Every so often, someone becomes the human embodiment of something. For example, I wouldn't find it farfetched to refer to Tom Brady as the human embodiment of destiny. After all, any time he finds himself in a Super Bowl, it's likely that he's going to win it. Believe you me, as a Chiefs fan, I know that better than most. Of course, people can be the human embodiment of many things. For example, per one Kevin McAdam, the Holts are the human embodiment of fall!
Now, we did not set out to become the human embodiment of fall. I don't think anyone does. However, when one family takes on three fall-related activities in three days, it really can't be disputed. It started simply enough on Friday as the kids and I joined a group of stay-at-home moms from church for an outing at the Weston Apple Orchard. Yes, you read that correctly; I did say "kids" due to the fact that Ellie was out of school for the day.
Now, I should state that we didn't go to Weston Apple Orchard to pick apples. Instead, we went to partake in all the fun fall activities offered there including the likes of a giant bouncing pillow (for lack of a better term), corn crib, a kid-sized birdhouse-themed playground, and a hay-ride. It's actually that last one that leaves us with a story to tell.
During the course of the morning, the kids started getting tired and grouchy. In an effort to curb those feelings, I agreed to take the kids out to the car to grab their water bottles that I had packed for lunch. When we returned though, we discovered that our friends had all hopped on the hayride without us. It goes without saying that the kids were disappointed. In fact, they were so disappointed that I attempted to get them on said hayride once the rest of our group left. Unfortunately it was shut down for the day. It's ok though as we had a great time burying each other in the corn crib instead.
Fast forward to day 2 of us being the human embodiment of fall. On this day though, Team Holt would be represented solely by Bethany and me. Once every other month, we schedule a date night for ourselves sans kids. On this occasion, we decided to take the opportunity to conquer the Liberty Corn Maze.
Before we had kids, the Liberty Corn Maze was a favorite fall tradition for us. However, it's not really suited for youngsters as the maze actually consists of four large mazes ranging from 0.5 to 3.9 miles in length. Over the course of an hour and a half, Bethany and I totaled well over three miles in our successful quest to locate all 24 check points contained within the maze.
Fast forward to Sunday and our family outing to Pumpkins Etc. with our friends, the McAdams. While we had never actually been to Pumpkins Etc. before, doing so is actually a fall tradition for the McAdam family. When we first arrived, the first thing we saw was a maze constructed of large hay bales. It didn't take long for Ellie and her friends to climb on top and start happily traversing across the top of the bales. From there, we headed into the corn maze and eventually wandered our way to the pumpkin patch where we braved burrs and broken/rotten pumpkins in our search for the perfect pumpkin. Finally, we decided on what was actually the first pumpkin Ellie picked up.
After about two and a half hours at Pumpkins Etc. with our friends, it was time to call it a day. However, we couldn't do so before having the five kids pose for a picture atop some hay bales sitting in an old pickup. We also had to pet some really cute kittens. Oh, and buy Butterfinger-flavored fudge. All were totally essential. Especially the fudge.
Looking back at the weekend as a whole and carefully considering all of the fall-themed activities we took part in, I can see how an argument can be made that the Holt family are indeed the human embodiment of fall. However, I'm sure there's someone out there who could and would dispute the title. Until that time comes though, I'll happily claim possession of said title. #DaddyWrite
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