Getting in the Halloween Spirit!

Saturday Jason and I took the boys and met up with his folks at Cascade Village for the "Pumpkin Chainsaw Massacre". It was pretty neat watching people carve their pumpkins using only a chainsaw...It's a first for us anyway.

I was surprised at how great they all turned out. Pumpkin shells and guts were flying everywhere and a bunch of kids, and a few adults, were in costumes. Seb had asked a couple days before if they could wear their costumes but I'd said no because nobody would be wearing their costume until Halloween...Nice going Mom (oops on my part, huh?). We got to enjoy "pumpkin spice" smoothie samples and Jason won a gift card for Johnny Carino's. And all the little kids got a free pumpkin to take home so the boys were pretty happy about that.

Sunday, we went to church and then out to the pumpkin patch for a last weekend pumpkin hunt with Jason's family. It has expanded quite a bit since we were out there two years ago! They still have the cool little train and the pony rides, and of course there's the petting zoo, corn maze, and the hay fort, this year it looked like a ghost ship.

The first thing we had to do was pose for all the funny cut-outs, then we were off to feed the gorgeous Clydesdales--my favorite part! Shan was sort of interested but Seb definitely kept his distance because they were so huge and intimidating.

So we went over to check out the pony rides. Seb was the only kid there so he got to ride all by himself. He's been on ponies and horses before so I knew he'd love it, but I didn't think Shan would want to ride one. He kept pointing and saying "horsey" while Seb was riding so I took him up to pet Seb's pony when the ride was over and asked if we could just set Shan in the saddle. I figured he'd kick and scream and scare the ponies but he just giggled and bounced in the saddle. So we buckled him in and I walked around with all the ponies and other mommies. And when the ride was over he protested and then climbed down and gave "Sparkles" a nice pat and a "good girl".

After that we took the boys to the little zoo train. They waited patiently at the "station" and then climbed into the Lion car with their Auntie Crystal. Grandpa kept bringing them kettle corn while they waited for the conductor to start up the train and drive them through Sherwood Forest. They were all smiles when they got back and hopped out so we could head to Jason's favorite part of the entire farm...

The infamous Pumpkin Cannon! We waited in line for a little bit while everyone took their turn. Seb saw a little girl watching his kettle corn bag so he offered her some but she was a little shy...It was cute though. One thing's for sure, it's not boring standing in line at that attraction! They all picked out their pumpkins and drew something on them before shooting them, and lucky Jason got to shoot with both of the boys! We even got to see them shoot the huge Patriotic cannon while we waited. I didn't realize how loud the cannons were until I sat down on the bales next to them. Yeah, they'll definitely rattle your ear drums if you're close enough.

After picking out some awesome pumpkins and brushing Shanon off when he fell in the dirt, Seb stopped to pose with the knight outside the pumpkin patch, although Shan wasn't getting too friendly with him.

It was a lot of fun and I think everyone had a great time! We finished off the day by heading back to town and having a nice dinner with Jason's family.