the great pumpkin patch, Charlie Brown

The Neilsons brought us to their favorite pumpkin patch in Moriarty this afternoon -- to help drown our sorrows from the Chases leaving... sniff! My one complaint was that there was no apple cider (other than the powdered packets -- sold for $2 -- what??), like at our favorite apple spots in Mass, but other than that, it was pretty amazing. Petting zoo, pedal go carts (I have no pictures of Ethan on his, sadly -- he looked great), hayride, huge trampoline thing, "Rocky Mountain Mine Shaft slide," hay pyramid, corn maze, box of dried corn for Claire to play in, homemade fudge for sale (which almost completely made up for the apple cider), and great music playing. The best part was that Ethan and Elliot could basically go off on their own and it was so open that you could keep an eye on them most of the time. I could explain more, but there's a million pictures in the slide show, so enjoy!

One more thing -- as you can tell by the clouds and the great hairdos, it was a bit ominous outside and horribly windy the whole time, but it was perfectly fun and comfortably cool. Well, the minute we left in our car, rain and hail came slamming down. We parked and ate dinner while we waited out the storm. When we got back on the road, one of the sheds at the farm had been destroyed and was spread out as debris all over the highway. Emily said she heard on the radio that it was a bona fide tornado that touched down! We couldn't believe it -- and I still haven't found any substantive evidence on the news, but ABQ is slow with the news.