Despite the weather being a bit odd this year in Iowa, having an unusually cool summer and weird rain patterns, it seems to have fit the pumpkin vines’ preferences perfectly, as my father was able to raise a bumper crop of the beautiful orange fruit this year.    This prompted us to take our son Keston over to his grandfather’s place to paw through the many different offerings and pick the biggest and best of the bunch.   Aunt Katy came along for the fun, too, because really — she’s just a kid at heart.

Although it was near sunset and the wind was blowing around 75mph, the lighting was perfect and the conditions certainly didn’t deter Keston from trying to choose every single pumpkin in the patch as his own.