearly as easy to find a few good carving pumpkins. There are hundreds of rows of pumpkins and thousands of the orange vegetables to choose from at The Bartels Farm, located on a quiet country road near Fort Collins. Oddly, we found a frog (of all creatures!) before we found our "Great Pumpkin." Check out the photo of our little froggy friend. :)

I wouldn't even wager a guess on how many pumpkins I picked up and inspected. Every few feet, I stopped and took a look at one or two of them. But, most of the time, I placed the pumpkin back on the ground and continued the search. Eventually, though, we found two pumpkins that fit the bill. We even found a man with a wagon who was willing to transport our pumpkins back for us!

Once we made our way out of the pumpkin patch, we found a petting zoo with goats, pigs, sheep, chickens, a donkey and a bunny. Taidyn has never been crazy about goats, but she liked the pigs, chickens and the bunny. And I didn't like the goat much, either. He tried to pee on my leg!!!

After snapping a few more photos and taking a few more minutes of video, we loaded our pumpkins and hit the road for home. A few minutes later, Taidyn realized she had a sliver (which turned out to be one of those sticky things from the stem of a pumpkin) and said to us, "A ham and cheese sandwich will make it all better." We laughed, then headed right for Arby's! :))

Happy Halloween!!