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11.06.2011

Harvest Festival 2011

A couple of weekends ago, we took advantage of a beautiful Saturday afternoon and went to a local Harvest festival that a friend from Church invited us to.  It's a pretty popular place for families and on this particular day it was so busy!  But the kids loved it and we had fun seeing their little smiling faces taking it all in.  We didn't do the corn maze but we left exhausted from all the other things we managed to do. 
Hard to think that next year we'll have two little runners to keep track of!  No more strollers or carrying them around I would imagine :)
Trav took Ava on this big slide and of course she loved it.
Hanging on to her hat it was so fast!!
They had a little petting zoo that had goats and chickens and cows and sheep for the kids to feed.  I don't know about you but everything about a petting zoo totally grosses me out.  Travis was not on the same page as I was however, he was all about it!  I didn't want Ava to feed the animals because it seemed so dirty, but he quickly gave a look that said, "Are you kidding me?"  So of course she fed the goats :)
The hungry goats, who also thought they'd just help themselves to our clothes.
I was cringing at this, but she was thrilled about it!
Until the goat tried to eat her sweater too.
I did hold my ground with Carter :) He wasn't walking yet and there was NO WAY I was going to let him crawl around in the dirt.  I am flexible about a lot of things, but I am not big on farm animals or dirt!  And yes, I'm from Iowa.  From the *city* in Iowa, not a farm :)
They had a mini hay barrel maze that Trav and Ava ran around for awhile.
I love him for many reasons, but one is that he has no problem enthusiastically playing with our kids and doing all the things I would rather avoid :)
Like this giant corn pit.
Let's just say there were kernels of corn in places that shouldn't hold kernels of corn!
We thought Carter might like it, but he didn't.  Maybe a sensory thing that freaked him out? 
He cried until I picked him up :)
We rode on a tractor for a little hay ride and I think Ava was having an out of body experience, she was so excited about it.
Fun to enjoy the simple things with your kids.
We also took her on a little pony ride, which was so darling.
She was over the moon about it and" Miss Serious" for the first few minutes.
We did feel sorry for the poor little ponies who do that all day long.
In spite of their required service, we were grateful that they made her giggle with joy!
It was a fun afternoon and the kids loved it as much as we did.
See??
This was Ava's reaction when I told her she could take a fallen ear of corn home with us that she found on the ground.  Who knew an old ear of corn could be so thrilling?? 

So glad we squeezed this little visit in.  I'm sure we'll be back next year!

1 comment:

Jesse said...

You're from Iowa? But you didn't grow up on a farm? I think I drove through Iowa once. It was boring. Don't they grow potatoes there? It's next to Colorado, right?

I loved the comment about Trav's "look" ("Are you kidding me?"). I've witnessed it a few times in person. I can see Stace having the same problem with our kids and animals. She will NOT pet the horses on our carriage rides (nor does she like me to).

At least at that age, apparently Carter does not like kernels and Ava does not like sand (and no one likes them "in places kernels/sand should not be"). :)