Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, Vincent and I went to the pumpkin patch with my friend Heidi and her daughter Paige. The kids are one day apart and have been friends since they were born. Vincent and Paige are best friends and they both love each other, which is super cute.

Here are a few photos of the monsters, er... kids.

Paige and Momma.

Oinkers eating kettle corn.

They're about 10 feet from the end of the hay maze, when they turned around because they thought they went the wrong way. I walked into the end to take the picture.

First though, Paige had to show off her corn! Look at Vin standing there in the back all proud.

Off they go!

I found corn too!

Vincent found some preschool friends on the hay ride. It was crowded and I couldn't get him to turn around.

Paige got buried, but she got up before I could get a picture.

Vin got buried too. It was under a tent and the lighting was orange.

Bucket head!

Vin thought it was hilarious to have the corn between his toes.

So serious!

I thought this corn was pretty.

Vincent gets to go back to the pumpkin patch Monday for a preschool field trip. It should be pretty fun. I don't get to go though. Anywho, all four of us had a blast and when we got home, we had a remodeled pond! More on that later.

Happy fall everyone!

Fair Days

The Washington Town and Country Fair is over!

Growing up, my parents used to take us to the fair every year. We loved it. As I got older I stopped going because it got to be too expensive, you know, once my parents weren't paying for it anymore.

Now that I work for the paper, I have to cover the Fair. Everybody has to cover the fair. This year was my second year. As much as I love the fair, it's exhausting.

This year I covered the turtle race, superfarmer contest youth and adult, swine breeding competition, dodgeball tournment, fitness competition, horticulture judging youth and adult, a tea party with the queens and livestock judging youth and adult. It might not sound like a lot, but this is hours of work and hundreds of pictures.

We try to make things run more smoothly. Like for dodgeball, I took all of the team photos before the competition began. That way I didn't have to stay for the whole thing and I could find out winners later. This system works quite nicely.

This fair is a Wednesday through Sunday event. I didn't have anything on the weekend to cover. By Friday though my feet ached, my neck hurt from my camera strap and my shoulders ached from my camera bag.

A glutton for pain, I decided to take Vincent to the fair Saturday. It is free for him to get in and we missed the Franklin County Fair because we were camping. On top of that, I invited my best friend, who was also working at the fair, to attend the Lifehouse concert that evening. Saturday morning I was wondering what the hell I was thinking. But, my little guy was excited which made it worth it. Oh, and I went to a benefit breakfast and got my back adjusted so I was feeling pretty good.

We brought Memaw and had a blast.

Nice face, Karen...

I took off his flip flops because other kids were kicking them off during the ride and I didn't want him to get any ideas...

I didn't take a ton of pictures because it started to rain and I didn't want to mess up my camera. More later!

The World Bird Sanctuary

The weekend before last, Gary, Vincent and I visited the World Bird Sanctuary.

The World Bird Sanctuary rests peacefully on 305 acres of Missouri hardwood forest, next door to Lone Elk County Park and Chubb Trail. In addition to education, the sanctuary has a wildlife population of permenently injured birds and helps ill or injured birds recover and releases them once they're healthy.

What are you looking at?


















What I like about this guy? He's wearing pants!


See?


Little walking stick...


And finally, a few family photos.

Vincent is about as big as a red tailed hawk.