Thistledown Farms with Hailey and The Girls

Now that Emery's a little older, Christi made the decision to return to Mondays working at Bello.  However, with her mom and dad no longer living next door, she was struggling with what to do and who to turn to for childcare for the five hours she'd be working.  I gave her some names of some people I'd recommend, and then, when they weren't available, they passed on the name of a super sweet gal I knew from Trinity, and sure enough, Hailey's schedule was a perfect fit for watching the kids on Mondays.  

After the first Monday, everyone seemed thrilled - so she came back again the following Monday and I asked if she'd want to spend some of that time with Whitley and I.  She was happy with that idea, so off we went to Thistledown Farms to check out their harvest offerings.

The weather forecast had told us it wouldn't rain until noon, but even as I pulled into Christi's house at 9:30, it was starting to pour.  We were all wearing durable jackets and rain boots, so I figured, why not.  I sure didn't have any back up plans, and Elsie was ecstatic to hit another "punkin patch with Whitwee" - so we couldn't disappoint her.

Fortunately, there weren't a lot of exhibits to see and much of it was undercover.  Including this goat area which we were actually allowed to go in to with them.  New adventure!

Emery wanted to see them too.

We checked out the adjoining chickens, roosters, turkey, rabbits, and very vocal geese.  The girls also pulled around these wagons.

They had a covered hay bale maze area with a few slides.  It took a lot of effort for me to follow them inside, but I wasn't going to suggest that Hailey with Emery in the Ergo do it instead!

After a mad dash for tickets when we started to see the wagon load up, we got on board the pumpkin wagon and took a trip out to the patch for some more unneeded pumpkins.  

It was still pouring down rain, but the girls didn't mind a bit.

Whitley was trying to catch the raindrops with her mouth.

Happy girl!

Good choice for foot apparel of the day.  Later on, I ended up cleaning Whitley and I's boots in our waterfall!

Oh yes please, do bring that mud into my van on the way home!

Ahhhh, cuddles with sissy!

As the farm visit didn't kill a ton of time, we opted to treat the girls to some Dutch Bros hot cocoa and drive the extra long way back to Christi's.  Another pumpkin patch visited, and most of the morning occupied...rain or not, we'll take it!