Usually about a week and a half before Halloween, we head to a local pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin to carve with Brady. In his three Halloweens, we haven't been to the same pumpkin patch twice with all of our moving around. It also worked out nicely that my parents decided to come visit this weekend, which was when we were going to pick out our pumpkin. We moved away when Brady was 5 months old, so they've never been able to experience many of these things with him. It was really special that they could be here and watch him pick out his pumpkin.
Nana and Dubby on the hayride waiting for the tractor to pull us to the pumpkin patch.
Brady decked out in his jack o lantern shirt ready to pick out a pumpkin.
We had a little incident while looking through all the pumpkins. We even have it on video where Brady points me in the other direction and I head off to check out the pumpkins. Then he turns around and steps in an open rotten pumpkin. This kid is sneaky and tons of trouble! This is him sitting on the pumpkin I found for him. It was HUGE!
Don't let the size fool you, it outweighs Brady by about 14lbs! He weighs around 30lbs and this pumpkin weighed in around 44lbs. It's by far the biggest pumpkin we've ever picked.
This year, with our new addition, we decided to get a pumpkin for the new baby. We told Brady that his pumpkin could be as big as Daddy could carry and that he could pick one for the baby that he could carry.
Back on the hayride with our pumpkins securely loaded on board.
We stopped to view a bald eagle's nest in a tree on the property. Brady was more interested in the baby's pumpkin.
Once we got back to the main area they had carts that you could use to get your pumpkins to the weighing station and then your car. Usually we pay the admission to do the other activities at a patch, but it was past 3PM and way past Brady's naptime when we got there, so we got the pumpkins and headed home.
The remainder of Saturday was spent relaxing. Brady fell asleep on the car ride home and went immediately to bed when we got there. We turned on the TV and vegged out in front of football. It was a pretty decent weekend for all of our teams. Sometimes we can go a whole season without Pitt, Penn State, and the Steelers all winning in the same weekend, but they pulled it off this weekend, so no grumpiness on Monday morning. While I was staying at my parents' this summer, I was watching the food network and saw Rachel Ray cook an amazing beef wellington with blue cheese and watercress instead of pate. I made a mental note to have Andy try it sometime. With my parents visiting, it was the perfect opportunity and it was amazing! We were all stuffed at the end and realizes that half of a wellington is enough for one person, so we can cut the recipe in half next time.
Sunday morning, we headed to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. We had been in March 2011 when we visited for a conference Andy attended, but several exhibitions were under construction. It was free that day because it was the museum's 83rd birthday. It houses amazing historical artifacts. Above is the limousine in which JFK was shot in Dallas, TX.
A side shot of the JFK limousine. They modified it in 1964 to add a reinforced steel top, so it would no longer be a convertible leaving a president open to attack.
Eisenhower's limousine
FDR's limousine
Teddy Roosevelt's house drawn buggy
A huge steam locomotive. I put Andy and Brady in to show the scale of how large it was.
A coal powered locomotive. Brady was in heaven with all the cars and trains.
Check out the snow plow on the front of this train.
The chair from the Ford Theatre in which Abraham Lincoln was shot. You can still see the blood stains on it.
They have a weinermobile, so they also have a bun and toppings so you can lay in it and be the hotdog. Brady thought this was pretty cool. He was 13 months the last time we went, so he didn't do much.
Just relaxing.
Even though Andy had raked the leaves the weekend before, in the course of a week our yard was covered in leaves again. We decided after the museum to rake them up and let Brady jump in them again with Nana and Dubby watching before we got rid of them. It was much drier this time, but of course the leaves at the bottom were still soaking wet.
Dubby kept using the rake to pile more leaves on top of Brady.
Brady completely buried in the leaves.
They both got a kick out of throwing Brady into the leaves. I managed to catch a great shot of Dubby and Brady in mid-swing.
Brady's turn to rake.
Brady was such a good boy and stopped playing to tell us he had to go potty.
We were so grateful my parents made the effort to come out and visit us. Most of the rest of our families don't realize how expensive it is for us to come home, but expect us to always be the ones coming to them. It's quite an effort and takes a lot of planning for us to come home and we usually only do so when there is a reason. With the new baby, we will be traveling home less and less because the memories of driving out here when we first moved when Brady was 4 months old is more than enough to deter us while this baby is young. Fortunately, my parents and brothers are willing to come to us and we will host our first Thanksgiving just one month from today. It's a rare treat to have all of us together and we're sure to have a good time.
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