Cox Farms, part cinq

When the weather starts cooling down I can start thinking about fun family activities. Cox Farms is one of our family traditions in Virginia. We have gone every year but one since Josh was Ben's age. The kids run themselves into the ground and we all have a fun time. Unfortunately, with cooler weather there also comes more rain so our trip today was cut short, but we had a great time!

Last year, Ben was in the stroller for most of the time. That was nice. Really nice. This year he had opinions and legs to take him where he wanted. He definitely has that cute bowlegged baby run. He loved climbing on the hay and the couple of times I took him down the slide, but otherwise he mainly just wanted to eat or explore far, far away from the rest of us. Mommy has strong feelings about the latter so we had some tantrums today. And I was just thinking the other day how nice it was that Ben wasn't having the tantrums at this age that the other boys did...
The boys loved hanging out in these chairs set up for lost parents and teachers.
Both Josh and Michael were very independent today. They ran off to do all the activities with their buddies, Kevin and Alek, without needing much from me. That sort of thing gives me hope. The farm wasn't very crowded, so they got the chance to do the rope swing and go down the slides as many times as they wanted without much of a wait.
Michael loved the goats. I have several pictures of him petting/chasing/watching them. I don't know what he is doing in this picture exactly, but it looks kind of funny.
Here is just one picture of Michael going down the volcano slide. There are several of this kind of slide at the farm and they are the main attraction for the boys. They can pick up some speed coming down, but at the bottom it flattens out and they come to a gentle stop. Then they jump right up and climb back up the hill to go again and again and again. And then we move on to the next slide and repeat the process.

A couple of hours into our visit today it started to mist and then drizzle and then sprinkle and then rain. Between mist and drizzle they shut down most of the slides. Between sprinkle and rain I decided I was done being wet and didn't want to get much wetter so we went home. But the payoff (seen below) always makes this sort of trip worth it.