The Jen Castle Photo Blog

Last weekend, I was finally feeling fall festive so I loaded the kids dogs into the car and drove out to Moorpark, near to where I once spent my childhood, to experience the Underwood Farm Pumpkin Patch.  The mission?…Portraits.  Family Portraits.  Fall Family Portraits. I don’t think I knew what I was getting myself into. First of all, it never occurred to me how packed the patch would be.  Yes, I was a straight A student in both High School and college but I can still be a bit naive at times.  Yes, it was the weekend and yes, It was packed.  Beyond packed actually, there were hundreds of adults, kids, dogs and pumpkins, all running rampant (not the pumpkins of course. They were still.  They were the only exception).  What was I thinking!  On top of that, the weather had recently decided to take a steamy turn, going from the crisp temperatures of 72 degrees to a whopping 98.  So there I was, in a fall flannel, sweating.  Profusely.  It wasn’t pretty.  My dogs, were miserable, as was my husband.  With all of the people going to and fro, nobody could focus.  All training took a giant leap out the window.  Shasta and Hoshi were consistently trying to run in opposite directions.  Shasta dug a hole into the corn and refused to come out while Hoshi proceeded to flirt with the natives.  It was complete chaos.  I felt like I had 2 two year olds, on leashes, after just having fed them a bar of chocolate (think Mike Myers in SNL, tied to the monkey bars)  We managed however, in the midst of all the pandemonium, to get three decent shots.  So mama bear was happy in the end but LORD, the journey!

Happy fall everyone!