My friend Kelly had extra tickets to the pumpkin patch and corn maze at Kruger farms on Sauvie Island a day before Halloween, and I just had to take her up on her offer. Taking the time to go on adventures with kids is so important to me. It means you put aside your schedule, which will always be filled to the brim, and just going. 
You never regret going, but you regret not going.
When my kids were younger, I used to go every year with my kids to the pumpkin patch. It was part of our fall family ritual. I have photographs of my kids posing in front of bright orange pumpkins as they’ve grown up over the years. We’d have homemade donuts and apple cider at the farms, and do other “fall” things that were available for families.
But, then soccer and basketball and sports and scouts and life took over.
Though, every year, I’d think about going again, especially when I looked at the framed photos of my children in a sea of orange.
And, the past couple of years we have begun growing our own pumpkins and my husband has said we do not need to go to the pumpkin patch because we have our own pumpkins.
But, it’s not about the pumpkins. It’s about the experience of getting out into nature. Of adventure. Of going to a farm. Of doing something different in the outdoors.
And, of course, it’s about the photograph. Yup, I lined them up again, including my 19 year old son Ryan who was home from George Fox for Halloween. His girlfriend Larissa joined us as well. 
We were missing my daughter Rachel who’s in school in Germany.
And, we made our way through the corn maze, 
which was a blast, though it was so muddy
that I lost the bottom of my heal of my boots! We had roasted 
corn, included in the package, and my kids fed the chickens 
with their left over corn.
I vow to go back next year — and thank Kelly for tickets this year!
