Goin' on a Hay Ride

Two Thursdays a month, I meet with some lovely ladies to drink wine, eat yummy food and chat about what's going on in our lives. Oh, yeah, also, we read different books about faith, spirituality and the bible and discuss those. We've named it "Faith Club," and I love those Thursday nights. Every once in a while, we make an effort to get together outside of the standard Thursday night and include spouses, significant others, and children. We started talking about doing something this fall, and the idea of a Hay Ride came up.

Ok, truth be told, I brought the idea up. I have had several other friends who have gone on these hay rides, and I thought they sounded so fun. You schedule a specific time, then meet at Shawnee Mission Park, go for an hour-long hay ride, then get to have an hour-long bonfire, complete with marshmallows and apple cider. Plus, you can bring other food if you want. And, if you know me, you know s'mores were a must. Mmmmm ... marshmallows gooeyness with chocolate sweetness and graham crunchiness. Delicious.

Anyway. So, everyone was up for it, and we scheduled the hay ride. Then, slowly, people started dropping out. Your group is supposed to have a minimum number of people, and I'd already made the deposit, so I was getting worried. But, a couple girls invited roomates and friends, and we made it just barely over the minimum. We were a go!

The girls were super excited to hear that we were going to go on a hay ride. We drove out to the park, and bundled up. It was actually a really nice night. A little chilly, but you kind of want a hay ride to be chilly, right? It helps contribute to the atmosphere.

We were the first to arrive, so we got a family picture on the hay ride.

Pretty Molly with the campfire in the background.

Memories made at the pumpkin patch

Several weeks ago, we took a family trip to the pumpkin patch. If you know me at all, you know I am a sucker for a good photo-op. I look at a situation and think, "Oooh, I have the perfect scrapbook paper for the page I'm going to make with that picture." I have years of pictures and memories dutifully bound in scrapbooks, sitting on my bookshelf.

If I were to psycho-analyze myself with all the psychological insight earned from years of watching characters go to therapy in tv shows and movies, I might go so far as to say that I love pictures because my own memory is so bad. Seriously. You could fly a fleet of jumbo jets through the holes I have in my childhood memories. Halloween? I remember exactly two costumes. Princess and punk rocker. Two. That's it!

Well, I really hope my own children remember more of their childhoods, and I definitely don't want to forget a minute of it myself, so I try to document every single possible photo-op.

Thus enters the pumpkin patch. If you can imagine, my yearly scrapbooks are not complete without the requisite fall pictures with pumpkins. Now, I'm not saying that I only take the girls to a pumpkin patch in order to get a good picture. I mean, I hope they have fun while we're there, but I also really hope I get some good pictures!