I am one of those traditionalist. It is very important that I continue our traditions as a family. I think traditions help when we are older to remind of us our childhood. One tradition is every year my kids get a Christmas ornament for their trees and we get one as a family for our big tree. Another tradition is family vacation once a year. This is a big and expensive one but it is one thing that regardless of how my parents were doing growing up, that I remember doing this and it was so fun and rewarding. The other major tradition for us is to go to a pumpkin patch in October. We started out going to Begg’s in Sikeston, MO. We’ve been to Bandy’s in Herrin, IL when we were short on time. Last year was Eckert’s in Belleville, IL. This year was a whole different ball game… We went with my WHOLE family to Eckert’s in Millstadt, IL.
Just look at this group!
All because two people fell in love (my parents),
We don’t own a bus or anything so it takes 5 vehicles to get us there. We all chose what we each family would wear and met up. Now I think everyone did a great job matching this group of 22. Only people missing was my sister Danielle and her daughter Isabella, who live in Phoenix.
When we got there we decided to take some family photos.
Each family took family photos. The groups as small as 2 (our newlyweds, my brother David and his wife Alyssa),
To our newest parents (my brother Jacob, his girlfriend Ashlee, and baby Auna),
Of course my family…
and to our biggest group aka “The Brady Bunch” (my sister April, her boyfriend Dan, and all of their clan. That’s a total of 9 kids!!! When I was taking their photos it was funny to listen to people say “Oh my! Do all of them belong to that couple?” Of course we told everyone, he has 5 and she has 4. But, when I look at them, I would not have known that. I mean I think they all blend in very well and are an attractive group!
The kids did amazing. They were well behaved, had fun riding rides, eating some snacks, going through the corn maze… which I did NOT take part of. Eckert’s has a pumpkin launcher. Every hour they launch a few pumpkins into the air. They shoot pretty far. When taking our wagon ride to get our pumpkins I had to wonder if anyone every had been shot at during the launch as they drove right in the path of the launcher. However, I am guessing not since it is still allowed.
There was a petting zoo, pony rides (which cost extra), a blowup jumpy thing. Do you know how hard it is for 2 year olds to try and climb up this blow up thing that is kind of slick without sliding down??? Difficult! And, that is why I got to be apart of it myself. Who says being an adult has to be boring?!?! Isn’t that what our kids long for anyways? For us to be apart of what they are doing and what they like to do.
We watched some pig races. Everyone wants to be picked to see if their pig will win. You get a pig snout out of the deal. So if your pig does win you get bragging rights. But if your little piggy doesn’t you go home without a snout. I guess I’m okay with not going home with a huge nose with big nostrils. For the kids I guess they felt different. It was more about bragging rights.
After the pig races we took the opportunity of taking pictures with these amazing backgrounds of Eckerts. Just beautiful! I am so glad the colors turned just in time as well. This is one of my favorite pictures, with my guy, in my favorite season.
We almost forgot to take the wagon ride to go pick our pumpkins…who does that at a pumpkin patch? Anyone having a lot of fun.
You think getting this huge group together for just a pumpkin patch is work, try taking vacations yearly. Yes we all go somewhere TOGETHER! But, hey it’s traditions and we are making quite the memories here. So no big deal!!! That’s what life is all about.
