Opening Day at the Orchard

9/11 - Opening day at Center Grove Orchard!! We loved it. We wanted to be the first ones in line. Well, we got there second but it took so long to get everyone out of the car and into the building that we ended up being third in line. We went straight to the new and improved corn pool.

Amelia wasn't too sure when Aaron flopped her in and she sank to her knees. She was much happier when I joined her and held her little hand.

Aaron decided to bury the baby in the corn. Well... you can see what he thought of that. It really helped him sit up though.

Amelia kept being concerned with all the corn everywhere. She'd pick kernels off her shirt and hand them to me one by one. It was so so funny! It took a while for her to get over the mess and just play.

Miya on the other hand did not need any encou- raging. She hopped right up on the tallest hay bale and went running away. You can't tell how tall it really is here but standing in the corn this is over my head. Adventure Miya strikes again.

Spencer saw Miya running and chased her down to engage her in a game of tag. He didn't really like playing in the corn this time, which was odd, and also wasn't interested in holding still for a picture but he sure had fun!

Aaron told Miya it would be safe to jump into the corn. She made sure she wouldn't get hurt before taking this flying leap.

Over the course of taking everyone else's picture I managed to calm Alex down and we decided to try the corn again without the burial. He actually liked it and smiled a few times but was really interested in studying this new-found texture.

Next we went to see the animals. This goat was looking for a handout and Miya had no food but she did have loves, lots and lots of loves. Poor goat tried to break free a few times without success.

Amelia was quick to point out the goats and even "Maa"-ed while pointing to them. She appar- ently has distance requirements though because she kept shaking her head and saying no to the goat when it came over to see her.

Miya the goat whis- perer. They just followed her wherever she went. She didn't have any food and neither did the rest of us but they weren't interested in what we were doing they just followed my Miya around the fence. She sure has a way with animals.

Spencer touched one goat on the head with a single finger and was off to find better things to do. He was all about these pedal tractors this time and was really quite good at driving them. They have a steering wheel instead of handlebars which always made them a challenge in the past. This time though they were no match for Spencer as he navigated the course with ease.

Miya had no patience for the pedal tractors and hopped right on this big antique one. Sitting there with her hair blowing in the wind it really looks likes she's driving it.

The horse came out of its stall and Miya had to run over to see. I just love this picture! She's so sweet and excited.

Spencer really wanted to know how to turn on this tractor and was quite disap- pointed when I told him it didn't work but he had fun pretending anyway.

I love how she's trying to figure out what she did wrong here. She kept looking around with her brow furrowed and saying, "Uh oh?"

Amelia really likes animals in theory or at a distance. These caged chickens were her favorite of the day because they couldn't touch her uninvited like the goat and horse did. She was so excited when she saw them and pointed while happily exclaiming, "ICKEN!" Then she had to tell everyone and drag them over to see while insisting they look at "icken icken icken!" It was too cute!

The jumping pillow was our next adven- ture but it was short lived because after all our previous adventures none of us, with the exception of Miya and her super-jumping powers, really had the energy to jump.

We finished off opening day with the big slide. It's amazingly tall and, when dry, gets you going really fast. Aaron took the kids to the top where they were two to a row. Spencer and Miya took the sled and went zipping down first amid exclamations of joy. Aaron and Amelia took their turn shortly after on a burlap sack which got them going nearly as fast but there were no shouts from either of them. Amelia wasn't too sure about it and Aaron's not the shouting type. They all went back for several more turns and while Amelia never smiled or "wee-ed" she insisted on "again" several times.