The Carstens: Country Mercantile Harvest Festival

Our second annual trip to the Country Mercantile's Harvest Festival was a fun one. Mom, Katie, Haylee, Abby, and I went for a few hours of fun girl time (the guys deciding to stay at work instead). I was looking forward to doing a few more festival like things with Abby since she basically got to enjoy just the train ride the year before.

We started out the evening by taking a ride on the carousel. Abby still wanted me close at hand but this time she seemed to enjoy the up and down motion instead of grabbing my shirt with a death grip and crying to get down. She kept looking behind her to where Haylee was riding and then outside the carousel where Mom and Katie were standing and then back again. I keep hoping that our next carousel ride will be the one where she gets all excited and happy but it looks like we'll have to wait at least one more go around (pun intended!) before she sees more of the fun rather than the terror. :-)

Abby is all excited for the ride. I'm holding on but she's pretty relaxed.

Abby is still riding but now she's death gripping me with one hand, hunching her knees to hold on with her lower body, and tightly gripping the pole. Still 'fun' but definitely still needing Mom.

Our second stop of the evening was the dragon roller coaster. I must say we picked a fantastic night to go to the pumpkin patch because there were literally no lines on any of the rides. This was Battelle's family night so I figured there'd be lots more kids even if the weather was trying to rain, but I was happy to have the place mostly to ourselves. Abby was pretty fun on this ride, too. As we stood in line she kept laughing and giggling and reaching out her arms each time the roller coaster came around to us. She was totally pumped for the ride! We squished into our seats (Haylee and in the inside, then Abby, then myself - yep, even the big kids could ride this one) and waited for the fun to begin. At the first jolt on the track Abby twisted herself to turn into me and grabbed my shirt and made a little scared sound. So I did the mom compensation by talking loudly about how much fun this was and how we were going to have such a good time. As the roller coaster went around the first bend I found myself bracing to not slide over and squish the girls! I also tucked Abby a little closer to my side as I realized the bar that was holding Haylee and I in was doing nothing for her. :-) At the end of the first loop the guy operating the ride stopped it to check in on us and to see if we wanted out, but I figured that Abby had shown so much excitement I didn't want to get her out for fear she'd develop a fear of rides and not want to ride on them again. So I nodded to keep the ride moving and away we went! I kept a running commentary about how much fun we were having while bracing my feet on the floor to keep from sliding and holding Abby as close to my side as possible so she didn't fly out or get too scared. Let me tell you it was a hoot of a ride! Haylee had a blast but I'm glad that this was the last of the carnival rides for this year as I think Abby will do much better on them next year (and being the end I no longer have to either force her to go on a ride she doesn't like or keep her off a ride that she's totally excited to go on but I know won't have fun).

Notice Haylee and I having fun, and Abby tucked in as close as she can get to my body. The whole time we were riding she kept shaking her head and going "no, no". :-) I kept telling her this was fun and we were having a good time. After we got off she got the biggest grin and waved and said "bye-bye".

After the rides we decided to take a break and visit the Petting Zoo, hay tower, and corn maze. Abby really liked seeing the animals. If she knew what sound they made she'd snort, moo, or quack over and over while we were walking by them. We even saw a reindeer! I think the bunnies and the pigs were her favorite ones of all. At the hay tower Haylee scampered up the bales as fast as her little legs could carry her. Abby saw Haylee go up to the top and of course wanted to follow big cousin and so the same. So Mom and I had the pleasure of climbing up the hay bales and trying to keep an eye on two very fast moving kids to make sure they didn't fall the 30 feet to their deaths (as we like to tell it). Katie kept a watchful eye from the ground (smart cookie that one). At the very top was a tunnel that the kids liked the climb through. As an adult all I could think of was there there were two of us but four exits! Thankfully Haylee kept a close watch on Abby in the tunnels so we didn't have to worry about her. Then Haylee caught sight of the corn maze and it was a quick scramble down the tower and on to the next activity. The maze itself was just hay bales stacked two high with a few dead ends but a mostly straight path to the exit. Abby was having a blast running this way and that and it took me a few minutes to realize that, to her, this was a real maze because she wasn't tall enough to see over it. When I crouched down to her level all I could see was hay bale after hay bale with a touch of sky. I liked that we got to experience the fun of a 'corn' maze but didn't actually go into a large enough maze that I, with my fantastic directional abilities, might get lost.

Haylee and Abby looking at the goat.

Petting the rabbits.

I'm a bit of a nervous Nellie here. Haylee is at the top and Abby is quickly catching up to her. I felt like we were pretty high up and didn't want any tumbling back down, a la Jack and Jill.

My girls at the top of the hay tower!

In the tunnels at the hay tower. Notice I'm at the other end of the tunnel keeping an eye on the girls, Mom is taking the picture and blocking her direction, and Haylee knows she's on point for grabbing Abby should she get too close to the other exits. :-)

Haylee running through the maze.

A look at Abby's point of view. She was a bale too short.

After the mazes, and looking up at the approaching dark clouds, we decided it was time to get our pumpkins before the weather turned on us or it became too dark to see. We timed things perfectly as, when we got to the stand for a ride out to the pumpkin patch, a tractor with trailer was just pulling up. The girls had fun riding on the hay while scoping out 'their' pumpkin. When we were dropped off I was a little dismayed at the pumpkins I saw. We were only about half-way through the 'pumpkin patch season' but I mostly saw broken, rotted, or plain weird looking pumpkins. I think the farmer harvested as much as he could and then we were basically picking our pumpkins from the left-overs. So it took us a bit to find two pumpkins that were worthy of taking home (i.e., paying for). Plus, I had the extra criteria that I wanted Abby to be able to lift her pumpkin so she could really say it was hers. We found one and took a couple pictures before it's stem fell off then quickly found another to actually take home with us. Once again our timing was perfect as we had just gotten off the hay ride and under the barn roof to pay for our pumpkins when it began to sprinkle. After a quick conference we decided to ride the covered train around the park, take a few pictures under the "How Tall This Fall" sign to mark how much bigger the girls had gotten in a year, then into the mercantile for dinner.

Mom and Haylee on the hay bale ride.

The daughters and grand-daughters.

Abby quickly find a pumpkin she can lift! Ooh so heavy!!!

Coming over and checking out Haylee's pumpkin.

My big girl was so proud of herself being able to carry her own pumpkin!

Another cute pumpkin patch photo op.

Grandma and her girls - and out of ten or so pictures this was honestly the best one I could find. Haylee has a tendency to close her eyes in pictures (she's just like her mama in not liking her picture taken) and my child has the attention span of a gnat. :-) Grandma looks good!

Me and my honey bunny.

The girls and I on the train ride. It was actually a really nice ride. We went around the rides, a few rows into the corn stalks, by the pumpkin patch, and then back up to the train depot. Both girls thought it was nice but hunger was winning out.

My Abby is almost three feet tall!

Abby and Haylee this year compared to....

Abby and Haylee last year. Both grew about a half a foot!

Dinner itself was another fun adventure as Haylee found us seats in the loft area overlooking the crowd. So the girls had a fun time people watching until dinner arrived, and then playing with the step in the back part of the loft after dinner. Abby would stand on the step and say "jump" and bounce up and down with her feet firmly planted on the floor, then grab my hand and step down off the step, and finally let go of my hand and beam a grin at me as she clapped for herself for jumping down the step. :-) Finally it was time to bundle up the girls (get a cookie from Aunt Katie and a caramel apple from Grandma - I'd given them ice cream earlier) and get the into the car for the ride home.