The Hay of Pigs

We are recovering from an awesome weekend visiting Granny and Pop-Pop in New Jersey. Despite the fact that Cordelia and I somehow both came down with colds and resemble Rudolph--honestly, this is probably the twelfth illness in our family in half as many--we had a ball. The main event was a Saturday morning trip to Hamilton Farms. (There's more to the weekend, but you'll have to wait to see how Granny made a Mr. Potato Head "with a real potato, Mommy--a real one!") You name it, they had it -- a hay ride, pumpkins, tractors, trains, buses, see-saws, slides, scarecrows, apples, hay, pigs. All of which Cordelia can say, by the way.

We started by playing on all the awesome equipment--Cody immediately claimed that he, and only he, would be the train engineer. And so it came to be.

Cordelia didn't much care, as there was a pirate ship with a plank and--joy!--a slide. She commanded Pop-Pop to escort her up the plank and catch her on the slide three or four dozen times. And by commanded, I refer to two useful phrases she picked up during the weekend and dispensed with regularity: "Do it!" and "Keep going!" He happily obliged.

And then came...they hayride. Featuring what Granny kept calling a tractor (as did Cordelia). Cody had a funny look on his face each time she said it, and finally said gently, "It is not actually a tractor. It is a wheel loader." (It was.)

Cody adored every moment.

Cordelia reacted much the same as she did when we took her on the train.

She did get over it eventually, though, once she realized Pop-Pop's lap was quite as good as Mommy's. In the middle of the hayride, the "kind, KIND driver" dropped us off in a pumpkin field. The kids and the grandparents paired off as usual.

Cordelia took a bit of a spill in pursuit of the perfect pumpkin, but was undeterred.

She insisted on carrying it the whole way back. I said, "Sweetie, can I carry that for you? It looks kind of heavy and you keep dropping it. Ouch." She looked at me and said vehemently, "No! Self!"

Told you.

Once we got back to the farm, it was all about the animals (and accompanying animal sounds from Cordelia-bird).

And then came the great discovery: hay. Honestly, if they'd have sold me a bale of hay, I'd have brought it home and put it in the yard. Because it was that entertaining for them. They truly would have stayed all day.

Then came a series of autumnal photo ops.

But behold, the pièce de résistance...

Nope, that's not it (though are they not adorable?!)...

...wait for it...

Happy Fall!