The Great Pumpkin

This fall Jay took a chance and went pheasant hunting with some friends in South Dakota over a long weekend.  The girls and I went to Addi's swim meet on Saturday, then relaxed and has a lazy day Sunday.  While visiting a friend Sunday afternoon we noticed their enormous pumpkins out front.  She told us about this great place she got them from, just a retired teacher out in the country, and how reasonable their stuff was.  It was a nice afternoon out so the girls and I headed out to see what we could find.

Just a little baby pumpkin (it brought out the thug in Addi)

Sam found one she liked as well

An hour later we headed home with around 20 smaller pumpkins and gourds, a car full of corn husks, 3 large pumpkins (each in the 20 lb range), and a daddy pumpkin.  

$70 worth of pumpkins, gourds, and bugs

This bad boy weighed in at a lean 97 lbs and had to be fork-lifted into the back of my SUV.  The girls LOVED it and couldn't wait to surprise Jay with it when he got home.  On the way home, we did find a slightly creepy drawback to impulse shopping for fall decor: corn husks are full of bugs and really shouldn't be inside an SUV.  Within five minutes of being back on the road both girls were screaming and I was trying really hard not to drive off the side of the road as Addi shrieked that a HUGE spider was crawling towards me.

We made it home safely and after spending 20 minutes vacuuming my car, all was right with the world.  Jay reacted just like we thought he would - he laughed, then begged us to confirm we didn't spend our life savings on soon to rot Halloween decor.  Once he found out the "big" pumpkin was only $15, he laughed.

Jay and his hunting buddies