The Rob...

Not much to say here other than it's the older lad, with his mother, doing homework, at Caribou Coffee after school last Thursday.  He's beautiful...  I don't care what anybody says! 

Hounds, Hounds Everywhere!

If the old saying, "Happiness is warm puppy", is true, then we have a happy abode!

Otis is a great ol' dog.  He is starting to play with Juno more and even ambushed her one night in a wonderfully thought out heist to steal her rope bone.

It worked perfectly and led to roughly 10 minutes of playful laps around the basement!  It was great fun to watch!

I was watching football and both dogs took turns being on my lap, but would leave when the other would attempt to find its place.  They both figured it out and I had two dogs for a while!  It was great until it got hot!

I took Friday off and made this fellas day!  He snuggled by me every chance he got!

This was Friday night as both dogs competed for who got to lay by my feet.  Juno eventually won, but man, they wrestled for quite a while over it!

This morning while Rob and I were cooking breakfast, Otis came out to observe the proceedings and maybe get a rogue scrap of food.  He gave us the giggles when he sat like this!

Shortly after taking that picture,  his paws started sliding on the wood flooring and so he just gracefully slid into this position.

Otis the pillow, and Juno is under the red blanket.

Rob is already talking about becoming a foster family for other doggos in transit after Otis gets to go back home.  I'm not sure I'm ready for that, but watching Otis and Juno,  it wouldn't be terrible...

2018 Center Grove Pumpkin Patch, Part II

So Part Deux doesn't feature quite as many pics of the critters as Part I did, but I think it still has some merit.

We got our coffee, cider and donuts in our guts and warmed up, which is the best we could've hoped for!  The temps weren't bad but the wind was causing our "nuggets" to shrivel up like nobodies business!

So off we were for part II of our visit!

On the hay wagon for our trip out to the pumpkin patch, corn maze, train ride, hay mound, tractor pull, etc...  

We divided into two teams in the corn maze.  Since Robby and I both had our phones, Robby and Max were a team while Jack, Caleb and myself were the other team.  It was a race to get the most hole punches (we thought there was 8) and to get out of the maze first.  It didn't happen like that. 

After several times of feeling like "deja vu all over again",  Robby called me out of frustration and said that they were basically done.  I was ok to hear that statement as I was essentially done as well.

The "Tractor Pull".  The kids tried several times to move it, but never did... well, more than about 5 or 6 inches.

On top of the hay mound!

I did not climb the hay mound, but I threw my phone up to the critters so that Rob could take a few pics for me.  This is a shot of the pumpkin patch.  There's a crap ton of pumpkins in that picture!!!

Another he took from up there, it's a shot where you can see the field where they cut the maize maze.

And, just so that I would be included in part I & II,  this was taken accidentally as Rob was throwing my phone back down to me.  It's a better shot than the one in Part I as you can't see my head in this one.  It's more palatable this way...

An old combine that's been converted into a slide.  That's Max and Caleb's sillouette's up at the top. 

Back on the hay wagon at this point.  The critters are complaining that their guts are empty and they need food NOW!!!  We didn't realize it at the time, but the jokes on them!  We will wait for nearly an hour for food once we get in line...  that's a story for a different time.

Just a wide shot looking back towards the South and the overall pumpkin farm.

More wagon ride pics...

Feeding the goats.

Rob has a ridiculously strong sense of justice and the all black goat was bullying the all brown goat.  By a LOT!  Rob had the other boys trick the other goats down the fence line so he could give the brown goat a handful of food. :-)

This is a shot of Jack with the black goat in question.  Notice that the other goats are not around.

Max & Jack with their goat buddies.

The burlap slides.  That's Caleb in the orange sleeves with Max coming down at the same time!  LOL!

That's Jack coming down the slide on his back like he's in the olympics!

During our hour long wait for food, we spotted this friggin' terrorist!  He was about two and a quarter inches in diameter.  Ugly cuss...

And so it was!  Back home for an afternoon of basketball while dad nursed his back and started sifting thru pictures!

2018 Center Grove Pumpkin Patch, Part I

A Friday off of work coupled with a non-school day for the critters led to some thoughts... I was initially thinking that I would take the boys to a movie but all of the movies out currently suck and on top of the suckage, there's only 1 movie for kids, Small Foot. It doesn't get good reviews at all.

What to do, what to do...  

I hatched a plan to perhaps head to a pumpkin patch!  And I was also so clever to realize that if the boys didn't have school, then there's probably a high probability that their friends, Max & Jack, who attend the same school, would also likely NOT have school on this day.

It turned out to be true so we invited them along for the ride.

Let's have a look at some of our adventures.

The ol' corn pit...  I'm not going to lie.  I cannot stop thinking of the rodents that pass thru here and poop while doing so.  Can't stop thinking about that while the kids are burying themselves and throwing corn at their peers and so on...  So what's a feller to do!?

A feller is inclined to look at the old tractors!  That's what he'll do.  And he'll photograph them as well!

Back to the rodent-poo-pit!

New this year is the old grain truck backed up to the pit which has been outfitted with steps up one side of the bed and a slide down the other.  Pretty cool even if Max was the only one to utilize it!  He went headfirst, of course!

Next opportunity in our line of fire was the Lil' Kid Maze.  They made a quick pass thru it and that was it.  They were the only kids in it at the time, which is Robby's favorite!

The bounce cushion.   What can you say except for HUGE insurance liability!!!  LOL!  There was a farm worker raking the rocks around it who was barking out rules while the boys were on it.  Robby wasn't impressed until Caleb got busted for "shoving".

Man down!

This has never been a huge hit with Rob or Caleb but man, was it ever a hit today!  Max tore these mothers up and was passing anybody and everybody!  

Caleb in the lead with Max on the green machine and closing in!

Jack waiting on a slower boy that we didn't know.  He was too polite to pass.  

Caleb being held up by a mom pedaling her daughter around.  She was working WWWWAAAYYYYY harder than any plans that I had for the day!

The battle of the day.  Robby, who HATES losing at anything and everything, being trailed and bumped (even tho that's strictly prohibited by the posted rules!) by Max.  They battled until the line of peeps waiting to get a machine was building up.

I figured that even my fat butt should get in on at least pic.

Jack, Caleb and Robby all looking beyond ecstatic to be here...

Jack requested that I take a pic of himself with Max "for their mom".  

I took two!  What you can't experience in this pic is the berating of Rob that Max won't smile better for his mother! LOL!!

The attraction that NEVER works correctly but still draws the attention of the kiddos.  You have to pump water faster than people on the other side to float/race your rubby ducky to the opponents side faster than they do to your own side.

Time for some Apple Cider donuts, cider and coffee!  Oh, and to warm up...

That's it for Part I, Part II is on the way...