Feels like Fall

Now that it's beginning to "cool off" (meaning highs are "only" in the 80s) it's time to start enjoying fall. We made the annual trip to Willcox and spent the day at Apple Annie's orchards and Pumpkin patch. First stop apples, at Tessa's request. She really likes to pick the fruit and insists on carrying the bucket herself.

We invited Tim's friend Wayne and his girlfriend Odette to join us. It looked like everyone was having fun. The hay ride was pulled by a tractor and didn't actually have any hay though.

We weighed the apples to pay for them. Tessa was investigating the scale. We had homemade pumpkin and apple pie ice cream. Then we headed over to the produce fields a few miles down the road.

Tessa loved running, walking or riding (she did a little of each) through the sunflower patch and checking out the extra tall corn fields.
She wanted to wander in the fields, which we knew would result in her permanent disappearance, so we had to create a race back to Phoebe.

Wandering through pumpkin patch, looking for the right one to cut and take home.

Found it!
Daddy chose Phoebe's because it was perfect, he said. That soft dirt was pretty tough to wheel through.
Probably the last year she'll be able to hitch a ride.
Yummmm, kettle corn!
Wayne and Odette looking picture perfect. They obviously don't have kids! (Although they were both so patient and helpful with ours - even during Tessa's carsick incident)
Looking windblown and disheveled but happy.

They had a trough filled with corn kernels that the kids could play in. It was disgusting to watch one kid using his shoe as a shovel to pour it over everyone's heads and Tessa putting her face in the kernels and swimming through it. When she came up for air some of the kernels stuck to her runny nose. But hey, you're only a kid once, right?

We took home some pumpkin bread and exactly one bell pepper to put on a pizza. We'll see if she'll actually eat it. We had dinner in Tucson and got home late. The kids were zonked out in the car and after being stripped down and put in bed (we only found two corn kernels in Tessa's clothes) it was a quiet night.