A little over a month ago, we were supposed to go to Wilmington. We hadn’t seen my in-laws since May and we wanted to get a quick beach trip in before the fall. Unfortunately, Hurricane Florence beat us there. The exact weekend we wanted to go, this huge storm was supposed to hit. Matthew’s parents fared well, thank goodness, but it was a scary time for them. Fortunately, this past weekend we were finally able to see them again! And while we were there, we took Ella and Jack to a cute little pumpkin patch.
We went to a pumpkin patch last year in Durham but it was kind of a last minute thing. We passed one on the side of the road and figured we stop. Jack was barely 6 months old so he didn’t appreciate it (I couldn’t even find one picture of him there) but Ella had fun running through the rows of pumpkins.
This time, we found another pumpkin patch on the side of the road but it had all different types of pumpkins, fall flowers, and fun displays for the kids.
It’s funny to think about what a difference a year makes. I was still pretty new as a mother of two and would still get so stressed out taking Ella and Jack anywhere. But now, these little outings are such a great opportunity for memories and pictures (and matching shoes!) and I can’t imagine my life without the two of them.
I wanted to get a lot more pictures this year but I also didn’t want to annoy the kids (or my in-laws) too much and I wanted to be immersed in the experience. Does anyone else have a hard time balancing all of that? I love photography but being on the other side of the camera so much means I’m a little bit removed from what’s happening. I tried to let go and have my husband take some pictures so that I could more enjoy being with the kids. And so that I could be in the pictures for once!
Ella almost never let anyone else operate the wagon and if we hadn’t stopped her, she would have put every single pumpkin on ours. We had to trail behind her, taking pumpkins back and smiling apologetically at all the staff.
I’m always drawn to the small white pumpkins– those lumpy orange-ish ones completely gross me out.
Jack, who loves cars, kept running to the edge of the patch towards the super busy road. Is zero caution a boy thing?!
I did manage to corral him back to the pumpkins after a while. I think he was just surprised I was letting him touch things!
It was a fun quick way to spend the morning. And already, North Carolina’s Fall season is rapidly turning into Winter so I’m glad we took advantage. And it was great to be back in Wilmington.
xo
eb