It has certainly been an eventful past few months. I have seriously neglected my duties as co-blogger and am just now getting to my posts--a trip to the pumpkin patch, yes for Halloween, and our recent trip to Willamette Pass for some Nordic skiing.
This was our third trip to the pumpkin patch. As you'll see in previous posts, what makes this particular place so great is that they tow all of the pumpkin-patch goers out to the fields on a hay cart, using a tractor that the owners have proudly kept running since 1965. What made this particular trip even more fantastic is that this year the tractor driver recruited 20-something-year-olds to drive the tractor with him and not just the 12-and-unders. Here is Kerry on the John Deere.
The perfect pumpkin may lurking right under your feet...
Yes! We have a possibility!
Usually Kerry doesn't go for the big pumpkins, but you never know which one will call to you.
Or which four pumpkins will call to you...
Now, each one must be carefully evaluated on the basis of personality, carvability, color, and that certain, je ne sais quoi.
Joe on the other hand takes the approach of deprecating each potential candidate to weed out the weak and unworthy.
In the end it was the big one that won...or lost...depending on your point of view I suppose.
We had some great carving fun on the kitchen floor with some hot cider and aebelskivers--there may have been a slight grease fire involved, but I'm not sure. We also came home with a sugar pumpkin which we turned into the same stuff you get out of the can. It was pretty darn good.
We've made this such a great tradition that I look forward to it every year. It's fun to be the 20-something-year-olds who enjoy hunting pumpkins as much as the 5-year-olds.
Our other fun adventure was a trip up to Willamette Pass for some Nordic skiing with our friends Ben and Gail. While the conditions were not great--thanks to The Nino--it was still a great time and made us realize how much we miss this part of living in Alaska.
Here we are in the parking lot getting ready to ski--or at least to walk to the ski shop to get our skis.
Here's Kerry busting some mean Nordic moves on the trails. All right in all honesty, the conditions were such that nobody was busting moves of any kind. Here's Kerry posing in her snazzy new snow pants that are actually long enough--it's been a long, long journey.
There seemed to be a lot of "uphilling" both ways. When it came time to reap the reward of a long hill climb with an exhilarating downhill run, the snow seemed to get sticky.
Despite the less-than-ideal conditions we had a great time getting a great workout, grubbing on some PB&J at the top of the trails, and sharing something that Kerry and I love with our friends. Of all the adventures and new things that we've tried together, I think that this is by far one of my favorites. Hopefully we'll get to do this more next year! 