1. Bill's Berry Farm (Friday, October 7th): At Bill's, they were making pumpkin donuts this week instead of apple cider donuts. No complaints there! Munching our donuts, we headed over to the section of the farm that we didn't visit last week: the corn maze. They construct this whole fall play area next to the corn maze and charge an entrance fee of $7 per person (ages 5 and up). I was resolved to take the kids there to play just once this month, so I forked over the $21 and we went in. I have to say, it was a tad underwhelming. There was a tall stack of straw with two slides, pumpkin bowling, a short obstacle course, and some lassos and barrel-shaped horses on straw bales in an area labeled "steer roping." Oh, and the corn maze. The free kiddie area off to the side had a mini-hay bale maze, mini pumpkin bowling, and a corn box. We did everything a few times. I don't like paying to play because I feel obligated to stay as long as possible because I know we can't just come back any ole time without paying again. It takes some of the fun out for me, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Eventually we went and got lost in the corn maze--well, as lost as you can be when the sun is visible on one side of the field and the rumble of cars on the gravel road is audible on the other side. We wandered around the paths for a solid 20 minutes or so before wending our way back out again. I brought the camera to amuse myself while we wandered.
Jay and Rose were so funny in the corn maze. They were very concerned about staying together, and hardly let go of each other for the first ten minutes. At one point, Rose couldn't see the rest of us and she totally panicked, poor girl, even though she could hear us right around the bend. I let the kids wander and explore, and when they got far enough in that they didn't find the exit on their first couple of tries, they started getting worried about being lost forever. They had fun but were visibly relieved when we emerged from the maze.
Obstacle course
Pumpkin bowling: harder than it looks, although the 2x4 wood "pins" fell down on their own as often as not because the ground was so uneven, haha.
Bye bye, Bill's. We'll be back (for the donuts!)
2. Cross country meet: The Max Jensen Invitational cross country meet in Richland had both a community 3 mile race and a half mile kids' race before the middle school and high school races, so we all got to run. The day before the races I was concerned with how Amber would do when Jeff and I left her with Jay and Rose while we ran our race. When we arrived at the meet, however, my qualms were calmed. Jeff's middle school cross country team has 12 darling 12 year old girls on it, and they were all more than happy to keep an eye on the kids while we ran. It was cute--those girls somehow popped Amber's stranger-danger bubble, and they had her giving them high fives and knucks and giggling before I even left to warm up for the race! It was all very rushed--I barely had time to jog for 9 minutes to warm up, change shoes and strip off warmups and then DASH to the start line to run, so I didn't have much time to worry about Amber.
It was so fun to run at a cross country meet again! I dug out my old pink cross country racing flats for the occasion. I can't even remember the last time I wore those ole shoes! This race had an interesting mix of runners--much stiffer competition than the average local road race, and twice as many men as women running--another anomaly (17 women, 34 men). These were coaches and the kind of people who go to cross country meets for fun on Saturday mornings! Speedy people. Jeff came in third with a 17:01 for three miles, which he was quite pleased about for two reasons: 1. he has only been biking for the past month, and 2. his time was faster than the entire Sunnyside High School varsity cross country team, haha. I finished 25th--5th female--in 22:38. Jeff and I both won our age groups--pretty sure there were only a handful of people our age running--haha. [results]
After running the adult "citizen race," I got the kids ready for their half mile race while Jeff went to jog a warmup with his team. Jay and Rose have never run a race all by themselves--our favorite Halloween costume race was cancelled a few years ago. That was the last race they ran, and we ran it with them because they were so little back then. This time, though, we let them go it alone, and it was so fun to watch my own kids run! They were cute--I'm pretty sure Jay stayed back with Rose for the first 2/3 of the race before pulling ahead. Jay finished in 4:40, 39th overall for a participation ribbon, and Rose finished in 4:47, 41st overall, and second in her age group.
Jay and Rose were pretty cute running, but I may be biased. Rose declared that she wanted to "become a runner" after the race, and proudly clutched her red ribbon. We watched the middle school races in honor of Coach White and then one high school JV race for good measure. That JV race was insane--over 400 runners crammed onto a narrow course made for an intense finish chute, sweaty bodies stumbling, gasping, and puking all over while trying to stay in line in the order they finished. The volunteers working the finish had their hands FULL, grabbing sweaty arms and dragging those guys back in order. It was fascinating to watch, in a gory way--barf and sweat are disgusting!
I forgot the big camera this time, so it was cell phone photo-rama on Saturday:
Pre-race picture of supreme cuteness.
High five before heading for the homestretch
Flying pigtails--go Rose!
In the finish chute, getting their ribbons
Jay brought his camera and took at least a hundred pictures of the runners. (he posted one of his pictures on his blog yesterday).
Amber loved cheering on the runners. In fact when we were at the park later and she saw a cross country team jogging a cooldown, she started doing her big wide-wingspan claps and calling out "Yaaaaay! Yaaaaaay!"
Eating apples on the sidelines. We failed to get a picture of Jeff at all that day because he was off in the crowds being Super Coach White, running all over the place. This course was quite a bit more crowded than last week's meet, so we only saw him a few times.
Ribbons!
3. Goethals Park: The kids voted unanimously to go back to Goethals Park after the races, and it happened to be just around the corner from the meet, so we were there in no time. The kids used the port-a-potty, and dashed out to play, having eaten their PBJs earlier. I let Amber loose and grabbed an apple to eat while I ambled around, watching my kids play. The artificial creek had been winterized since our visit last week, so we searched further afield for adventure. The kids found it in the grove of trees, logs, and stumps just beyond the creek. Sticks, rocks, and dirt are some of the best toys!
After an hour or so at the park, we left to drive home. It was Amber's nap time and she was utterly emotionally fried and physically exhausted from our adventure. So she treated us to a 30 minute exhibition of her earsplitting vocal volume with an epic tantrum punctuated with shrieks and cries loud enough to drown out even Jim Dale's deep voice. We had to turn off Harry Potter and weather the crying storm until Amber finally calmed down enough to accept her discarded sandwich. The catalyst to her tantrum seemed to be the fact that she was hungry but did not want her sandwich. I kept offering it to her until at last her hunger overcame her rage and she accepted it. Then we turned Harry Potter back on and arrived home soon after, all feeling sore, tired, and slightly deaf.
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