mohaus: Old McDonald's Farm 2014

This year we continued our tradition of visiting a Pumpkin Patch on Columbus Day weekend. Daniel had to work on the actual holiday so we decided to try our luck and go to Old McDonald's Farm in Sale Creek (about 30 minutes north of Chattanooga) on Sunday.

This was a mistake.

Daniel and I hate crowds and a Sunday so close to Halloween proved to bring out the crowds.

There were plenty of activities to do, but the lines were so long. If you have a toddler, you understand that lines and toddlers don't go together. So we had to do a lot of divide and conquer.

One of us would hold a spot in line, while the other wandered around with Jack. So much for getting good family photos!

First up, I stood in line for the petting zoo while Jack and Daniel went down the big slide in the barn. Jack really loved this and probably would have done it all day long.

After petting the animals, we moved on to a toddler-sized hay bale maze.

Jack enjoyed jumping on and over the bales of hay.

We then proceeded to a bigger pile of hay for jumping. Followed by a corral of bouncy horses.

Finally Jack said he wanted to ride the train wagon that toured the farm. I waited in line for 40 minutes while Daniel and Jack found a tractor to sit on and a game of corn hole.

After the wagon ride, we decided to call it a day. The line for the hayride was even longer and the pumpkin wasn't included in the price (like it is at Crow Creek).

We let Jack pick out a pumpkin (he knew we were at the farm to get a pumpkin and refused to leave without one). Thankfully he didn't realize that we could have ridden a hayride out to the actual pumpkin patch.

I was disappointed about not going out to the pumpkin patch, but we were all finished with lines and crowds of people. Jack had a good time and didn't seem to be too bothered by the crowds (though he didn't do much standing in line).