Lombardi Ranch

On Saturday I took the kids to Lombardi Ranch for their not-to-be-beaten pumpkin patch. We'd gone several years ago, and just days later they had a fire and lost most everything. Thankfully, it's almost fully recovered and there are few signs of the damage. Everything was growing and flourishing, and so beautiful. Acres of corn stalks, sunflowers, and many, many more pumpkins still on the vine. It's the best place to take the family for pumpkins in the Los Angeles area, and boasts a petting zoo, train ride, corn maze, scarecrow competition, pony rides, craft booths, a farmer's market, and a live band.


This is Lyndsay, trying to get the horse's head out of his food trough so that Conor could pet him. She was ultimately successful by reaching in and grabbing the hay, so the kids could feed him through the bars.

Here's Conor with a donkey, and some droopy drawers. (But at least they're not poopy drawers!)

My four scarecrows. Well, I don't know what that creature is on the right.

Aiden encourages Conor to climb to the top of the bale pyramid.




Again, Lyndsay has a way with animals. They've always loved her. This mama cow (her calf was in the pen with her) would not take her head out of her food so that we could pet her. But then Lyndsay climbs up on the fence and the cow just loved on her for several minutes, rubbing her head all along Lyndsay's legs. I suppose she's the Cow Whisperer. After enduring all the love, I realized I had a (soundless) video feature on my camera, so I had her climb back up to see if the cow still loved her. She did.




A peacock! This was important for Conor to see in real life because his favorite insult is to call people "Peacock Poopyhead", don't ask me why.

This sweet llama, again came over to love Lyndsay. She was startled by how close she was when she turned around.
"He's got a pony named Bob. . ."

After dropping and throwing several pumpkins (and thankfully not breaking them--did you know that pumpkins bounce?) Conor finally decided on his favorite.

Lyndsay and Dylan had a much harder time choosing just the right one.

For a drive-home snack, we bought gigantic peaches from the farmer's market.

And then we brought our load of pumpkins home and set them on the front porch. On Saturday morning, we shall carve them.