Falling behind...

There's a little smile!

Yes, we're still behind on these blog posts; hopefully the bouncing between the past and the present isn't too confusing for our readers. At this point, my aim is to catch up on posts by the time I return to work - a mere 3 weeks from yesterday. Where does the time go???

Even though we've fallen behind in the posts due to the move and Jude's birth, we took full advantage of as many normal fall activities as was possible. In years past (see here and here), we enjoyed picking apples and pumpkins at Barthel's Fruit Farm in Mequon, and I very much want to continue to take Jonah (and now Jude) to the orchard. However, the Wisconsin weather was very hard on orchards this year and virtually no one offered pick-your-own apples. Given the lack of apple picking options and an opportunity to visit with some friends while enjoying pumpkin picking and other fall-oriented activities, we decided to try Basse's in Colgate this year.

It was a cold day when the seven of us piled into our van, arriving at Basse's mid-morning. Many of the activities at Basse's require tickets, so it is important to determine in advance the activities in which you'd like to participate so that you can maximize your ticket purchase. Amongst the activities available: pick-your-own pumpkins, a "train" ride, pony rides, a "corn crib," a corn teepee, a giant "pillow" on which you could bounce, etc. We purchased tickets conservatively, but had some difficulty using them because Jonah was in a funk from the get-go. We don't know what it was, but he wasn't terribly interested in the new experiences and cried about most everything we did. The "train" ride and pony rides were good. It took him all of two minutes to pick his pumpkins, and he was done with that. Even the playground slide caused a meltdown.

Sitting with Evelyn in the giant rocking chair.

Get me out of this corn!

I don't want to go down the slide!

Peeking out the side of the wagon.

Posing before the hay ride to pick out their pumpkins.

Riding a pony. This part of the visit was okay!

We ended up using the last of our tickets on the pumpkin shooter, as Jonah had no interest in other activities at that point and we didn't want the tickets to go to waste. It probably didn't look good, with the 8+ month pregnant me shooting the gun, but it was pretty awesome to chuck those pumpkins! 

Me, with the pumpkin shooter.

On a positive note, the operation uses Farmall tractors, which thrilled Jonah (any tractor will, really) and gave us the opportunity to talk about the ones Grandpa Gregg owns and that Jonah sees when he is in Ohio.

Perhaps it was too cold (we tried to mitigate the chills with hot apple cider, but waiting for it to cool caused its own meltdown). Perhaps Jonah didn't sleep enough the night before. Who knows. A pasta lunch at Panera afterward certainly helped his spirits. Hopefully we'll have a better fall experience next year and the weather will cooperate to allow apple picking again!