'Punkin' Patch

Ken, Bella, Lola and I left Friday after work with the RV, heading to Usery Mountain Park near the Salt River for a 'Fall' weekend...as much as you can experience fall in the desert. I always pack fruit, cheese and juice. The girls truly do not like 'junky' snacks. If you put a piece of cake next to a bowl of grapes in front of them, they will 100% of the time select the grapes.
They both fell asleep on the way. It only takes an hour and 15 minutes to get there from Oro Valley. We arrive and begin to set up camp. It cools off very quickly once the sun goes down, so a fire will be nice tonight. Pops gets the wood ready in the fire ring (but doesn't light it), and we hang up pumpkin lights; the girls are so excited. We are all sitting around the fire, waiting for Pops to light it. He says he has to tell us a story first. He begins telling a story about two Indians-'Running Bear and Geronimo'. It's a long story and the girls are losing interest quickly...until he says if we do a dance, Geronimo will shoot an arrow of fire from the sky to light our campfire. He begins chanting and dancing the toe/heel sequence around the fire. Soon we are all doing it, laughing. Suddenly, (when they weren't looking), he drops a match in the fire ring and the 'poof', the fire practically explodes into flames. Bella is astounded. I'm kind of impressed too. I'll have to find out later how he did that.
Bella tells some cute Halloween jokes, we take turns dancing, Lola mimics everyone...the moon is up, it's a beautiful night, lots of stars. It doesn't get much better than this. It's time to make s'mores. Lola has no interest in making the yummy treats. She wants to eat her chocolate separate and roast the marshmallows until they fall off the roasting stick and then do it again. She is doing some kind of ritual where she places her hand above the fire and moves it back and forth as she says something, and then she raises her arm in the air and yells 'yeah'! We have no idea what she is doing but she does it over and over. See the picture.
After lots of fun, it is time for baths, bed and prayers. It gets cold during the night and Ken has to turn on the heat! How exciting!
We all wake up around 7:30. Lola has a bad case of the 'grumps'...see the picture, it definitely tells a story!


We make bacon, eggs, cheerios, pineapple, hot chocolate and lattes. Bella likes whipped cream on hers. Lola only wants 'cream' so I fill a small bowl with whipped cream...that's her breakfast....that would make any girl happy.
After cleaning up, we head to the river. Bella wants to look for minnows. The river is very low, you can walk across it. Lola and I head for the shade of the bridge, while Pops and Bella look for minnows. Lola enjoys throwing rocks into the river, watching them splash. She sees big black birds and points out which is the mommy, daddy and baby. It is getting warm and after a while we head back to camp for some lunch.

After lunch, we contemplate a nap, but decide against it...we want to go to the 'punkin' patch as Lola says and it would be too late after a nap.
We go to Schnepf's farm in Queen Creek, about 20 minutes away. It is a really neat working farm, with lots to do (maybe a bit too much). Jason meets us there, as he is up in Phoenix visiting a friend. We have fun riding the train, briefly going through a corn maze (so, so dusty!!!), petting the animals and a ride on the merry-go-round. It is getting hot and so the girls pick out their pumpkins and we say goodbye to Jason and head back to camp. Next time I will pick a farm with less 'stuff' to do, and more of just a pumpkin patch.

Back at camp, Pop starts a fire, while I begin dinner. Our plan is to carve the pumpkins before dinner so we can light them for the evening. Bella and Lola draw their faces on the pumpkins and Pops carves them out. He carves them exactly as they drew them. Bella's of course is excellent and Lola's has tons of character! Now it's time for digging out the 'goup' inside. They both do a great job. I put the candles in and we set them on the small tables next to the chairs by the fire. It will be a festive night.




We had lots of fun roasting marshmallows, making s'mores and just enjoying being together.

After bath time, we snuggled up in Bella's and Lola's bed and watched Charlie Brown's 'The Great Pumpkin'. Brings back lots of memories. We were all tired and fell asleep easily.
We all slept a little later...8 am. Bella got up and checked on her minnows and snails to make sure they were ok...they were. Lola was in a good mood. We took our time with breakfast and cleaning up before heading home. I made sure their pumpkins were safe in the back of the truck to make the trip home. We made lots of good memories...a wonderful time!