Running amok in the pumpkin patch

No Halloween is complete without a requisite pumpkin patch photo of Mark. At least, that's what I tell myself every year. I'm not sure why I do this--in theory, I do it so I can look back one day at a littler Mark, a sweet, tender young Mark smiling broadly among the pumpkins. In reality, I'm gonna be looking at a collage of smirking, eye-rolling, camera-avoiding photos of Mark doing everything he can to ruin my photos and simultaneously drop or break any of the surrounding pumpkins. 

And still, every year, I try.

This year was a little different. The first difference was that I took Mark to an actual pumpkin patch--a real field of pumpkins for as far as you can see. The second difference was that I brought along his friend Sean and his mom, Liz. The third difference was that I didn't give Mark his ADD pill that day. So yes, I brought a hyperactive wild child and his best friend to a farm, turned them loose, and was disappointed when they refused to sit still for portraits. Really,  I have no one to blame but myself.

I did manage to get a few photos before completely losing them...my photo session went a little like this...

A photo showcasing Mark's gum, instead of the pumpkin:

Mark photo bombing Sean's picture:
 

An almost-good photo, except that we're still focusing on Mark's gum:
 

I finally gave up, and sent the boys running off. They found a corn maze, and proceeded to race through it in just over two minutes. They ran through again, improving their time by 30 seconds, then ran a third time in just under 20 seconds.

"We cheated," Mark gasped.

"We just ran around the perimeter," Sean explained. 

They ran one last time, and as they took off, another boy who'd been standing on the edge of the maze watching took off with them. He just couldn't stand it any more, and returned out of breath with Sean and Mark.

All that running made the boys hungry, so we stopped for a snack. The boys begged for Hawaiian shaved ices, but Liz and I realized the last thing these amped-up boys needed was sugar and artificial dyes to wind them up even more. They settled for corn--first one ear, then two.

Sean went in for a third, and I asked Mark how many he could eat.

"He's gonna keep eating corn until his mom buys him a Hawaiian ice," Mark informed me.

Apparently, three was the magic number. Liz relented then, but to Sean's dismay, the snack bar ran out of Hawaiian ice just before he walked up.

So the boys turned to some physical activity instead--jumping hay bales. They leaped back and forth like wild men, completely oblivious to the fact that moments earlier, the bales were occupied by another group.

This group consisted of four smaller kids. One was decked out as a princess, and two smaller guys wore Monsters, Inc. costumes. The little princess was not at all pleased with Mark for taking over her impromptu playground, and she quietly let him know it.

Her friends were not happy, either. I don't know exactly how it started, but suddenly, the little monsters were attacking Mark! Sean tried to help, but those little kids were quick.

Their dad saw them go on the offensive, and reigned them in.

"Mike Wazowski, stop!" he yelled at the little one-eyed green Monster. "Sully, come here, now." 

It cracked me up that he yelled at them their character's names instead of their real names. (And they responded to their Monsters, Inc. names!)

The boys still had lots of energy, but they'd worn Liz and I out. We shuffled them toward the exit, but when we noticed the setting sun, we stopped for one last photo.

Which the boys immediately ruined by tossing handfuls of hay into the air.

And that was it. I declared the pumpkin patch photo session for 2013 officially over, and finally put us all out of our misery. I may not have gotten any amazing portraits, but I definitely did record some real-life moments.