Halloween at the Dallas Arboretum

We had a wonderful day on Saturday at the Dallas Arboretum. The plan was to take pictures of Sam in his pumpkin costume in the pumpkin patch. I wish I could say that we were packed the night before and got up early so we could spend the whole day there. But, anyone that knows us knows that didn't happen! We left the house around 2:45 p.m. so we didn't get there until around 3:15 p.m. And, we had to feed Sam when we got there. The Arboretum closes at 5:00 p.m. so we felt a little rushed.



This is Daddy and Sam posing together when we first arrived at the Arboretum. I thought they were really cute and matchy with their hats - too bad Sam didn't have his shades too. I think Sam spends most of his time with Daddy in the Baby Bjorn carrier on the weekends. They both love it! (Thank you Aunt Sharon)

Seems like everyone else in Dallas had the same idea, so the pumpkin patch was crowded. We tried to find a spot where we could prop Sam up (he isn't sitting yet) and where we could get a shot without other people in it. It was a beautiful day with a high in the low 70s, but it seemed extremely hot in that pumpkin patch, especially with this big fleece pumpkin costume on him.



This is the best shot that we got of Sam in his pumpkin costume. Chris says the more you want a particular shot the less likely it is to come out. I'm not sure if that's just Murphy's law or what. It's still a cute picture, but we felt rushed and pressured and I'm sure Sam picked up on that.

After we got our pumpkin picture we changed Sam into a cooler outfit. Chris gave me grief because I packed too many outfits for our photo shoot, oh I mean fun family outing, but this was the last thing that I packed. I thought it was going to be cooler outside for some reason, so everything else was too hot for him to wear. We had Sam's stroller loaded down with camera gear and outfits. We had no intention of actually putting him in it!



This is a shot of Mommy and Sam playing together after we went to the petting zoo. They had bunnies, chicken, sheep, goats, and a pony. Sam didn't actually pet any of the animals. We just looked at them. We couldn't tell what he thought of them. He gets more excited when he sees Cleo.



As we were leaving the pumpkin patch, we found a spot with a lot more color which was more interesting. Sam was in a great mood, so we decided to take a few more shots. He was giving us lots of great smiles. We got lots of great pictures there. Everyone was coming up and telling us what a happy baby he was.



Chris saw this bench around this tree and decided that he wanted to take a few shots of Sam and Mommy playing together. Sam thought it would be fun to bite, I mean kiss, Mommy.



I had seen a really neat spot on our way to the pumpkin patch. It was a little nook with two giant pumpkins (giant = taller than Sam). I thought it would be neat to get a picture with Sam standing in between the two pumpkins. It looked like someone else had the same idea because they were in that spot. We decided to wait for them to finish. Their baby was throwing a screaming fit so we looked for something fun to do in the meantime.



This is a shot of Daddy and Sam playing. It's Daddy's mission in life to make Sam laugh. Sam loves it. Chris picked up Sam at day care one day last week. The next day one of the teachers told me she used to think Sam looked like me until she saw Chris, now forget about it.



As we are still waiting around for this "great spot," I realized that Sam probably hasn't ever really seen or noticed flowers, so I took him over to look at these mums. He thought they were very interesting. At first he was kinda just petting them. Then he started grabbing them. He was shaking all over; he was so excited. Then he started going crazy and petals started flying in all directions! If you look close in the picture below, you can see some of the petals flying.



Still waiting for this magical spot to free up ... I realize that I've been trying to either get Sam to sit up or stand up for all of the pictures. I thought we should take a picture of him laying down. That's the stage that he's at currently and he'll probably never want to take pictures like that again, so it only makes since, right? He ended up pulling out blades of grass - I don't think he'd ever really noticed grass before either.



We took 351 pictures total. I picked out 37 favorites for our iPhoto album, but only posted 11 here. I think we may have an obsession!

At this point, you may be wondering where is this photo with the two big pumpkins ... well, two things: 1) remember what Chris said about wanting a particular shot too much and 2) we got tired of waiting any way so we didn't really get to test that theory. It really made me mad because they weren't even using the scenery around them. They could have just as easily taken the shots that they were taking in their backyard. They had a black furry blanket laying on the walkway and had the baby laying on that. They had her in a Tootsie Roll outfit with said candy all around her. Then another shot of her in a cheerleader outfit with pom pons and a megaphone. I would guess she was about two months old. I don't think she stopped screaming the whole time either. Ok, that's off my chest, rant's over.

Sam was exhausted and slept all the way to the new Sushi restaurant near our house. We fed him when we got there. Then the waitresses offered to watch him while we ate. They had a blast and Sam loved the attention. I don't think they wanted him to leave. They said he was such a good baby, and we could bring him any time. Sam is starting to grab anything and everything in reach, so it was wonderful to be able to relax and sit back and enjoy the night. Oh yeah, the sushi was great, too!

We just had so much fun Saturday! It was the first weekend in about five or six weeks that we were all healthy and the weather was beautiful. I wish we could order up a few more of those. If you have a chance, check out the Dallas Arboretum's web page. They had a really neat tree house exhibit too. We would love to go back and spend more time checking out the tree houses.

-- Emily