Field Trippin' -Part 2:The Pumpkin Patch

I do not know what possesses me to sign up for field trips where we have no idea where we are going or who we are going to be with. At least I was SURE to get the date right on this one(unlike the beach trip!). We thought we live out in the boonies. We discovered that there are much "boonier" places than where we live. We drove for several miles at a time without seeing anything. No signs of civilization whatsoever. Then we get into an area that is part of Huntsville. Very much civilization. I started getting really worried. You see, a few years ago, when we went to visit our first set of Ukrainian orphans, I put the address into mapquest, followed it completely and ended up at the place where they receive their mail. Not good. I was worried that this might be a repeat of that. So finally we got out of Huntsville and started seeing signs for "Tate's Cotton Picking Pumpkin Patch". (oh good, my heart rate is returning to normal)

Finally there after what seemed like an eternity


Checking out the playground while we wait for our tour to begin


Nathaniel with his pumpkin


Benjamin with his pumpkin


Samuel and Mark with their pumpkins. (Does it seem strange to anyone else that Mark-the biggest guy-picked out the smallest pumpkin???)


I thought this little green pumpkin was a cutie.It was only about the size of an apple.


Our luxury ride for the tour


The boys also got to pick cotton


Check out all that "Alabama Snow"


Aren't we cute????


I taught I taw a pudHAY cat!!


The corn crib


Benj is so corny


So is Samuel


Help! He's sinking in quicksand, er, quickcorn


BIG pumpkins


Nathaniel really liked the bunnies


Braving the hay maze


Benjamin's favorite part-jumping out of the loft.


Check out his landing face


For once in his life the brave Samuel got scared. He did not want to jump. Usually it is Benjamin getting scared. This was weird.


The tire mountain


Benj playing in the cotton


Nathaniel is a scarecrow!!


Now Benjamin s a scarecrow


The dignified preacher/paper plate maker goofing off for the camera.

We had such a good time. this trip made me really think about how we take modern conveniences for granted.The tour guide was telling us that the farm's cotton pickers could could pick at the same rate as 800 people!! The boys were amazed when I told them that my grandmother used to have to pick cotton by hand. They were even more amazed when they found out that it was not something fun to her. They really have no clue of how hard life can be.
The ride home seemed so much faster and less "are we ever going to see signs of life again?" than the way there did. We got very tickled at the name of a town on our way. Is it any surprise we don't live THERE????

Field Trippin' Part 1:The Space and Rocket Center

We are taking this week off of school to get some family fun trips (and some good fall cleaning) done. Yesterday we went to the Space and Rocket Center.

From left: 1. We don't know what this is. 2.Redstone Rocket 3.Jupiter C 4. Mercury Redstone (Thank you Nathaniel for telling what is what. Next time we have to learn what the other one is)



Blow up of the page of a Florida newspaper the day the astronauts first returned from the moon.


My favorite guys with a F-1 Engine (once again thank Nathaniel for telling us what this is)


Mark and Benjamin putting their hands in an astronaut glove trying to get an idea of how hard it is to do things in space.


Samuel and Nathaniel took a turn, too.


J-2 engine. In addition to the five F-1s, the Saturn V also has six of these! (Guess where that nugget of info came from)


This is Dawn. She was great!! She showed the boys how to make model rockets out of 35mm film canisters, alka-seltzers and water


Mixing the ingredients



Launchpad


Samuel with his rocket after it launched


Walking "on the moon"


On the Kiddie Cosmos Ride


Nathaniel checking out his favorite rocket from Project Mercury- the Mercury Atlas


I am a very lucky mom to have my very own Apollo flight crew


Nathaniel on the shuttle landing simulator


Benjamin on the Build a Shuttle Game


Samuel playing Asteroids


This is what almost all of the pictures of Mark and me togther look like, however, thanks to Benjamin......


...we now have this one!!

This trip was loads of fun. There are more pictures, but I think if you stayed long enough to see all these you are probably ready to get back to your life now. We always learn something when we go to the Sapce and Rocket Center. This trip we learned that maybe Nathaniel is not ready for Space Camp yet. He has been asking to go since he was about six years old.
I have no idea what he thought it would be like. We tried to get him to ride something called the Space Shot. (Like the Kiddie Cosmo ride only goes waaay higher and waaaay faster)He did not want to. REALLY did not want to. When he found out that Space Campers do lots of simulators that are just like real astronaut training he said. "Oh." That's all he said. So that is something that we have to consider. Can you imagine sending him off for a week, knowing that he is not going to enjoy it AT ALL?!?!? Well, we had a great time anyway yesterday.

Coming soon-Field Trippin' Part 2: The Pumpkin Patch