Fall - Time for Football and Corn Mazes

 Fall means college football, cool weather, random harvest festivities, and corn mazes.  Living in Albania for the past few years, Sean hasn’t been able to enjoy college football as much as he would have liked, but now that we are in Mexico, he was really looking forward to the upcoming football season.  And his excitement was contagious (for Asher) at least…

 

 

Sean also spent some time updating Asher’s room to ensure that his football obsession was passed down to the next generation.  As evidenced by the following photos, pants are often optional in our home...

 After a long day of football, Shauna and Asher take a little break with an SEC-themed blanket.

Completely unrelated photo of Asher doing his pants-less daredevil routine off of our couch, because why not?  

The pumpkin patch.  We found an amazing pumpkin patch in New Mexico.  It’s set over a ton of acres, had a corn maze, harvest produce and pumpkin pie, lots of farm equipment incorporated into playgrounds, it had everything!  We highly recommend Mesilla Valley Maze to anyone in the area and we will be going back each year that we are in the southwest.    

 

 

Right as you come in there is a huge windmill that immediately grabs your attention.  All around its base are old school water pumps where kids and parents pumped semi-filthy water up - why you ask?  for fun, that's why...

 

All of their playgrounds and sandpits had repurposed farm equipment - old tractors to play on, old tires to climb on, Asher was thrilled!  We spent several hours just watching as he jumped from one playground/tractor to another.  He was a pirate, an astronaut, and yes, a farmer...

 

 

 

 

One of the best parts was the huge pyramid of tractor tires.  There was a sign somewhere that said: "No Climbing" - I guess rules were made to be broken.

  

 

  

I love this next one - it reminds me of the Matrix!

The food was also reasonably priced and delicious. While pumpkin pie isn't one of our holiday favorites, Asher had seen it in one of his cartoons and kept asking for it, so we started with some pumpkin pie and finished things off with some cotton candy.  Good thing it wasn't one of our favorites, either, because Asher finished off the pie in about 30 seconds and I believe there was some growling when Sean went in for a bite.

 

 

 

We got to go on a hayride to and from the pumpkin patch!  Asher had a ball romping through the pumpkin patch and ultimately selecting a few reasonably-sized pumpkins to bring home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our haul of small pumpkins from the patch.

 

 

And yes - there was sliding on burlap sacks, in case you were wondering.

 

  

 

 

  

And pedaling tricycles through mazes made out of bales of hay (when your kid I holding up the whole line of kids as he struggles with his rusty pedals, that's when mom steps in)...

 

 

 They change the Corn Maze every year - this year it was apparently inspired by Andy Warhol...  by the time we got to it, Asher was worn out and all he really wanted to do was pick and shuck the corn (see the sign below saying, "Please Do Not Pick the Corn"), so we walked around a little bit, letting him lead, until we took and then we took him out to run around the "bunny hill" before we left.

 

 

 

 

The bunny hill. This playground was great.  A hill built over intersecting 4 foot pipes, awesome.  The little rabbits bounced around their warren and popped out all over the place!

 

Asher and Shauna both thought that this WANTED poster was pretty cool - this may be what prompted Asher's desire to be a cowboy for Halloween - either this or Toy Story.

Happy Fall!