Five years of fall tradition

Though it takes me a while to sort through my 2 million pictures (give or take a million), I love to go back and find pictures that show our family traditions from one year to the next.  It’s especially important to me since I’ve had to either alter old ones or create new ones since we moved out to the Pacific Northwest.

So this weekend when we went pumpkin-picking with the boys, my husband rolled his eyes and sighed (or at least, he really wanted to) as I took a zillion pictures, because I knew when I got home, I could go back through the years and see our journey.

And now, so can you.

The first year we went with friends who, along with their two boys, have become like family here.  R was a few months pregnant; I was a few days pregnant, so I obviously didn’t know it, yet.  We had cider and doughnuts on the hay ride, blissfully unaware of how lovely it was to do this without juggling children.

After having Sebastian and before I returned to work, we took him back to Michigan for apple-picking, which was the tradition I grew up with.  The cider and doughnuts were as yummy as I remembered, and I don’t think that I held the baby at all the whole time.  He was just passed around and loved on by every grandparent, aunt, and uncle who could get a chance.

Back at our local pumpkin farm the next year, Sebastian was a walking, talking little person.  And completely enthralled with the tractor and the round orange things everywhere.

Rain couldn’t keep us from picking pumpkins last year, complete with baby in carrier.  Cider sippers and fresh doughnuts were once again in order, but my favorite picture is probably the interpretive pumpkin dance.

Now you see the truth that I took WAY more pictures this year, but it was impossible not to.  Because I am proud to have created this tradition, and these boys and their pumpkins are so.freaking.cute.  You will notice the lack of blue raincoats, finally, because for once we picked a sunny day!

I never really got into the whole pumpkin-picking thing as a child because I didn’t really like pumpkins or orange or Halloween (aside from the candy, obviously).  Apple-picking made a lot more sense to me, and I boo-hooed aplenty about not being able to do it even though we moved from one top-apple-producing state to another (turns out we live on the wrong side of the Cascades).

But seeing the boys get excited to pick them out, enjoy our fall treats, and bump along together behind the tractor has reminded me that anything we do together as a family every year is going to be automatically wonderful.

6 Responses to Five years of fall tradition
  1. Gramma
    October 10, 2011 | 9:56 pm

    awww, look at the pumpkin and the pumpkin doodle – they are getting so big! Thank you for sharing the nice memories and the new traditions. Love it.

  2. Jessica D Torres
    October 10, 2011 | 11:21 pm

    Love all the pictures and seeing the transformation of the pictures from year to year. It only gets better.

  3. Pamela
    October 11, 2011 | 10:54 am

    Cute pics! Are you from MI? I ask, because I am!

  4. Blond Duck
    October 11, 2011 | 12:09 pm

    You should frame those!

  5. Kim
    October 11, 2011 | 6:39 pm

    I so get this need to document it! I never realized how cuckoo I’d get about family traditions and consistency. Love the pictures. Watching my husband and his sisters go through their childhood pictures often when they get together makes me realize that our kids will enjoy my efforts someday!

  6. JDaniel4's Mom
    October 12, 2011 | 2:46 am

    Your collages are wonderful. We love to go to a local farm and take in all the fall traditons there too.