Army Strong Bonds Family Retreat to Wisconsin Dells

All the kids at the playland in the Chicago Airport

Samuel in the cockpit ready to fly his plane!

Baby Caleb playing in the playland too!

Joseph and Caleb

Austin, Joseph , Betsy, and Caleb loving the play area

Betsy and Caleb

Betsy, Baby, Austin, Samuel at the play area next to the pizza place

Caleb and Austin at the play place

Caleb and Austin waiting for Joseph to ride the train ride

Joseph waving to us from the train ride

Samuel and Caleb on a ride

Daddy and Caleb at Buffalo Phil's pizza and train place

Sam on the Buffalo

Betsy on the Buffalo

We went to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin for an Army Strong Bonds Family Retreat December 8-11th.  It was awesome, the army paid for everything, even flew us out there.  The only down side was all the paperwork we had to fill out, online in their travel system.  It took us 8 hours just to get into the system from our computer, and then another 8 hours to fill out a travel voucher for each person in our family.  We couldn't just do one for everyone.  Anyway so we left at 5am on the 8th and drove to the SLC airport, where we parked and got everyone to the shuttle just in time (I had to run, but barely made it)  The kids thought it was fun to ride the shuttle to the airport and pass the Christmas lights on the way.  We managed to get our boarding passes, and luggage checked.  Again we had to do each one individually, it couldn't be done together, I really wish the army could fix that.  Then when that was done, we had about 10 minutes to get through security to our gate, and there was a huge line to get through security.  Thankfully we got to go through a family line and bypass the huge line.  We managed to get everyone through okay, it definitely quite a production to get our family through, although it was a pleasant surprise that the kids didn't have to take off their shoes.  We made it to the gate just in time, to go up to the customer service desk, and get some of our seats together, and board the plane.  The baby had a paid ticket so we brought his car seat on with with us, and we got to sit mostly together.  All the little video games really paid off for the kids, especially Sam's Innotab (a kids tablet for games).  Everyone did good on the plane, Caleb was a little fussy, but not too bad, just required a lot of entertaining and passing around to different family members.  We had an hour and a half layover in the Chicago airport, got some breakfast, and took them to a play land that was a lot of fun.  Travis left to go get our seats situated for the next flight, and I was supervising all the kids.  I was following Samuel around, and things went fine at first, and everyone was having fun, but then Samuel got possessive of the cockpit and where the pilot would sit to fly the plane, and started talking mean and hurting kids that would come in.  I would have to give the baby to Austin, or put him down, and pick up Samuel and take him to a corner for a time out, and try to calm him down, rub his arms and legs, and talk to him about how he is supposed to act.  As soon as his time-out was over, he would run right back to the cockpit, and hurt whoever was there, so I would get him back to time-out and then also tell him he couldn't play in the cockpit anymore since he couldn't behave appropriately.  I had to keep the baby, he wouldn't go to anyone else, and Samuel was yelling and trying to hurt me.  I glanced at my watch and realized we needed to board our next flight in ten minutes, and Travis still wasn't back yet, so I told Samuel we were leaving, and tried to gather up all the kids, and go over to our stuff, while calling Travis' cell phone to see where he was.  Apparently Samuel hurt another kid while I was trying to get everyone together, and a parent came over to me and complained.  I told him I was sorry, and that we were leaving.  He still protested saying, I needed to watch my kid.  It was upsetting for me, because I was doing the best I could, and I was watching Samuel as best I could, but when Samuel doesn't listen, and I'm watching four other children, including a baby, and our stuff, and trying to get everyone together to leave, is not easy.  I just told the parent that again we were leaving and I was sorry their child was hurt.  I turned away, and tried to get all the kids out of the play area, and just then I saw Travis.  I told all the kids to go to Daddy, and managed to gather up the rest of our things, and follow them to Travis.   Travis had forgotten the time change, and hadn't realized we were supposed to board our flight, but quickly helped me with our things, and we got to our flight just in time to get on it.  We made it to Wisconsin just fine, and then picked up our rental car, and drove the hour and a half to the Chula Vista Resort, while all the kids slept.  We checked into the resort, and then drove to get some dinner at a mexican restaurant in town.  It was good food, and we had a good time, except Joseph and Samuel were having a hard time sitting down, and kept running around the restaurant and going over to other tables to play with the candles on them, and trying to blow out the flames.  