MacDonald's Ranch & Pumpkin Farm

This Saturday we went out to the MacDonald Ranch and Pumpkin Patch with the family. We had a run drive out there (Jomax & Scottsdale about 5 miles north of the 101) with Caden fluctuating between screaming and throwing his snack cup at us. The terrible two's are here in full force. But we got there super fast since we let my dad drive and he's with Scottsdale PD and this farm is in his district so he knew right were to go. I'd have got us so lost we'd still be there. 

  I thought we'd try and grab a family photo first while the little man was in a good mood. Hahahahahaha...we appear to have entered that lovely phase where we can't get a nice family photo to save our lives.

 Ya this one with have to do for this year, sigh.

Caden has never seen horses before and he was fascinated with these two while we waited for the hayride out to the start. As a part of the $7/person entry fee you get a about 10 minute ride to the pumpkin picking area. It's actually a lot of fun.

There was not a chance of me holding my kiddo since Nana was around. 

Caden LOVED this hayride! Oh my gosh he stalked and squealed the whole way through.

And he kept sniffing the air. Maybe we should let him out of the house more often, lol.

Once we got to the pumpkin picking area he was not too sure he wanted to let Papa put him down.

We tried so hard to get a nice photo of Caden on the cute hay bale. 

He was so not having a good time sitting there. So we gave up and just went and had fun.

I picked this "pumpkin patch" to take Caden to for the main reason that there are not acres of pumpkins to pick from. They set up a bunch of hay bale stations and you can go "pick" your pumpkins. I thought Caden would be able to access the pumpkins easier and we'd have less running to do in the desert after him. All in all the experience was just what we had been hoping for, plus the pumpkins were really great quality and we ended up with 4 for $21. 

 

Caden was not shy at all about picking out his pumpkins.

"I'll take this one Nana."

"And this one."

He wasn't even worried about the size of pumpkin to kid ratio, he tried to take home every single pumpkin.

 

There's our haul ready to go back to the ranch with us.

The ranch is actually very pretty though I can't imagine the place in say August.

"Bye pumpkin patch, see you next year." Caden waved and said bye the whole way back to the ranch, totally cute. 

While the men paid for our haul we went to the petting zoo.

This is Charlotte and her son Jimmy Dean was right next to her. Caden walked right up, petted her and moo'd hello.

 

Here's one of the goats Shrek (Fiona was resting below). Caden walked right up and moo'd hello. In fact he walked up and petted and moo'd hello to the Miniature Pony Chocolate, the bunnies, the wild turkey & the miniature Donkey’s Pete and Repeat. The only animal he didn't moo to was the cow? We may need to work on the farm animal book some more this week.

 

Sure he looks at the camera for their photo.

All in all it was a long drive and a warm day, but will absolutely do it again next year. It cost $7/person to get in but all the activities - Petting zoo, Hay maze, Sack racing, Gem Mining, Western golf game,  Horseshoe pits, Hay ride, and Pony rides are all free. It would take the average family about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to do all the activities. The pumpkins were reasonably priced at $3, $6, $9 and $12 depending on the size. And the staff are so wonderful and very invested in the authenticity of the ranch. So we'll totally drive the 45 minutes there and back next year. Besides, who could say no to this face?