Country Mercantile Harvest Fun

Our annual Country Mercantile visit just keeps getting better and better. This year Uncle David (my brother) decided to join us to spend some time with all his nieces and nephews as he hasn't been able to see much of them lately due to an odd work schedule. The kids LOVED having Uncle DD come! Thankfully, this year we were on top of things and we planned to go to the Mercantile as soon as it was set up for their Pumpkin Patch instead of waiting until the last minute (which ended up being a good thing as our October has been C.R.A.Z.Y!

First stop is always a photo of Grandma with her Grandkids. Grandma was so excited for her photo that we didn't even make it into the festival grounds before she was demanding "her" picture. All the kids thought that climbing the hay bales were a hoot, though, so they were okay with taking the picture. Especially when Grandma said it would be the only required picture of the day (Katie is definitely raising some anti-camera kids. :-))

Then on to the How Tall This Fall signs to measure our annual growth. Last year Jake propped up to 2 1/4 and this year he's held in place at 2 3/4.

Beth shot up from 2 1/4 to 2 1/2. She may be small, but she is fierce!

Abby last year was just shy of the 4, and this year just past the 4. Gosh, I remember the first year we went and I had to prop her up and basically we just walked around the grounds while Haylee went on the rides. I know it's totally cliche, but my goodness the years are short.

Once everyone was a paid customer and in the festival it was a race to the first carnival ride. This year's winner was the airplanes as every one of the kids could participate. At first I tossed both Beth and Jake into the back of Abby's airplane, but after taking a step back after they were buckled I'd realized that was a pretty dumb thing to do. I could just picture Jake deciding he didn't want to ride on the plane and then standing up while it was moving. So, I quickly split up the little ones handing Beth to Abby and Jake to Haylee (who also had Chase in her airplane). Much better!

Beth surprised me as she almost immediately began signaling All Done when the planes started moving. Normally, she loves going on merry-go-rounds and being on toys so I thought this would be up her alley.

Jake was all boy as soon as he realized there was a joystick available. He had so much fun moving the stick back and forth that I'm not sure he even realized that the plane went up and down as well as in a circle. 

The slide was where I really was surprised at how different Beth and Jake were acting from my expectations. Normally, Beth is my go-getter who has no problem racing far away from me to experience whatever is her heart's desire, while Jake stays close to me and checks in to make sure he can do something before he does it. So when we decided to go up on the big slide I figured Beth would be all grins while Jake would cling and express unhappiness. LOL. Boy did I get that wrong. Beth said "nuhuh" the entire way down while clinging to my arms, while I could hear Jake just laugh and laugh in Grandma's arms. When we got to the end of the slide, Beth got up and immediately ran off saying "all done, no slide". Jake go up and immediately ran back to the stairs saying "slide, slide". So Grandma took Beth over to the other kids and I took Jake and we went on the slide another two or three times before I called it quits to meet up with the rest of the family. I think Jake would have happily spent the entire day just going up and down the big slide if he could.

I'm not sure how well it can be seen but Beth's face is grumpy cat while Jake is all smiles.

When we met up with the rest of the crew I go the shock of the night. Abby. Who has flat refused to ride in roller coasters. Was not only in a roller coaster, grinning and laughing and waving her hands in the air. I should know by now that my kids will do things when they're ready and not before, but sometimes it still surprises me when they flip that switch from "no" to "this is so much fun!".

Having a blast on the dragon roller coaster.

Then we were on to our final "small children will go on it" ride of the night - the carousel. By this time I'd figured out that Jake was my daredevil and Beth my uneasy one. So while I got both of them on their own horses to begin the ride I didn't figure that would last long. And sure enough, the first time that pony went up Beth went into my arms. :-)

Figuring out this pony thing. They had a blast while the ponies were standing still, but once they started moving only Jake continued to have fun.

Abby, on the other hand, tried to do trick while riding her pony.

I just now realized as I was looking at the below picture that we never took the kids up the hay bale tower. Huh. I guess the kids skipped from the animals straight to the hay maze and I just didn't notice. I'll admit that at times it's slightly tough keeping up with two toddlers. :-)

Beth tagging after the boys. I can see this happening a lot in the years to come. Chase and Jake are the only boy cousins on our side of the family and just two-ish years apart. Beth is five years younger than her sister and nine years younger than Haylee. So it's either make the boys play with her or make the bigger girls. I'm sure my spunky one will figure it out!

I thought this was so stinking sweet. Jake kept running behind Chase saying "hand, hand". Finally, Grandma told Chase that Jake wanted to hold his hand. Chase reached back, grabbed Jake's hand, and then led him through the majority of the maze just like this. Cousin love. It's such a wonderful thing to see.

As the little ones were finishing up the hay bale maze, Abby and Haylee decided to take a quick turn on the Frogger. Abby was so cute in that she asked Haylee to go first by herself so she (Abby) could see what the ride was like as she was a little scared of it. After seeing that Haylee did indeed survive, Abby was all for the experience. Her first shriek as the ride dropped was quickly followed by a giggle of delight. I can see this (as well as the dragon roller coaster) being new favorites next year.

To close out the evening we took a family ride (minus Grandma and Uncle David who stayed behind to watch the strollers and all our gear - at least that was David's excuse :-)) on the train that goes around the festival grounds. The one selfie that I saw from Haylee was a blurry mess so I don't have anything to show, but the kids had fun. I think Jake best enjoyed when the conductor tooted the train whistle, Beth liked going through the corn fields, and Abby liked touching the corn stalks as we were in the corn field. As everyone was starting to get a little hangry, the group decided to skip the tractor ride out into the pumpkin patch (1. the pumpkins that we could see weren't looking all that great and 2. with so many kids we were happy to just grab a pumpkin from the stash for sale that was next to the restaurant) and instead go have dinner. Dinner at the Mercantile is always a treat. The food is yummy, but the caramel apples as the show stealer. And with the ice cream that Auntie Katie always gets the kids it's sugar overload of tasty goodness. 

Beth and Jake picking out their pumpkins. We ended with Abby getting a decent sized orange one while I went the cheap route and got two gourd sized pumpkins for the twins. It's what they could carry themselves and it cost me less money. WinWin! 

This year was another fun year of fall fun and I look forward to next year's adventure when Abby will be riding all the rides and Beth and Jake will (hopefully) be more into their sized rides as well.