It was 'corny' and fun

I have a friend from the newspaper who has a son a year older than Sawyer. And Sawyer just loves him. It's been awhile since we got them together, but we'd been talking about trying to do something autumny. So when Sawyer asked recently if he could go to Griffin's house, I decided we needed to get cracking on an outing before fall was over! 

Kim suggested this fun farm that they had been to a few years ago. It was about a 30-minute drive, or would've been if we hadn't been foiled (again) by the iPhone GPS. Sometimes I'm not sure technology is really so great!

We met them around lunchtime and headed north to the small Rockingham County community of Ruffin. But the GPS routed us in one giant circle through the country. It was a lovely drive, and Kim and I were enjoying our chat. But we came back to the same spot we'd started at, we knew we had messed up somewhere. 

We both checked our phones and looked up website directions. I thought it was pretty funny that the farm's website is ComeGetLost.com. We did that, for sure. 

Finally, after another 15 minutes or so, we found the place: Harvest Ridge Corntacular. 

The best and creepiest scarecrow ever. I thought for five minutes that he was a real person until I noticed the cords. 

The boys were raring to go, and they wanted to try everything at once. The site has a "hayride" with no hay, a barrel train, a jumping pillow, spider web, pit of dried corn, a corn "cannon" (or shooter as Sawyer called it), a small maze made of hay bales and two big mazes in the cornfield. They also had food, pumpkins and really nice bathrooms. 

We did it all, some of it several times. We jumped on the non-hay hayride first. Imagine a tractor pulling a trailer with pontoon seats installed. It was comfy, but it wasn't quite as festive as a hayride. After a little jumping and web-climbing, we ate hotdogs and narrowly escaped being stung by wasps after our drinks. 

Sawyer went to war with this little girl who kept calling this a bulldozer. 

Charlotte's Web

The jumping pillow 

Do you notice the theme in Sawyer's jumping pictures? It's a wonder he didn't bite his tongue off!

After lunch, the boys climbed in the giant box of corn and buried each other. They climbed giant hay bales and slid off and went through the small maze. We shot corn cobs out of the "corn cannon" but didn't hit the practically impossible target to win a sno-cone. 

We took a spin on the diesel-fuel express, I mean, the barrel train. Whew! It was a pretty cramped ride for me, but the smell was about to make me sick. The second lap couldn't end fast enough. Even Sawyer, who is gaga for trains didn't seem like he cared for this one. 

Then we let let the boys lead us through the corn maze. They gave us a map, which we didn't use, and the boys had no clue which way they were going, but thankfully we made it back out after about 10 minutes of dizzying circles. (I get a little claustrophobic in corn mazes.) The boys were surprised to find CORN!!! in the cornfield. They don't get out enough, I guess. 

We got some water after the maze while the boys "milked" a cow and then just let them decide what to do. Sawyer mostly wanted to jump, while Griffin alternated between the web and the jumping pillow. They were side by side, so we could let them roam while we kept talking. 

In all, we were there about five hours! The setting sun created an amazing backdrop for the jumpers. Kim and I enjoyed grown-up conversation and only had to play referee a few times. The boys jumped themselves silly and were quite worn out the rest of the weekend.  It was a gorgeous day and a really fun time with friends.