We went back to the resort and changed into our swimsuits and walked through the underground tunnel to the indoor waterpark.  It was awesome, it is the largest indoor waterpark in America!  Travis watched the baby, Samuel and Betsy in the little kid area, and I took Austin on a couple water slides, and Joseph tried some out too.  Austin and I got a double tube, and walked up the stairs to the slides, and I asked the attendant for the least scary one, and Austin and I went down it.  Poor Austin, it was dark, almost the whole time, and had numerous drops and twists and turns that were scary.  She was freaked out, and said she didn't want to go on any more slides.  I thought it was a bit exciting, but if that was the least scary ride, I didn't really have a desire to try the other ones.  So Austin and I went on the "Action river".  It's like the Lazy river, except at the beginning it's like a wave pool.  They had this huge area, where you could climb and go down different littler slides, and also lots of water pouring down, and places you could dump water on an unsuspecting person below,( a couple kids got me this way).  Going to the waterpark this first night, was my favorite, because there was hardly anyone there, and we didn't have to worry about Samuel waiting in lines, or hurting anyone else.  We stayed at the waterpark until closing, and then walked back to our room, where we rented a free DVD and watched it.  The kids had a hard time going to sleep, even though it was almost 10pm, except Sam, he was exhausted.  Betsy, who has always been a night owl, couldn't seem to be quite and was making it hard for everyone else to go to sleep.  Austin and Betsy were sharing a Queen Bed, and then Samuel had the next Queen Bed, and then there was a divider and Joseph slept on the pull out from the couch, and then there was a small bedroom with a door, and a king size bed Travis and I slept in, and a portable crib for the baby.  After a lot of "be quiets, and hushes" everyone finally fell asleep.  Unfortunately the baby did not sleep well at all, and Travis and I were up a lot with him.  The next morning we had to wake everyone up to get to breakfast by 7:30am.  It was delicious, it was a big buffet full of many choices.  My favorite was the Belgian waffles with strawberries and whip cream, and the fresh fruit.  Samuel would always get a plate full of cantaloupe.  After breakfast, we dropped of Samuel and the baby at the room for daycare, and went to our first session.  They taught us about different ways to improve relationships, and had us do fun family activities together, like draw a family portrait out of butcher paper, and make a family collage.  The also had the kids go up and say things there family does for them, and what they do for their family.  They used video clips from popular movies like "tangled", "nanny mcphee", and "despicable me" to model good or bad parenting.  We had a break in-between sessions, and a buffet lunch too.  Caleb wouldn't stay in day care anymore, he was too fussy (he's been teething, and fighting a cold)  When we were done with all the sessions for the day, we changed into our swimsuits and headed straight for the pool.  It was awesome, we went on a water roller coaster, that was tons of fun.  Although the first time we went up there, Austin refused to go up the stairs with Travis, (she must have thought we were going on the scary one again), and was looking for me (I was already up the stairs with the other kids).  I went with Samuel the first time.  It was so fun, and fast...he was so happy and excited.  As we zoomed off, he shouted "I'm on a rocket" we went on the coaster many times it was so much fun.  Then we went to find Austin, who had been upset for a little while, but was finally having some fun on her own.  We left the waterpark, changed and went to the room we were supposed to be at for dinner.  Samuel was having a difficult time waiting for his food, and not eating the food he wasn't supposed to have, but other than that dinner was nice.  After dinner we did a scavenger hunt of the resort where we were supposed to find different pictures of reindeer hung up.  It was fun, and then we came back and watched another movie, and then went to sleep.  The baby had a really rough night, and we didn't get much sleep again, but we rolled out of bed and went to our breakfast, and morning sessions again.  I had to go and get the baby from the daycare because he wouldn't stop crying, and then I took him to the foyer and sat in a big comfy chair by the fireplace, and fed the baby and we both fell asleep.  For those of you who know how hard it is for me to take a nap, know how exhausted I was, in order to do that.   I felt much better after my nap.  After our sessions, which talked a lot about role-playing and communication (at least the parts I was awake for) we hit the waterpark again.  We had fun playing in the lily pad area and more water coaster, and going down some slides on the mats.  