Schnepf Farms

My goal for October was to do something Halloween-y or festive every week this month before Halloween to try and get into the spirit and have some family fun. Between Dax and I being in Seattle for a long weekend, Austin taking a quick trip to Utah, plus work, school, Church and everything else, well, now that Halloween is almost here, I realize that we didn't do so great at meeting that goal. The good news is I think we made up for it this weekend! The highlight was our trip to Schnepf Farms yesterday. Austin hadn't been able to enjoy Dax at a pumpkin patch and a huge farm in Queen Creek seemed like the place to go to get the true "Pumpkin Patch" experience. Lots of family and friends had been before and said it was kinda pricey and not worth it and they weren't sure how much there would be for Dax to do. Well, we decided to go anyway and experience it for ourselves. Austin's parents came along and we half-dressed Dax up in his pirate costume and headed out first thing Saturday morning. I kinda felt like we were going to an amusement park rather than a good ol' pumpkin patch by the price of the tickets, the way the parking lot was set up for thousands of cars and the line we ran into to get inside the farm. I wasn't sure what we were in for, but gladly we were not the least bit disappointed!

There was sooo much for Dax to do! We ran from one place to the next, hitting the carousel, pony ride, petting barn, Hillybilly Bob's Pig races (grandpa's favorite), Lil' Farmers play yard, a hay ride, Witch Mountain Slide, the Flying Farmers ride and the boys took a spin on the Country Road Rally. We ate a great lunch of pulled pork sandwiches, drank fresh squeezed lemonaide (to try and stay cool in the 95 degree weather), and ate fresh, true-live kettle popcorn. Dax got to pick his very own pumpkin from a huge pumpkin patch.

A little history about this farm is that it is family owned and sits on over 300 acres. They do major events like this "Pumpkin and Chili Party" all year long and it is pretty much a place of Arizona Tourism. Well, as most farms tend to be, things are old and antiqued. In fact, the carousel the kids rode on was built in 1912 and parents weren't even allowed to sit on the horses because they were too heavy. Come to find out, this was the case of most the rides...no parents. Well, from afar, Dax saw the flying airplanes, exactly like the rockets at Disneyland. There was the joy stick that you pull back and forth to make the airplane go up and down while the ride went round and round. Dax wanted to go so bad, but no parents were allowed. I could barely watch as Austin strapped my baby in the pilot's seat and showed him how to "fly" the plane. The ride started and Dax went straight up. He smiled and waved each time he went by without ever loosing his grin. The ride was probably 5 minutes too long because about half way through you couldn't hear any of the kids yelling or waving to their parents and they all looked a little dizzy...Dax especially. We thought the pulled pork sandwich was going to be coming up for sure, but he was a trooper and kept everything down and even though he had no expression on his face when the ride finally got through, when we asked if he had fun, he said "yeah!". He is such a little dare devil---and it freaks me out!

I had enough of my share of petting zoo's so when the boys headed over to feed the goats I had to laugh at how friendly, and hungry, these goats were!

We had a great time. Thanks grandma and grandpa Mac for joining us on our adventure!!