This year’s annual tree hunt was different the in years past. To fully appreciate this difference and to play along at home there at two things you must do. 1) Set up a box fan and start it up. 2) Turn a sprinkler on and set it in front of said box fan. Now stand in front of it for at least an hour and then you will get an approximate idea of our experience. You will see a lot of white streaks in my pictures. Those are raindrops. Seriously folks, I’ve never seen anything like it. I had a hard time getting a good focus on some of the faces because the raindrops kept getting in the way!
We had some repeat families from years past and we had two new families join us. One of them just moved here from Savannah Georgia a mere six months before. Lucky them getting the quintessential Northwest experience. Ferries, evergreen trees, rubber boots and torrential rain. Yup, got it all in one day!
I have to give a shout out to my sister Joelle. Her hubby Stephen was out of town for work but, by God, she was not going to miss the tree farm so she packed up her boys and all her gear by herself. Nice sister that I am I unintentionally stressed her out when I couldn’t find her in the ferry line. I told her I’d thought she’d missed the ferry and was worried about getting her to the tree farm. (As Kate, our eight your old wisely said ‘Aunt Jo Jo has a tendency to get lost.’) I quickly texted her to let her know I was wrong but not before she had inadvertantly exclaimed her displeasure out loud.
I soon received a text back: ‘Mama why did you say sh** fu$#?’ I told her she should just tell her boys (ages 3 and 4) that it was a special way to say Merry Christmas but it would be just her luck if THEY started wishing everybody Merry Christmas that way! Sorry Jo, I take full responsibility for that Mommy Moment!
Despite the horrendous weather we all had a good time. Particularly little Henry (there was a 3 year old Henry and a 13 year old Henry) was in his element. He loved walking into the deepest puddle and splashing about with both his rubber boots and his soggy mittens. I am somewhat surprised he didn’t join the dogs, Cooper and Georgia, in rolling around in the creek that had overflowed it’s banks. I’m telling ya people. It was wet!
S’mores were still roasted and lunch was still shared and we all had our jaws drop as we were driving to the ferry on the way home amid rainbows and sun rays. Seriously? Yes, seriously!
And what is the deal with the blog post title? Little Henry kept calling the Tree Farm the Tree Patch. Much like the Pumpkin Patch. I think it is a little patch of heaven and the name should stick!