pumpkin patch

while grandma is visiting, i've decided to try and take grandma and ava on one "field trip" per week. our first excursion was to the lemos farm pumpkin patch, near half moon bay. i was quite surprised to find that the parking lot was full on a tuesday afternoon and the "farm" was a bit of a mob scene. on one end of the grounds you could hardly hear yourself think due to noise from the generators powering the bouncy houses, and the other end was blaring obnoxious music. none of this phased ava of course, who was happily infatuated by all the halloween decorations, the unbelievably friendly goats in the petting zoo, and the pumpkins themselves.

in case you're wondering why exactly ava is sitting on the goat . . . well, that would be because grandma told her to sit on the goat. why did grandma . . . oh who knows, you'd have to ask her. . .

happily, we also discovered a pumpkin patch much more to my taste just across the street. at pastorino & sons it actually seemed to be tuesday afternoon, and we virtually had the place to ourselves. ava loved her ride on the miniature train, set on real tracks, with a properly costumed engineer. grandma rode with her while i took pictures, and she actually leaned out the window and waved at me everytime they went past.

ava also enjoyed her first pony ride, being towed around in a wagon, and meeting a friendly pig. when it came time for the traditional "baby with pumpkins" picture though, the 90 F heat was finally starting to get to her. she did her utmost to escape from the pumpkin obstacle course i had stranded her in, but eventually i had to rescue her.

ava's not one to hold grudges though, so as we headed for home, she nicely kissed the last pumpkin goodbye.