Great Pumpkins!

Fall. A time for leaves. A time for soup. A time for burning out the dust in your furnace. A time for extra-hot, tall, two-pump, vanilla, nonfat lattes. A time for babies and pumpkins!

I know this is late, but need I repeat myself about time well spent? Halloween came and went and left many of you to wonder about Mason's inaugural holiday.

It went something like this:

Having Grandma Strong in town for the week provided an ideal opportunity for our family to have our Pumpkin Portrait taken since we now had our own personal photographer in tow. So many times Jen and I are on our own to try and get a family photo. This usually means taking two separate pictures and Photoshoping them into one, or getting a passer-by to take a picture which inevitably becomes a shot of disembodied heads floating in the vast blue sky.

So, after feeding Mason, and starting the 3 hour baby-travel timer, we dressed Mason in his Halloween garb, packed the diaper bag and stroller, loaded everything into the car, and drove the 2 minutes to the Pumpkin Patch.

Once there, we were immediately bombarded by the swirling dust storms of the parking lot as holiday fiends raced to have one last glimpse of the Haunted Barn, Trampoline House, and the guy who has nothing better to do than stand around and scare little kids. Finally, we made it to the patch, and I scoped out fantastically spooky old tree as a backdrop for our family photo. I took a few test photos just to check framing. When we were all set and ready to document this historic moment, an entire hay ride full of ghoulish families invaded the scene, kicking up dust and cluttering up our photo. So, to avoid being trampled, we abandoned this setting and set off to find another location.

After pausing for a moment to take a break from the heat of El Nino (as Chelsa made so perfectly clear, Sacramento Halloweens do seem more like summer holidays), we took a long walk to the dregs of the pumpkin patch.

Mama Ray finds an ironic, green tree to shade little Mason from the ironic, fall sun.

Papa Ray and Mason have a pattern war. Mason is the victor!

It was here, amongst the decaying corpses of the pumpkins that time forgot, we were able to have the peace we needed to get on with our picture taking.

Click!

Fall. A time for family. A time for loved ones. A time for snuggling. A time for trekking back to the car through the hordes of screaming kids, dirty farm animals and dusty parking lot to travel back home and spend the next several hours wiping down the stroller. I love Fall!