Cox Farm 2010

10.10.10:  The line of cars stretched for miles.  Move a few feet.  Stop. Roll forward. Stop.  Perhaps a holiday weekend was not the best choice for an excursion?

It's like a family pilgrimage.  Every year, parents gather up the littles and venture out to Cox Farms, where the grounds have been transformed into a electricity-free adventure.  All those cars joined us in the crowded field-turned parking lot, and we began a massive march to the entrance gates where, once through the ticket counter, the park is amazingly spacious.

We love it.  It's such a great place to visit, with its plethora of photo-op murals and signs that are perfect for documenting the changes of our family since the last trip.  Oma is fabulous for finding gems like these and I loved when we we went in 2008.

And because Cox is really a farm, there is an abundance of farm equipment for the kids to see, ride on, and learn about.  Ya was enticed by the tractors.  Actually, he's smitten with everything he can drive [insert: control].

In the park, Chi found an "experience the farm" section which featured working water pumps.   A faux cow for was available for milking (and because I wouldn't let the kids yank the utters of the live cow like the other 100+ people did, they enjoyed this 'practice bovine').  There was a corn conveyor belt (sifter?).  I truly have no idea what that corn thing was for, though the number of kids holding buckets and baskets to catch kernels was unbelievable.  Then, each child carried their load up a few steps to dump it on the conveyor before racing back down to catch the same kernels.

The day was totally fun!

We tried out the rope swings while Oma manned the camera.  Chi's a pro, swinging out with ease and landing gracefully.  Ya was a great swinger, but he did not enjoy the dismount when he realized he was to let go and fall. 

There was climbing... and jumping...

and sliding... and sliding... and sliding.

We enjoyed the amazing eye candy around the grounds.  Old and abandoned relics found their home there.  And the cider?  Oh, if not for the bee and hornet convention around the barrels, we'd have lingered at the cold sugery juice bar all day.  But insects are best observed in passing or from afar with a telephoto lens, so we settled on devouring the abundant apples.

And some were available for climbing onto to test.

Ya was not a fan of the goats in the petting pen, so Chi didn't have to share the cone feed.  The goats weren't sharing, either.  Chi quickly adopted a reach and yank tactic to protect her fingers from goat teeth and slobber.  Yuck! 

I think Ya determined pretty quickly that the best observed animal on the farm is one securely kept behind a gate or held firmly in some farmhand's control.

I scoped this gorgeous wall while sitting in the traffic en route to Cox. We detoured on the way home to get a few shots of my beauty.