Skip to main content

The most wonderful time of the year

I love fall. I love the cooler air. The beautiful leaves. The flavors of fall. Oh, how I love thee, pumpkin. Let me count the ways: coffee, creamer, ice cream, cookies, roll, cake, pie, gobs (or bobbs, as I noticed Giant Eagle called them), seeds, soup, bread. I am surely missing some. Yesterday alone, I had pumpkin creamer in my coffee, pumpkin bobbs (I think I can get down with that), and pumpkin roll.

Fall also means the pumpkin patch. For the past four years, my mom, Jordan, and I have gone to Reeger's in Indiana County. I look forward to it every October, and I am never disappointed, though I must admit nothing has topped our first corn maze experience.

We typically start off at said corn maze, and each year Jordan becomes more and more competitive (hmm, wonder where that comes from), racing to get to the next clue/riddle. This was the muddiest year ever, but still fun.

Here she is, all business about figuring out this riddle
Nonnie and Jordan, with just one clue/riddle to go

Jordan loves, loves, loves, animals, so we have to spend at least 10 minutes in the smelly barn as she does her best animal whisperer imitation. The animals are cute. How could you not be amused by Larry, Curly, and Moe the bunnies, and Toot and Puddles the pigs? I was actually a bit disappointed that Jaspar the donkey would not look our way; he was too busy eating.

Magic and Jordan
Verna the goat (isn't she cute?)

Of course, a big reason to go to the pumpkin patch is to pick out your own pumpkin. I enjoy the hayride over to the field and critiquing at least 20 or 30 pumpkins until Jordan finds just the right one. Unfortunately, this year, the pumpkins were planted in a hilly area, and the pumpkin(s) Jordan loved rolled right down the hill and into the woods. Oh, the tears.

On the hayride
Waiting for the hayride back, with Jordan's third choice for a pumpkin

This year, in addition to the silo slide, Reeger's had a bouncy house and an inflatable obstacle course. Jordan loves those kinds of things. Admittedly, I was looking for a weight limit just in case I could race her in the obstacle course (alas, I could not find a sign). We typically end our day at the kids' area.

Nothing like sliding down a silo. Weee!
Climbing up some inflatable thing

It almost makes me sad when our visit comes to end. But then I am reminded about the two other great things about fall: football and hockey. And so far, the Steelers, Penn State, and the Pens are doing pretty well.

Ah, fall.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What a year 2021 has been (Day 7)

I have almost no words for what happened yesterday at the Capitol. Protesting is one thing (though I truly think it is and has been time to move on). But to storm the Capitol? A friend on Facebook said, quite simply, " Almost 20 years ago a group of people on an airplane sacrificed themselves to protect the Capitol. How far we have fallen!" Indeed. And, yes, it IS storming the Capitol. I have seen numerous videos of people knocking down barricades/fences, pushing police officers, and breaking windows and climbing through them. That is beyond protesting. And even if a protestor did not do those things, if they followed those seditionists past those barricades and into the building, they are just as guilty. I did not support the violent protests this summer that resulted in damages to businesses and public property (I was in full support of the actual protests). But I also acknowledged as a white person, I cannot truly put myself in the position of a black person who is angry a
Post a Comment
Read more

Melancholy and Gratitude

 A few days ago, I decided to do gratitude posts on FB. I was good the first two days. Day 3 I got a little snarky as I posted about "doing the right thing" in regards to Covid. The Covid cases in Allegheny County have been on the rise. For a while, we had daily counts between 50 and 100. After July 4, we saw a spike for a few weeks, and then cases were back below 100. Unfortunately, other than one "low" day this week, where "only" 288 cases were reported, we have had between 500 and 620 daily cases. Fortunately, only a few people have died this week. But of course, any death is too many. I started to keep track of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations on 6/12/20. On that day, since 3/12, Allegheny County had had 2,034 cases, 352 people had been hospitalized, and 172 people had died. On 11/19/20, the county has seen a total of 22,042 cases, 1,724 people have been hospitalized, and 465 people have died from Covid since 3/12. In just over 8 months, we have had
Post a Comment
Read more

What, me worry?!

Although I don't like creepy, crawly things, I am not afraid of them and am perfectly able to kill them when I see them. I like the dark, heights don't bother me too much (though I don't love them), and ghosts don't concern me (not sure if they are real, but have not ruled them out either). So what worries me and sometimes keeps me awake at night (or infiltrates me dreams)? This first one is really, really strange, and kind of gross: overflowing toilets. This goes back to a time when I was in high school, and upon flushing the toilet in the "big bathroom" of our house, the water starting pouring over the seat. I freaked out! I can still picture it happening and my subsequent panicking as water flowed onto the floor. I don't recall who was at home who came to my rescue and, presumably, turned the water off. What I do recall is being afraid to flush the toilet when I was home alone after that for weeks if not longer. Fortunately, I have never overflowed a
8 comments
Read more