Porta-potties, Cornboxes and Pig Races

Last weekend we took the kids to Black Island Farms out in Syracuse. They have a corn maze and a bunch of other little activities for the kids. It is kind of like Cornbellies at Thanksgiving Point, but smaller and a lot less crowded. It was a beautiful evening and we had a good time.

The first thing we saw when we got through the entrance was: a line of porta-potties! Arden loves porta-potties. Ever since we went up to Bear Lake around Labor Day and she had to use a porta-potty on the beach (about 4 or 5 times), she thinks they are great fun. Every time we drive by a construction site and she sees a porta-potty, she excitedly points it out. And so she HAD to use the porta-potty before we did anything else. Sometimes I just don't understand how her mind works. I would (almost) rather die than use a porta-potty.

Next we looked at the farm animals. They had cows, chickens, pigs, goats, and even some llamas. Dax LOVES animals, he could have stayed by their pens making animal noises for the rest of the night. But we finally tore him away and went over to a big slide. Arden went down first:

Then Preston took Daxton down...Dax wasn't too excited about it (as you can kind of see...his little baby arms are open wide and he had a very worried look on his face). So of course, the boys followed Arden to go around again and this time Preston just sends poor Daxton down the slide alone! (Dads...sometimes you got to wonder what they are THINKING!) After we picked up Dax and calmed him down and Arden went down the slide one more time, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, talked Arden out of another porta-potty visit, and headed over to the ever-popular cow train! Arden rode in her own cow car and somehow I squeezed Daxton and myself into another one. Fortunately, Preston was taking Corbie out to the car to get her blanket since it was getting cold and there are no pictures of me crammed into the cow train, but I did get one of Arden:It was a bumpy ride, and the seats aren't very soft to say the least...but Arden and Dax thought it was great fun. After I gracefully exited the train, we headed over to something I had never seen before: A cornbox. It is just like a great big sandbox, but instead of sand it is full of dried corn kernels. Dax and Arden probably spent more time in this thing than doing anything else. After we watched for a while, Preston and I joined in and had some fun in the corn box too. Here is our handiwork:

Then we headed over to the pumpkin bouncy-house. It wasn't very big, that was okay because Arden and Dax had the whole thing to themselves most of the time. Arden had a great time jumping, and Daxton spent the whole time trying to stand up, and failing. When it was time to get out, Dax turned himself around and crawled backwards across the whole thing like he was going down stairs. It took for-ev-er. It was hilarious!

By this time, it was starting to get dark, so we decided to hurry and go through the "kiddie corn maze." Daxton loved it! He led us all through the maze at full speed. He is so little that it was hard for him to tell when it was a dead end since he could fit between the regular corn rows. It only took us about 5 or 10 minutes to find our way out. I would have liked to try the big maze out, but unfortunately it had turned into a "haunted" maze at dusk. We didn't feel like causing any permanent damage to any of our kids, so we skipped it. Instead, Arden and I went down the BIG "silo" slide (even bumpier than the cow train!), and then we played on a few more of the kid-toys. Corbie was a really good sport and had a great time looking around. She did really well nearly all of the time, but she was finally starting to get a little tired.

We were just about ready to call it a night, when we heard someone yell "TWO MINUTES UNTIL THE PIG RACES!" Hooray! There is always time for pig races! They was actually pretty fun to watch...they would line up four little piggies and even had a piggy-size starting gate. We all had to yell "3-2-1-Soooo-EEEE!" and then the little guys would race around a little circle, oinking and squealing, with Daxton yelling "PIH-DEE!!! PIH-DEE!!!" at the top of his lungs. The perfect end to the evening.

On the way out, we stopped for some pictures next to the pumpkins. Looking back, we should have done this earlier, and here is why: Exhibit A: Daxton is just too tired to smile:

Exhibit B: Arden isn't tired, but her hair sure is messy from all of the sliding/running/bouncing/whatever:Exhibit C: Even I must be so tired that I can't keep my eyes open:

But by this time, Corbie had entered the "silly-tired" phase of the night, so she was actually pretty smiley:

Soooo cute!