Ben and I were talking a few weeks back and came to the conclusion we haven't been to Maris Farms in a while, and we haven't hung out with his family in quite some time either. It's been since the middle of August since we hung out with his mom and sister. I called Trish and asked if she would be interested in going to the pumpkin patch, eat food and carve pumpkins and she said she was. We ended up choosing Sunday, October 24 because it was the only day open, with Ben's fire shift schedule, before Halloween and month's end. She said that date would be fine, and we included Amy, Ed and Jean. We just had to hope for decent weather.
A few days before, we discussed what we wanted to make for dinner, and we chose tacos because it was quick, easy and they're delicious. No one hates tacos.
Ben was on a 24-hour shift the night before and I tried to help Doug get his life in order by going to the dump and helping back some of his stuff. I stayed up way too late cleaning, moving stuff and doing laundry because we wouldn't be home Sunday to do anything at home. I got all the food I was responsible for and stuff ready in a couple bags the night before, except for the guacamole, which needed to stay refrigerated.
I woke up around 8:15 a.m. and started getting ready and Ben arrived home shortly after. He got his stuff ready but is always slow when he gets ready. It drives me crazy. I packed the Escape, because it was my turn to drive, and we didn't leave until after 9:30 a.m. I took some yogurt and grapes with me to eat for breakfast.
It didn't take us long to get there since it was Sunday morning and people were still sleeping off whatever they did the night before. We called Trish to see if she needed anything and she said maybe some more lettuce? We took note of that and stopped by the Dollar Tree for some pumpkin supplies. I bought some Sharpies and glow sticks. I didn't want to ruin Trish's Sharpies and I wasn't sure if she had any candles, but glow sticks seemed like a good idea. We also had some time to stop by the Fred Meyer, so we picked up a pumpkin carving kit, because I forgot to grab mine out of the garage, some more lettuce and a drink for Ben. I walked over to the sports stuff and found a Halloween Cougar decoration that was on sale for $8 instead of its original price of $25. I bought it because it was a screaming deal.
We got to the house and unloaded our stuff, got ready to go and took two vehicles to Maris Farms, just a few miles from the house towards Buckley. Jean rode with Ben and I and we got to the farm and found a place to park. We wondered why Trish, Amy and Ed weren't behind us, so we waited for them to arrive. They finally pulled up beside us and they got out. Trish goes, funny thing happened...at the light we just looked for a blue Escape like yours and ended up following another person into a gas station. We all just laughed at her.
We grabbed our jackets and boots and headed to the entrance so we could get in line to get in. Ben had bought tickets for us a few days ago so he just had to show the receipt to the ticket takers. We didn't have to wait in line that long which was nice. We could start our visit before the inevitable rain showed up.
We got a family picture and then did the corn maze since that was the part of our visit that would probably take the longest.
We broke up into two teams. Ed, Ben and I were a team and Amy, Trish and Jean were a team. We did sports trivia, and they did movie trivia. We were neck and neck for a while and then Amy wasn't being a very good team leader and tried piggy backing on us. We told her to go find her team and not leave them behind. She pouted but she did go back and find her team. Meanwhile, Ed, Ben and I pulled out the win and waited for them at the finish, which doubled as the start. We made fun of them when they finally did cross the finish line, mostly Amy though.
Then, we tried our skills at the zipline. We even talked Trish into doing it and I told her I would do it with her if she did. We stood in line and once we got to the front, I let Trish go first. She should have been paying attention. It went well until she tried to dismount. She fell off the end of it, her pants got dirty and she pulled some skin off of her hand. She was fine but mostly embarrassed because she did that in front of all of us. I took my turn and demonstrated what she should have done.
We played the wooden ball games and then Ed and Ben played human foosball with some kids while I went on the slide. I walked back up the hill and Jean and Trish did as well. We chatted for a bit, and I asked Trish and Jean if they wanted to do bubbles and then I saw the tricycles and called Ben to come race me. But when he finally came up the hill a slew of kids bombarded and took all the trikes. We had to wait. Once they were available, none of the trikes worked very well so we decided not to race after all.
