The Farm Trip

Bryan got his first paying job this year working at a local farm turned tourist attraction.  I have mixed feelings about these sort of places. On the one hand, it's great to see family run farms find a way to keep their farms profitable and in their family.  On the other hand, it's incredibly sad that government regulation of farming has made it so hard for family farms to be profitable on their own.  It makes no sense to either pay farms to NOT plant crops or to pay them to leave a certain amount of their crops in the fields, unharvested until they are no longer usable.  I know in some warped Washington-ese way this is a sensible way of controlling food costs but I just can't get behind not producing and bringing to market as much food as possible and donating the hopeful excess to those in need. But I imagine this shows that I am too soft on those who struggle to make ends meet on their own or something (or so I've been told).

Anyway, this weekend the farm held military appreciation weekend. The weekend started with a 5K run/2 mile walk to support Troops for Trees which is an organization which helps provide Christmas trees to military members overseas.  For the rest of the weekend, military families received free admission. These are the kinds of offers I look for when planning activities for the kids.  Free and discounted admission make things much easier on the budget and keep the family from feeling the pinch of a tight budget. The weather was kind of iffy which kept crowds away and we only had to deal with a few random sprinkles here and there.  The kids had a wonderful time enjoying all of the rides and activities and we used Bryan's employee discount to cut our lunch costs in half (as I told Bryan: you know me, I always ask for any discount possible so of course I asked if they'd give us a discount since you worked here).  So here are a few pictures.  Ellie was able to enjoy her first train ride and go down the giant slide with her big brother.  Even with the cooler weather, everyone had a blast.

The giant human hamster wheels.

Corn Mazes are not that much fun when your kids like to run way ahead of you.

Maybe you can't see Ellie's face but she has the biggest smile in this picture.