Its The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

Ouch! My back is still in pain! At least when Charlie Brown and Linus went out to the pumpkin patch they didn't have to haul the thing around! Sometimes sitting around and waiting but never actually getting what you wish for has its benefits. Be grateful Linus!
I'll have to admit it was quite an eye opening (and back breaking) experience being exposed to the world of giant pumpkins and giant pumpkin growers. I'll have to remember to keep a pallet around and make friends with someone with a forklift if I attempt this again. But we still have kids stopping by our house asking if the pumpkin is real and where we got it. As you can see from the pictures, the largest one weighed in officially at 392.5 lbs. The one Jason adopted was also quite large and unique in shape and weighed 257.5 lbs.


The kids have really taken to the pumpkin as if it were another sibling. Its certainly a bit quieter than the other 3 kids. Just not quite as cute or as active. But quite a bit heavier! I think it might weigh more than the whole family combined!

Do you think we ought to use this as our family Christmas card this year? Maybe we should have made a giant santa hat for the pumpkin. If only I would have thought about it sooner. I guess its not too late.

One of the many times we had to transport the pumpkin. We were grateful to have helpful strong neighbors and several brothers on hand to help. This contraption was put together by my dad to get the pumpkin to the Thanksgiving Point weighoff. It consisted of 2 long poles with some netting and a blanket on top of it to make a stretcher of sorts to load it onto the truck. We all felt like we were pallbearers at some large persons funeral!

After we finally got it to Thanksgiving Point, there was plenty of time for pictures with the family and checking out all the other pumpkins that were there. Apparently, we Wardles aren't the only weird, redneck-like family around. There were plenty others there that helped us fit in. It was quite fun and exciting for the kids.

So part of the excitement comes when the officials come around to each pumpkin and take measurements to estimate the weight based on the formula that they came up with. Apparently, if you add the circumference, the over the top (in the center) length from ground to ground, and the over the top (end to end) length added together, it can help estimate the weight. Our largest was estimated at about 325 pounds based on those measurements. The final circumference was about 113 inches.

Ahh, the 2 siblings with the 2 siblings. Its hard to believe these 2 pumpkins came from the same seed. Jason's pumpkin ended up being 257 pounds. Much more than we had estimated. These two must be extra thick inside (no jokes needed). There were probably about 40 or so pumpkins there at the weighoff, and our largest came in 20th place overall. The largest this year was only 919 pounds. They said it was a down year because of the wet June we had and several growers lost their plants to disease. We couldn't tell. Looked like a pretty good year to us!
The next week after the Thanksgiving point weighoff, we got to move the pumpkin to the Herriman pumpkin festival! We have been going to this festival for several years. This year our two pumpkins got to be displayed on either corner of the stage. They were the focal points of the pumpkin festival for sure! They even arranged to have a "guess the weight" competition with the winner getting a toy tractor. We all wanted to guess just to get the great prize! Several of our friends and neighbors were disqualified because of insider info. The 2 people that were closest each guessed 387 pounds, so we had a guess-off to determine the winner. They had to guess the weight of Jasons pumpkin. The guy that guessed closest was only 1 pound off on that one, guessing 256 pounds.

There were lots of things for the kids to play on while we were there. Caleb loved jumping around in this thing. I'm surprised he let us keep his hood on, he usually hats to have anything on his head. What a cute little Pooh bear!

Jeffrey was so busy playing on all the stuff they had that he was rarely seen, except by his cousin Jesse that followed him around everywhere.

Hailey was our little butterfly. I guess its appropriate that she choose to be a butterfly this year, because she is such the social butterfly. She loved bouncing around playing everywhere.

So now we have to ask the question about next year. Will there be another great pumpkin? Will we have the patience, real estate, desire to try to grow another one? I'm sure Jason will talk us into doing it again. I heard the lady that grew the 1725 pound pumpkin this year is giving away seeds. Have to check into that one.