It took some doing for Austin to go on these, but once she did she loved it.  Travis and Joseph went on some more slides, and one where it drops you into a bowl and then you get flushed down to the rest of the slide, and they went backwards and got flipped off there tube, but they had a great time.  On our way back to our room, Travis went ahead with Joseph and Samuel, while I waited for Betsy to get a band-aid, she got a little scrape on her thigh.  Then Joseph didn't stay with Travis and we lost him for a while, and I thought we had lost Betsy too, but it turns out she had just caught up with Travis.  When Austin, the Baby and I got back, no one else was there, and Travis had our only key.  So I left Austin standing there, in case anyone who was lost turned up there, and the baby and I walked all the way back to the waterpark (about a 5 minute walk one way) and back looking for Travis and lost children, but didn't find anyone, so I walked back to our room, and found everyone there, but Joseph.  It turns out Travis took a wrong turn,and Joseph wouldn't follow him, and Betsy had caught up with him, but they couldn't find Joseph, and went back to the room.  I was changing my clothes and getting ready to go look for Joseph again, when he showed up to our room.  I was sure glad everyone made it back safely, but it sure would be nice if our children would stay closer to us when we are going places.  We were on our own for dinner, so we drove into town and went to a place called Buffalo Phil's Pizza place, where they serve dinner to you by train.  So we went in, and was seated right next to the train tracks(model trains, not real size).  The train brought us our drinks, and food.  It would stop right by our table, and when we took our food off, it would go back to the kitchen.  During the dinner it would also drive by with different toys and things on it for looking at, one time it even came by blowing bubbles.  It was fun, and then at the end of our dinner, they gave us a pass for a free train ride in the connecting play land area.  So we went on the train roller coaster ride, which was fun, except it jerked my neck around a little too much.  Then the kids played on some of the inflatable toys.  We really had a good time, then we drove back to the resort, and played at the water park one last time.  Sunday morning we had breakfast, and went to the chapel session.  It was nice having Samuel in the daycare, but Joseph was in a foul mood, and kept hiding under the table, or leaving, and Austin was throwing a fit too.  But then once the final session started they got to go to there own session, and when they got back they were in much better moods.  The kids and I have fun writing notes back and forth to each other during these sessions.  And I was so pleased that Samuel never hurt anyone in the daycare, he did really great.  Right before our final session they told us we had to be checked out of our rooms, and we thought we would check out after the session, so we quickly went to our room, packed everything up, put it in the car and checked out. After everything was over, we left and started driving towards the airport, we thought we had plenty of time, so we stopped in a little diner to have lunch, after lunch I looked at my watch and we had thirty minutes left before we needed to board our flight.  I couldn't believe it, I don't know where the time went, but we drove quickly the rest of the way to the airport, and when we arrived we had ten minutes to get to our gate.  So we quickly dropped off the rental car and got to the ticketing desk to get our boarding passes.  There was no one there (it was a very small municipal airport) and a sign saying that the flight closed thirty minutes prior to departure.  Our prayers were answered when a lady showed up a minute later, and when she saw us she quickly checked us in, and said we were lucky she came back, she normally doesn't.  So we went over to the security, and waiting in line.  It seemed to take forever, they kept having to rerun our bags, and they even discovered a leathermans pocket knife in Travis' backpack that he had forgotten about.  (I don't know how they missed it in SLC) we finally got everyone through and made our way quickly to the plane, where they were waiting for us.  We got on, but since we hadn't had time to arrange our seats together, Joseph and Austin had to sit by themselves, but we did manage to get the rest of us mostly together.  We had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Chicago this time.  But we found a kid-friendly USO, and got some free snacks, and watched movies during our layover time, and Travis worked on his final project that was due Monday morning.  We finally made it to the SLC airport at 11pm.  We got our car, and drove home arriving shortly after midnight.  We woke up early the next morning and got everyone off to school, but we were sure tired.  Overall we had a great trip.  I would recommend Wisconsin Dells to anyone for a fun family vacation.  It was sure fun, and there were tons of water parks, and theme parks for the summer too.

