Great Country Farms

Ryan and I decided to take a somewhat spur of the moment trip to Virginia. We'd been talking about driving back since Ryan's dad hadn't met Lucy yet, so we made quick plans and left a couple days later for the weekend.

I ALMOST got a good picture of Lucy's cute smile!

Lucy did surprisingly well on the car trip. We left late, around 6, with the idea that we'd drive, and hopefully Lucy would fall asleep for the night. We had to stop twice I think to feed her, and she didn't really fall asleep good until about 11, which was about 2 hours later than normal. So the next day she slept most of the day, just getting up to eat. Friday everyone was still pretty much working, but Ryan and I enjoyed being able to rest. Ryan's been sick so he pretty much slept a lot of the day too to get feeling better.

On Saturday we drove out to Great Country Farms which is out in Bluemont. It's so beautiful out there. That drive made me really, really miss living in Virginia. It's the most beautiful place I've ever lived. We got out of the car and were about to put Lucy in the carrier, when we found she'd had a major diaper blowout... and I'd forgotten the diaper bag. We were trying to figure out where the closest store might be that we could go buy some diapers when Tina found a family that was just getting ready to leave who ALSO had a 2 month old baby, and they kindly gave us an extra diaper. She had no pants anymore, but we got her changed and bundled her up in a blanket and she was just fine. In fact, as is typical, she slept most of the outing.

Lucy is totally out, and slept through our farm adventure. 

There was this display about different kinds of gourds and squashes and I learned that there are a lot of other squashes that make good pies other than just pumpkin. She we decided to get a few varieties of squashes and make a homemade pie. (More on that pie later...)

Hayride back from the pumpkin patch

We rode a hay wagon out to the pumpkin patch and picked out some things to take home. There were some really funny looking gourds that I've never seen anything like before! Once we got our pumpkins and put them in the car we started to explore the farm. There was so much to do there and I'd love to take Lucy back again when she's a little older and can play on some of the things they have there.

One of the most fun things there was the pumpkin cannon. They had some old junker cars out in the field as targets. They were pretty beat up--I guess fast flying pumpkins can do a fair amount of damage.

Michael, Parker, and Ryan atop the firetruck with the pumpkin cannon.

Ok, so the pie. We took the gourds home and cut them open and baked them. Then when we were scooping out the flesh, I found that one of the types of gourd was REALLY bitter. It was terrible, and really difficult to get the taste out of my mouth. So, we ended up having to throw it away. Luckily we had picked out a few different types and the other kinds were good. We didn't have any evaporated milk though, so we ended up making it with cream. I would say that was too rich and too heavy. After one slice I felt like it sat too heavy in my stomach.

On Sunday we went to our old ward in Sterling and had a fun time seeing friends! I didn't take any pictures there, but some of our friends have had babies since we left and we got to meet the new little ones. I went to Young Women's to see all the girls and Ryan went to the Deacon's quorum.

Lucy looking cute with Tina after church

We loved our visit and are so glad that we were able to spend time with Ryan's family and Dan and Erin!