Adventures: The Corn Maize

The boys and I went to Roanoke for Halloween weekend. We haven't been there for festivities since we moved north in 2004. It was good to be back. We missed having Jake with us though --- he was at a Scout Training campout.

Saturday was a decent day --- warm weather and hit or miss rain. Nana and I took the boys to Layman's Corn Maize. It was so much fun that I think we have to return next year!!!

When we got there Brad and Wyatt wanted to immediately head into the maize. Travis had other plans though. He saw the tractor pulling the hay wagon and HAD to get on. Thankfully Brad and Wyatt were willing to oblige.

The hay ride was fun. There was a large family (grandparents, parents and grandkids galore) that had been at the place since 10am. It was 1:30pm by the time we got there. Needless to say, you can spend the day and have PLENTY of fun!

There were some animals in pens too. We saw lots of chickens with a rooster doodling away in the hen house. They had two goats that had the platforms to walk up on. One was really tall (like 10 feet) or so. And there were two sheep that were so mild they let you touch them. And then the boys' favorite was the pig pen.

There were 3 pigs, and 3 houses.

The boys got a huge kick out of the house made of straw, the one of sticks and the house of bricks.

Next we ran up to the cow train. The guy that drove the tractor pulling the train would drive so fast. Travis squealed with joy every time he got a jolt in a new direction.

The boys are buckling in. There were some small cows and some large ones. I rode the first trip and tried to get into a small cow --- but my hips were too large. Thanks boys! :)

Beside the large corn maize was a cut stalk hut. The boys went inside and I followed.

The pumpkin patch... We didn't need to buy any pumpkins, but I wanted osme pictures of the boys around them. Most of the pumpkins in the field were very large. They were great picks.

Duck races... With old fashioned pumps hooked up to troughs full of water and gutters made of pvc pipes, a race track was created. Brad had to compete agains EVERYONE.

In one area was a slide made of corrugated pipe. There was a platform to stand on to get in it, and then the pipe went under ground. The kids came out the bottom of the hill. Travis wasn't even hesitant to go down the first time. Each person would sit on a potato sack to make it even faster.

We did go through the corn maize --- for a few minutes. We even took the "easy" route, but it was still so long. You had to find the scarecrows and then answer a question correctly to go in the right direction. We were only on #3 (out of 10) when it felt like we kept going in circles. So we snuck out the side!!!

Another one of Travis' favorite things was the corn crib. Instead of sand, it was corn kernels. I liked the idea because it was a much cleaner way to play with sand toys.

We were getting ready to leave the crib and Travis was taking a while. I then noticed he was picking kernels out of the front of his diaper - nice!

And then we get to Brad and Wyatt's favorite part... the corn shooting! They had 2 guns set up - one for corn cobs and one for pumpkins. Unfortunately the pumpkins cost extra money so we didn't do those. But all 3 boys got a chance to shoot corn.

Travis was a pretty good shot despite the fact that he couldn't move the gun. Brad and Wyatt kept trying to hit the birds flying overhead.