What Betsy wants for Christmas!

I got my new camera!

Joseph in the waiting room before getting his stiches out

Joseph taking a picture of me

Joseph's chin before they took out the stitches

Joseph and I testing out the timer on the camera

Joseph's chin after the stiches were taken out

Caleb in his high chair

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Austin and Caleb (in Austin's dollhouse)



So Joseph finally got his stiches out, and it looks pretty good.  Travis was gone today at drill, and after my fiasco last month when Travis was gone, I was pretty nervous about going to church without Travis there to help.  I forgot to blog about it, but basically Samuel was being loud, and hurting people, and not holding still throughout the whole three hours of church, and I came home bruised, scratched, and a headache from Sam kicking my head into the wall, and emotionally overwhelmed.  So anyway Samuel has been better at church since then, but then I realized that Travis had the Sunday bag with all his quiet toys in it in the car.  So I decided to open Samuel's Christmas present from Travis' Mom(an Leapfrog Innotab) and give it to him to help him keep quiet.  It worked so well, he sat there and played quietly almost the entire time, he only yelled twice, and he was good during primary.  Yeah!!! 

2 funny things and 1 scary thing that happened this week and Thanksgiving

Samuel was eating spaghetti sauce  and was about to wipe his hands on his pajamas, when I told him "Sam, don't wipe your hands on your clothes", so he says "okay" and before I can stop him, he wipes his hands in his hair.  I say "Sam, you don't wipe your hands in your hair either", he says "what, it matches"...silly boy

Saturday night we took all the kids to the dollar store, and gave them each some money to buy one thing for each other person in the family, and then without their knowing put it on their bed.  (we wanted them to do something nice for each other).l  So we made it home, and after everyone had distributed their "goods" everyone could go look at their own bed.  Well it turns out that Betsy got Travis some dog treats, it was pretty funny.  She didn't realize they were for dogs, but thought they were heart shaped treats. 

Travis took Samuel and Joseph over to the elementary school for the ward turkey bowl (football) on Thanksgiving.  After they had been gone a while, there was a knock at the door.  I open it to find Samuel, just Samuel, no Travis or Joseph.  I let Samuel in, and ask where Daddy is, he tells me Daddy is still playing football.  I ask him if Daddy knows where he is, and Sam said "yes".  I know Travis would not let Samuel walk home from the school all by himself (it is about a 10-15 minute walk, crossing two main streets), so I call Travis' cell phone, which I discovered was in our upstairs bedroom.  I was about ready to walk back over to the school to let Travis know Samuel was safe, when a member of our ward called, from the football field asking if Samuel was home.  I let him know he was, and to tell Travis (they had paused their game and had been looking for him for the past 15 minutes).  Travis came home and talked to Samuel and then went back to the football game.  I'm very grateful that Samuel made it safely all the way home, and I'm sure he had angels watching over him. 

Here are some pictures I had in my phone camera:

Austin made this turkey for a class assignment out of an orange, grapes, and other food items.

I put Caleb in the back of the car, while I was loading up the groceries from Costco, he had fun, playing with the groceries, that I was stacking all around him.

