Fun on the Farm

Fall is here! The weather is starting to cool down during the day, the nights are gorgeous and we're gearing up for a fun Halloween. A Fall-time must is going to a harvest festival. This year we went to Vertuccio Farms out in East Mesa. We had such a good time. This farm is a small operation, but has plenty to keep our two little guys entertained for a couple hours. Among the attractions were some small farm animals to pet (not really a petting zoo, but close enough), a "train" pulled by a tractor, old fashioned see-saws, a "pizza farm" - a circle that is sectioned off like slices of pizza with each "slice" containing a pizza ingredient, like tomato plants, pepper plants, a pig pen, etc. Ben had such a great time walking around and touching the animals. He especially loved the goats, which he kept telling us were doggies. Josh's favorite thing at the farm was the train. He got to ride in his car all by himself, and had his very own steering wheel. The first time he rode it there were only 2 other small kids on with him, and the driver went pretty slow. The second time was much later and he was on with a bunch of older kids. The driver was nervous having him on there because apparently he took it pretty fast, so he kept telling Joshua to make sure he stayed seated. But Josh was not interested in trying to get out, he had to steer his car, and he took his job very seriously! After checking everything out, we decided to try our hands, or should I say our feet, at the 3.5 mile corn maze, made in the shape of the Statue of Liberty. We walked around this maze for close to an hour. We were supposed to find 6 check points throughout the maze. It seemed just about impossible until Andrew had a brilliant idea... each checkpoint had a map of the maze, telling you where you were and where each of the checkpoints were. Andrew took a picture of the maze and was able to follow it and find all of the checkpoints, and more importantly, help us find our way out before it got dark! Josh did an awesome job, walking through about 90% of it before pooping out and asking to be carried. Ben walked some through the maze, but the ground was really uneven, so he wasn't too steady on his feet. But he did enjoy the shoulder rides! We celebrated our victory over the corn maze with hot dogs, chips and soda. Since they didn't have any lemonade or any other juice type drink, we decided to let Josh have his very first soda. The picture of him drinking it cracks me up. He looks terrified of it, but he wasn't! I think he's just not used to the bubbles, but he made that face with every swig. We tried to get some cute pictures of the kids sitting in the pumpkins, but it's hard to get them to both cooperate at the same time, so we got what we could. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. Here are some photos of our day. Enjoy!