Picking the perfect pumpkin
Isiah Sanchez, 7, Gianna Delagarza, 8, and Jerred Fairbanks, 7, carry their pumpkins from Tom and Joan Dopps' pumpkin patch.
MOSES LAKE - Kids clutched plastic bags, back packs or simply used their hands to hold their freshly-picked pumpkins.
The field trip to Tom and Joan Dopps' pumpkin patch has become a tradition at Peninsula Elementary School, where Joan teaches second grade.
For 22 years, the couple has opened their pumpkin field to the students and their parents. Hundreds of kids have seen their farm and met the Dopps family pets.
This year, about 90 second-graders from four classes visited the farm and the nearby Columbia Basin Fish Hatchery Thursday.
"Then we come up here for harvest and pumpkins," Joan explained.
She thanked Peninsula's Parent Teacher Organization for paying for the event.
Student Brianne Adams, 7, was holding a tiny pumpkin and walking through the patch with her mother, Shelley Comine, who was carrying a larger pumpkin.
"We're going to carve them," said Comine, of the larger pumpkin.
Nearby, Nicholas Monteith, 7, stuffed his pumpkin in a backpack. Nicholas' favorite part of the trip was stopping at the fish hatchery and feeding the fish.
He hadn't been to a pumpkin patch before, so "it was kind of fun," he said.
Jerred Fairbanks, 7, said he most enjoyed picking out a pumpkin and checking out the boats, dogs and bunnies.
He plans to carve and decorate his pumpkin.
Juan Acebado, 7, said he enjoyed looking at the goat, while Evalyn Zermno, 7, liked seeing the bunnies.
Visiting the pumpkin patch was also a trip highlight for Jesse Ziegelman, 7. He plans to take his pumpkin home and decorate it. Last year, he bought his pumpkin at the store.
Sierra Hawkins, 7, will make her pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern.
Guadalupe Chavarria, 8, wants to make a pumpkin pie with hers.
Dixie Edmonson, 7, says she plans to take her pumpkin seeds, save them and carve the pumpkin.
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