My cute little boy

Joseph (star wars), Austin (snow white), Betsy (princess), Their friend Jessie(vampire), and Samuel (Soccer Ball again after leaving his gorilla costume at school) for Halloween

Betsy made a picture of me out of play-dough

Joseph riding the bull at Cornbellys.  He had a blast (thanks Grandma and Grandpa)

Travis having fun with Caleb (I think he was a little nervous)

Betsy and Samuel going down the big slide at the BYU Halloween Party

Austin and Betsy spent hours stacking all of these bricks for our neighbor, Joseph and Sam helped a little too

The girls made a little hideout for Caleb in between the couch and the wall, and put stuff in the way so he couldn't get out, this is Caleb fighting his way out!

This is Samuel at his first Austic therapy session, wearing a body bag (Grandma made him his own for his birthday), it helps him receive sensory input that he needs

Happy Samuel

Joseph loves his baby brother

We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  Joseph was so relieved to not have to do any schoolwork, and he actually got to play video games, watch T.V., and play with friends for the first time in months.  He is no longer doing eschool at home, and going full-time at a new school that hasn't given him any homework.  He was quite the happy boy, and I was happy not to try and make him do any school work.  I think we were all happy not doing any homework for a few days, although Travis and I should probably have still done some studying we were all ready for a little break from it.  We spent Wednesday cleaning and cooking for Thanksgiving, and Wednesday evening Travis' Mom and sister Karina arrived.  We had a full Thanksgiving day filled with more cooking, and cleaning, but also fun seeing family.  Travis' other sister Maia and her 5 of her kids came, and his aunt and uncle and two of their kids.  We had 20 people for our feast, 6 of whom couldn't have gluten, so it took a lot of work making things everyone could eat.  It was delicious.  Unfortunately has been cutting his first tooth and fighting a cold so he was not a very happy baby. 
This year Travis skipped going out black Friday shopping, a combination of lack of funds and not wanting to stay out all night.  We did manage to get a few things online, with money Travis' mom gave us.  We did go to Costco (I love getting the free cookbook they give out every year on black Friday) and ended up getting the kids these Sherpa pet pillow and blanket sets.  They were really excited, but told that's all they're getting for Christmas, they were fine with it, but we'll see when Christmas actually arrives.

Samuel's B-day and Joseph's Trauma

So November 17th, Samuel turned 5 years old!  My little boy is getting so big.  Unfortunately he was sick, so he didn't really do too much.  Although he did get to open his presents, and I made him a chocolate beet cake, that was wheat, dairy, and sugar free (it did have sucanat in it for a sweetener).  Everyone loved it, it tasted really good, I was greatly relieved since it took a lot of work.  His Grandma Hardy made him a "body bag" for his birthday, and he loves it, he looks like a green little alien (will post pictures when I get a new camera).  On Friday Samuel was feeling better, so we went to Chuck-e-cheese and he had a good time playing and getting prizes.  Every since Samuel has been sick, he has been really sweet, and telling me thank you for taking care of him.  I just hope that when he feels better he would still behave so sweetly.  Saturday the baby started getting sick too, we pretty much spent the whole day cleaning.  Although I did get to take Austin and Betsy out (they were the only ones who got there chores done).  We went to the mall for pretzels, and then did a little shopping.  We got Samuel a punching bag with his birthday money from his Grandmas.  He is so excited, he loves it. 
Joseph started a new school this past week to help him with his behavior challenges, so has been going full day at school again, and is no longer doing eschool.  Whew!! (I'm so relieved)  I really hope this will help him a lot.   On Sunday I stayed home from church,  because the baby and Samuel were both sick, and the baby was cutting his first tooth. Then Joseph was riding his scooter home from church, and hit a crack in the sidewalk and split his chin open, bruised his jaw bone, cracked a couple teeth, and bit the inside of his cheek. Seven stitches later and some ibuprofen he is doing much better.  Then today at his dentist appointment, the dentist discovered he had actually fractured 3 permanent molars, and chipped 2, and broke one baby tooth molar, that had to be partially extracted. The dentist said it takes quite a trauma for that to happen, and said he was extremely lucky to not break his jaw bone.  At first the dentist had only caught one broken tooth and one chipped tooth, but then took some more x-rays and discovered the rest.  Joseph was very brave throughout the whole process, and will hopefully feel better soon. 