It was almost time for the duck races, so we walked over to where we thought they were going to have them and turns out, we were wrong. We got up and walked to the correct place and found a spot to stand. The ducks were announced, and the race was on as soon as they pulled the plank up. They swam through the lower level, ran up the ramp and then raced by foot down the track to the finish line. The workers had to whack the side of the pen to get them to go sometimes. Quackie Chan won. They returned the ducks to their pen, and we walked around the farm for a little bit longer. The rain was staying away for the time being.
Ben decided he wanted to ride the bull, so we found a place to sit, while he filled out the consent form (just in case he got hurt, they weren't liable) and waited his turn. Ben got on the bull, got set up and they turned it on. He managed to stay on for 32 seconds before he fell off. We cheered for him because he beat most of the people's time that were in line before him. We got a video of it.
It started getting cooler and the wind picked up a bit. We all decided it was time to go pick out our pumpkins. We grabbed a wheelbarrow and went searching. I found a good one right away, but I wanted another one as well just in case we needed it. As it approached 2:00, Jean wanted to go watch the candy cannon. I walked over with her while Ben, Trish, Ed and Amy continued looking for their pumpkins. The candy canon went off promptly at 2 and the wind blew it away from where everyone staged themselves. Jean and I laughed at the herd of kids running to the candy.
Jean walked back up to the main entrance while I met up with everyone in the pumpkin patch. I picked out one more and had to get after Amy to pick one. She didn't want to, but we forced her to. We told her we were doing something as a family and making memories. She was being a Debbie downer for some reason. Almost like she was punishing herself for having fun and living her life. We paid for our pumpkins and took them to our vehicles but couldn't remember what row we parked in, lol.
As soon as we got everything loaded up and Ben took the wheelbarrow back, that is when the rain started. It waited until we were done! Thank you, rain! I really though the rain was going to ruin our good time at the farm. It was perfect timing.
We headed back to Trish's house, unloaded the pumpkins and went inside. I asked everyone if we should start making food and everyone agreed. Trish and I started making the meat and cutting up everything for tacos. The weather got really bad, very windy and the rain was pounding down. We got the meat on the stove, and I was so thankful Trish had a gas stove so we could continue to cook while the power went on and off like five or six different times. I cut the lettuce, tomato, onion and tried cooking the rice in the microwave and had to try two different times. We got everything ready, and people dished up.
I was hungry so I inhaled my food. We cleaned up, put stuff away and brought in the pumpkins to get ready to carve. Jean decided it was time to head home so she could make decent time and try to get home before it got dark. We thanked her for coming and we hope she had a great time. We staged the table with our pumpkins, knives, carving tools and bowls. I knew I wanted to do a face but what kind of face? I found one I sort of liked in one of the many carving books they had and away I went.
Ben free handed his, Trish did a page out of a book, Ed free carved a face and Amy carved her feelings into her pumpkin. We activated all the glow sticks I brought and put them inside all the pumpkins once they were done. We placed them on the edge of the table with all the lights off and got some photos. It wasn't quite dark enough to put them on the porch yet, since we haven't had to turn our clocks back an hour.
Ben and I got ready to go after we helped Trish clean up the table. We thanked Trish for a nice day and loaded up the Escape. I stopped by Krissy's house to drop off some McDonald's toys I promised her about a month ago. I met her through Brandon and his roommate Alan back when we were at WSU and have been Facebook friends ever since. She and her family love Disney and I had some toys they needed to finish their collection. It was a quick chat and she thanked me for bringing them by. She handed me a thank you card, and I hopped back in the Escape. Ben and I drove through town, which was a mistake, but I needed to get some gas before we went home. The power was out in half of Bonney Lake. It took us a while to get through town because people don't know what a foour-way stop is and how to navigate it.
We finally got down the hill into Sumner and away from all the congestion. I pulled off of Hwy 410 and went to the gas station by the Winco. We filled up and got back onto 410, then 512 and finally onto I-5. We got home just as the Colts and 49ers game got finished. We unloaded our stuff, Ben got ready for work the next day and I watched some Sportscenter, blogged and then we got ready for bed shortly after. It was a fun weekend making memories with family.
Next Adventure: My Birthday Weekend
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