In Search of Jason Bourne And The Great Pumpkin

In order to get away from my latest saga, the Twilight Zone episode of The People’s Court, I decided The Guats needed a change of scenery. Luckily The Harvest Festival and Halloween were just a few days away and The Farm seemed like a nice escape.

Surrounded by goats, pigs, cows, ponies, a giant ox, and plenty of chickens took my mind off the situation. Enjoying the country with activities such as pumpkin bowling, corn cannons, whip cracking lessons, pig races, tractor rides, green tomato sling-shooting, corn mazes and country western shows made for a great family outing.

Overall things seemed to be on point with no kid craziness or whining. We had just the right amount of snacks and prizes to avoid any meltdowns and then I overheard something that made this outing to The Country even better.

Jason Bourne.

Yeah. Matt Damon himself was somewhere on this ginormous farm. So, in the middle of our search for The Great Pumpkin I was also on the lookout for Matt Damon. Now I don’t’ really get star struck too often, but there are a select few … Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Charlie Hunnam (a.k.a. Jax Teller), Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DeCaprio, Oprah, Jon Stewart, and JACK BAUER.

If I were to ever see those at the beach or in this case at The Farm, they would freak my freak. And these are just actors I haven’t even mentioned rock stars like my man Bruce.

These are the kinds of people that I would probably go up to apologetically (sorry for invading your personal space on this awesome family outing but I am a huuuuuuuge fan and I think you’re amaaaaaaaazing I just had to stop by and say that and shake your hand) be a fan for a minute, and then go about my business.

Matt Damon happens to be on this actors’ list and I would have totally approached him had I gotten the chance. And as I understood it Cristina Aguilera was also on the premises but my entire focus was more on Matt Damon, if I happen to run into her, that would have been cool, but I don’t think I would have stopped. I was on a mission. I was in search of Jason Bourne and pumpkins. I was ready to get my freak … freaked!

However, during this five-hour field trip I didn’t see him. But we did manage to have fun even without seeing Matt Damon. My kids won four pumpkins, which was a Guat record. So there were high-fives all around. And then I did run into a friend, which was pretty random, seeing how there were hundreds of people on this ginormous farm. We said our hello hugs and I was happy to see her … then I found out about her corn maze adventure being pretty awesome. Not just because she got to the end and climbed the elusive finish line pyramid, but because she saw him.

She happened to run into Jason Bourne in the corn maze.

Me?

No Bourne. Just the finish line pyramid and a total of six pumpkins.

Still a pretty successful outing.

 

 

 

 

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Sunscreen and Pumpkins

Three fall festivals, two pumpkin patches, one farm, seven goats, four sheep, three pigs, two llamas, one donkey, three haystack pyramids, five mini-me pumpkins, and one Howden-Biggie Pumpkin … yeah it was pumpkin patch harvest fall festival madness this weekend. But in truth the only thing we seemed to harvest was a nice tan in the 80-degree heat that is Southern California during Autumn.

In retrospect I could have saved time and money in addition to avoiding stress by just going to Trader Joe’s and buying a pumpkin there. However, there  would still be parking war madness because their parking lots are always so small, but there would be no crowds and no screaming kids. I think I’d prefer to battle the parking lot, than to witness the kindergartener’s meltdown and the mom’s frustration.

But if that were to happen I wouldn’t have traditions or memories. And you know how parents are …  always trying to have fun, make memories, and give our city kids the whole Great Big Pumpkin Farm experience. So … it was sunscreen and pumpkins for The Guat Clan. Sunscreen and pumpkins: that’s how we roll.

 

 

And this is how we start …

 

Checking out the scene before we tackle the harvest festival pumpkin madness.

 

Then we discovered a maze that was just right for the Little Guats. Running through the hay maze was a much better experience then getting lost in the corn maze.

 

The classic pyramid was something we saw at all three festivals and something they often look forward to climbing.

 

The trampoline alternative meant no crowds and no crazy kids attacking my kids. It also meant the beginning of our tanning process and my kids catching some serious air.

 

 

But the best part of the day was not the jumping, it was the awesome cow tractor train ride that zig-zagged throughout one of the farms.

 

The second best part for them seemed to be the petting zoo.

 

She was fearless during the petting part even though the animals were much bigger.

 

We also got hands on with the milking stations. It being the first time he milked a fake cow, he seemed to be doing it well.

 

The bulldozers, dump trucks and diggers seemed to be popular at this fall festival. I think it was the corn kernels.

 

After all of our activities, we moved on to find our Great Pumpkin — the one that would provide us with awesome pumpkin seeds and our Jack-O-Lantern experience.

 

While investigating the pumpkin patch, my son found the life cycle of the pumpkin and decided to educate his little sister.

 

Once we found our pumpkin, and finished educating ourselves on the farm life, we made our way home.