A frustrating Day with Samuel

I had a really hard time with Samuel today, I started out the morning cleaning out the baby's room, because Samuel has been sneaking food in there and watching T.V., then throwing the food in various places around the room.  I discovered it when, I noticed lots of flies in the room, and was trying to figure out why there were so many.  I found no less then 10 different pieces of fruit, in various stages of rottenness,and bread crusts, and other pieces of discarded food.  I told Samuel he was grounded from T.V. since he had been breaking the rules while watching T.V.  I have been letting him watch too much T.V. anyway lately, becuase it has been really difficult to have Caleb and Samuel in the same room, since Caleb has gotten no mobile.  I had to study for a test that I needed to take, but still had to watch Caleb and Sam, and clean up the baby's room, so I had Samuel helping me clean the room, only to find that he was throwing things down the hall, or in other areas of the house instead of putting things in the garbage or where they were supposed to go.  So, I didn't get much studying done, and only managed a 88% on my physics test.  Oh well, I'll just have to do really well on the final.  Anyway so I got home about 1pm, and fed the baby and read to Samuel, then we decided to go grab some lunch from Cafe Rio and some pretzels for Travis from the mall.  So Samuel, the baby, and I got in the car and started driving away.  Samuel proceeded to unbuckle his seat belt and tried to bug the baby and mess the buttons on the car, while singing and screeching at the top of his lungs.  I managed to get him to put his seat belt back on, and finally quiet down, just before we arrived.  We went into Cafe Rio and Samuel started running around, and pulling on the cords showing where to stand in line, and singing as loud as he can "you are a stupid butthead".  I got him over to me and told him maybe he should just wait in the car (I could see the car from where I was at), but immediatly realized that probably wasn't the best idea, but he ran off before I could stop him, and climbed into the car.  I had just about reached the front of the line, when Samuel started honking the horn over and over again, so I waved at him to come back inside and he did, just as I was ordering, well he wanted to see over the counter, and kept pulling on the baby's car seat and making it really difficult, so I put the baby down, and picked Sam up, who pulled on the glass between us and the food, and the guy said he couldn't do that, so I put Sam back down, and he immediatly jumped on the baby, so I quickly pulled him off, and told him he couldn't do that, and tried to comfort the crying baby.  Sam was running around singing loudly again, so I went to quiet him down, and he ran back and jumped on the baby again.  I pulled him off again, and while trying to comfort the baby, quickly paid for our meal, then filled up my drink, and then Samuel threw a fit, because he wanted one too, so I let him go ask for a cup, and then we made our way back to the car.  Just before arriving at the car, Samuel dropped his water, and it all spilled, so he ran back and got another water.  We got in the car and I gave Samuel his food (a corn torilla), he said it was icky and proceeded to tear it up in pieces and throw it all over the car.  I told him that his behavior was not okay, and we were going right home.  Samuel started crying saying he was sorry, and said he would be good, and that Daddy really wanted his pretzels, so I agreed, and we drove over to the mall to get pretzels.  Samuel was still really loud in the car, I could occasionaly get him to be quieter.  We get to the mall, and samuel jumps out of the car quickly and runs off.  I jump out, and try to catch him, but he laughs and zigzags through cars.  I tell him I'm getting the baby and to come back.  He does come back, but only to laugh some more and run off to the mall.  I finally catch him waiting for me at the pretzel counter, singing and yelling as loud as he can, and running around in circles.  I try in vain to get him to be quiet, but nothing works, so I quickly order the pretzels bites, and when the guy set them on the counter, Samuel jumped up and grabbed a handful of the pretzels(he's not allowed to have any) and started running off, I managed to grab one of the pretzels bites he taken, but he ate the rest, and tried to catch up to him.  He decided he needed to stop in every store and mess with stuff and touch it, otherwise I never would have caught him.  I grabbed his hand, and told him I couldn't let him go since he wasn't listening, but he yells as loud as he can "your hurting me" and starts punching me.  I told him if he would stay right with me and be quiet I would let go, so he said he would and I let go of his hand.  We took two steps and he ran into another store and stared messing up the display.  So I grabbed his hand again, and started walking.  He started hitting me again, and then grabbed a bunch of stuff from my purse and threw it all over.  Thankfully some sympathetic people helped me gather it up, but I lost my grip on samuel and he took off running again.  He hid behind a big boulder just before the parking lot.  As I walked past him, I told him we were going home, and he better come with me.  So he followed me to the car, and we drove home, while samuel kept trying to feed the baby his pieces of tortilla from the ground and water, and taking off his seat belt and being loud.  I tried explaining to him in a calm voice what behaviors were wrong, and how he should have acted while we were out.  I also told him, he was going to spend some time in his room, thinking about how he is supposed to act.  I barely survived the trip, but only through several prayers sent heavenward to stay in control and not get angry, but I was still plenty upset.  I discovered later today, that Samuel had eated about half his bucket of Halloween candy and had been hiding it around the house, so we quickly went to a dentist office and sold the rest of the candy in the house for $1 a pound .  I love that little boy, but he sure can make things difficult sometimes.  Also my camera broke, so no pictures for a while, until we can get a new camera.

