Blake’s Haunted Hayride

Good Morning! It’s a cold and dreary one over here, which is exactly how it’s been for the past few days. I guess that’s what I get for bragging about how gorgeous the weather has been lately!

Between a two and a half hour appearance outside in a sleeveless dress last night and a trip to a “haunted” apple orchard, I’m pretty confident in saying I caught a cold last night. I could only sleep for a few hours and woke up feeling achy with a sore throat and runny nose.

I got up a little after 8 a.m. and while I had every intention on getting in a morning run, I knew it wasn’t in the cards. Instead of subjecting myself to the wet and rainy streets, I decided to stay bundled up inside with a warm breakfast.

Using this recipe, I made my first batch of pumpkin oatmeal!

The measurements are slightly altered, but I followed the directions closely.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats

2 cups organic skim milk

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/8 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

brown sugar to taste

sprinkle of raisins for topping

Directions

1. Bring milk to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in oats and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.

2. Add pumpkin and spices and stir until heated through.

3. Sprinkle or stir in raisins and brown sugar right before serving.

It was just what I needed to get my morning started on the right foot. By the way, am I the only one who thinks my outfit (for now) looks very Halloween-esque today?

(I spy a big Cali girl!)

Pulled straight from the folded (okay, unfolded) clean laundry pile in our room, I assembled all of this by chance and couldn’t help but giggle to myself when I looked down. Happy Halloweenie!

Blake’s Haunted Hayride

Have any of you ever been on a nighttime spooky hayride? Last night was the first time I actually got talked into experiencing one.

Since visiting a new haunted house (or in this case, barn) was on this year’s Fall Bucket List, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Blake’s Orchard and Cider Mill. Sounds innocent enough, right? Amateur move on my part.

Every Halloween season, Blake’s puts on a haunted spectacle including a nighttime hayride, a zombie paintball safari, a 3-story haunted barn.

A group of us arrived in Armada, MI around 10 p.m. ready to go… or run.

While I would have liked to check out the hayride equipped with paintball guns and have an excuse to shoot zombies, we only had time for the hayride and haunted barn this go around.

After a quick wait in line, our group of eight boarded the tractor and I knew I was in for it as soon as soon as we got photobombed by Hannibal Lecter.

I started to get a little freaked out and upset I let myself get into this type of situation until the girl sitting next to me did enough of that for the both of us. Or enough for the entire group of riders. Even before our departure, she was balled up, close to crying in fear. Obviously, she would be the target for all of the zombies, monsters, and scary clowns we were about to encounter.

I became startled and confused at the half-way mark when we stopped for cider and donuts at the “Witch’s Cauldron”. I thought it was for sure some kind of trick to lure us into a deeper trail of danger.

Shockingly, we all enjoyed our surpise snack unharmed and finished up the rest of the ride.

With twenty scare zones, I thought this hayride was a good one! The best part had to be the finale of evil clowns chasing us while screaming that poor terrified girl’s name over and over. I’m just grateful it wasn’t focused on me!

Soon after, we headed over to the haunted barn and navigated our way through the three stories. It was scary in the sense of it being dark and changing levels where we had to duck and crawl through areas, but other than that it wasn’t bad at all. I am used to people jumping right in my face and scaring the you know what out of me.

There was, however, yet another evil clown that followed me and stood right in front of me for a good thirty seconds without budging or blinking. We were in a room that looked like it was revolving, and all I could do was stare right back at him with nervous laughter.

Over the years, I have learned that if you pretend they don’t scare you, they move on to other victims. Laughing and smiling usually wards the majority of them off! 😉

All in all, it was a great way to spend a dark fall night and I’m glad I got to experience it.

Now I’m looking forward to a low-key Saturday with Scott!

Hope you enjoy yours.

 Questions of the Day

• Have you ever been to a haunted house or on a spooky hayride?

• What is one of your favorite Halloween activities to do? (besides dress up!)

I still have yet to visit and navigate my way through a corn maze. I act all big and tough when I talk about going with friends, but when it comes down to it, I am terrified even at the thought. First off, I hate being lost. Whenever I can’t get my barrings and feel like I am aimlessly circling, I get really upset and anxious. Doing this at night with monsters running around in a corn maze doesn’t sound one bit pleasant.

But, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do… so we’ll see if it happens!