Irvine Park Railroad

Last Sunday we took the kids to the pumpkin patch at Irvine Park Railroad.  
Unless he's on vacation, John works every weekend, but thanks to a scheduling snafu, he had Sunday off.  We realized that, with our busy schedules, it was our only chance to go to the pumpkin patch as a family.  This is one activity that I don't want to "divide and conquer" - - it's a family must!  So, we braved the crazy Sunday crowd and headed to the beautiful Regional Park.

We picnicked...

We spotted a lady bug...

And played with her for a long time...

Gracie spent at least 15 minutes staring at the lady bug.
I'm fairly certain it was the highlight of the day for her!

(I fiddled with my camera, which has either gone completely bonkers with the settings or is on it's last leg.  Every picture I took is grainy and has terrible color.  Considering it's a pocket digital, nearly five years old and has taken at least 25,000 pics, I'm guessing it's nearing it's shelf life.)

John and his "mini-me"
lead the way into the pumpkin patch...

Seriously... look at them! 
Look at their legs - - the way they step, the angles of their feet.
Look at the position of their hands and the way they swing their arms. 
Two peas in a pod.

We played with the pumpkins...

I compared my bump to a pumpkin!

We attempted some family pictures...

(I fiddled with my camera some more)

Too much glare on Preston's face here...

Too much glare on John's face here...

Cute... but for the glare (and my grainy camera issues)!

We took the cheesy, obligatory "face-in-wood-cutout" pictures...

The kids rode the "pony"

The pony/horse ride line was excruciatingly long, so the kids rode this instead. 
Neither of them minded too much as they weren't that keen on waiting in the line.

We went through the Hay Maze  (no pics!)

Preston played carnival games...

He won an elephant for Gracie and a sword for himself.
He then proceeded to beat her elephant with his sword!

We had some fresh-spun cotton candy...

(the only way cotton candy should ever be eaten!)

Gracie was fascinated by the texture, but because of said texture, refused to taste it.
I was so sure she'd love it... maybe we'll just have to keep trying!

We picked out some pumpkins

(and I forgot to use the coupons in my pocket... ugh!) and headed out...

It was a great family day...

(even with the huge crowd that made Daddy a little crazy!)