Hee Haw Farm

Travis, Joseph, and Samuel going down the giant slide at Hee Haw Farms

Joseph jumping off of hay bales

Joseph hiding in the hale bales

Betsy jumping in the hay bales

Samuel loved this little tractor

Joseph jumping

Austin Jumping

the kids having fun in the little hay bale maze

Austin, Samuel, Betsy and I on the Tractor!

Austin, Betsy and I going down the giant slide

Sam in the piggy train

Betsy, Joseph, Austin, and Samuel in the animal train

Dad and Caleb feeding a goat

Betsy, Caleb, Joseph, Austin, and Samuel being animals at the farm

Betsy in a corn stalk teepee

We had a great time on Saturday at Hee Haw Farms.  We were there for almost 6 hours!!  They had all sorts of fun playing on the slide, maze, seeing the animals, riding ponies, trains, corn pits, hay rides, picking out pumpkins, and all sorts of fun.  Betsy even won the pig chase, and was the first to catch a pig in her age group.  She won a free popcorn and cotton candy.  We got lost in the corn maze for over an hour, and had a lot of fun, except we really were wishing we had brought water, it ended up being over 80 degrees outside.  We went on a trick or treat hay ride, and got some candy.  Joseph and Samuel gave Travis their candy in return for money (they are on a no wheat, dairy, and sugar diet for ADHD and Austim(more about this later))  We took another hay ride over to the pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins.  Samuel decided that we didn't need a lot of time to pick out pumpkins and as soon as we got off the hay ride he grabbed the first pumpkin he saw and ran back on the hay ride, and wouldn't get off, (I guess he didn't want to wait for the next hay ride) so the rest of us quickly grabbed a pumpkin and got on the hay ride before it left again.  Samuel loved going on the slide over and over again, he had a little trouble waiting his turn, but overall did pretty good.  They also had a big corn pit to play in, and an inflatable haunted forest for the kids. Samuel had a little trouble in the corn pit, he was throwing a lot of corn, and ending up fighting with another little boy, and throwing him in the corn, and I had to jump in and pull him off the other kid.  So Samuel didn't get to play in the corn pit anymore, but he had fun with the other stuff.  Joseph discovered that if you buried yourself in the corn, you could still breath, so he loved doing that, and pretending he was an ostrich.  Austin loved the free donut samples that they had.  We stayed until the kids were finally hungry enough to leave.  It was sure a fun day.  Also this morning we went to an Opera at BYU called "help the globolinks."  It was pretty fun to watch, and now the kids all want to be globolinks for halloween.  They are basically covered in black with streamers coming out of the sides, they are aliens!!  We'll see if it happens...