pumpkin traditions.

Jason and I have been determined to make this Halloween season more special since we’re now married and can start fun family traditions. We drove to Idaho Falls with the intention of finding a pumpkin patch to buy giant pumpkins for carving. We found a red bard standing in the middle of several pumpkin fields. The barn was called U-Pick Red Barn. We got a wagon at the front of the barn as some of the employees directed us to the backfield where the biggest pumpkins were grown. I’ve never seen so many pumpkins of different shapes and sizes. It was cool to see some of them still attached to their vine.

Jason and I easily took 30 minutes walking through the orange fields trying to locate the biggest pumpkin with a smooth surface for carving. We finally chose two that Jason carried yards away back to our wagon – we also chose two smaller pumpkins for decorations in our apartment. After paying for our pumpkins (4 for $20), we got our picture taken with the hay and the pumpkins.

These pumpkins were SO heavy!

So strong!

Later that night, we cleared our kitchen table and completely gutted our pumpkins. It took us a while to decide what we wanted to carve on our pumpkins. Eventually, I decided on Perry the Platypus and Jason decided on the Road Runner. We printed out the stencil of each and taped them to our pumpkins. We then took push pins to trace which lines needed to be cut and then started carving!

Our Outlines

While we were working hard to get our designs perfect, I made roasted pumpkin seeds. They weren’t the best, but they were fun to nibble on while we continued working. After two hours, we finally finished our pumpkins! We were pretty proud of our creations. We lit the pumpkins late that night – even though no one would see them until the next day.