Petting Zoo and Pony Ride for Ryan

At Cox's Pond Brant's had a petting zoo of farm animals and pony rides. Ryan got his fill of both. (Well, not really, but he got plenty of time in my opinion.) Judy tried and tried to make him smile, but he never did. He didn't want to get off though.
He thought the Pot Belly Pig felt funny.

The donkey and baby donkey.
Miniature horse

Goat! Daddy's favorite! (not!)
Trying to catch a chicken.

Cox's Pond

We spent a lot of time at Cox's Pond this year. Mom, Sandy, and I walked the 5k. Nate and Cliff ran the 5k. My father-in-law, Ron, had a stage set up and several of us took shifts singing Christian music while a missionary from New Tribes Missions talked to people about his ministry. I sang both Saturday and Sunday afternoon. It was really nice. The kids played in the corn and the twins waited in an enormous line to go on the hay ride to the corn maze. Great job as usual Cox family!

Fishing at Beautiful Rock Creek

We look forward to Bill and Sandy coming every fall for the boys' annual fishing trip. This year it was a beautiful October day. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family that love us. So many of them have taken an interest in teaching my boys in areas where we lack knowledge.

Below is a picture of the lake.

Bill, Nate, and Ryan with a fish. I did not anticipate Ryan's excitement over fishing.

Cliff
Bill and Ryan
Cliff's first catch of the day. We barely got settled before they started catching fish.
Lane snuggling with Sandy
Some of the fish that they caught.

Garbage Can Potatoes

I tried to grow "Garbage Can Potatoes this year. It was pretty much a dismal failure. Here are the boys "digging potatoes"





This is the biggest one we found.
Well, instead of a hundred pounds of potatoes this is my whole crop from one can. I haven't even had the heart to dump out the other can because it seems silly to make such a mess for a handful of potatoes. I have some ideas on how to do it different next year. I had a bug eating my plants and I think they got to wet. So, more drainage in the bottom next year and some sort of organic bug killer. I also am going to use potting soil to get it started and then us sand from my parents house to finish filling the can.

Birthday Party

It has been several weeks since our birthday, but here are the pictures. We went down to the restaurant to party so that Ron and Dena could be there with us. It was cowboy weekend, so everyone put on their cowboy garb. We had Jake and Steph, Ron and Dena, my Grandma and Grandpa Ferguson, and my parents there to help us out. Plus the staff at The Country House. So here is my family:



My grandparents
Me with my new baby wrap.
Cliff had Grandma Taylor make him a banana cream pie for his birthday. Stephanie made a cake for Nate, they put Bionicles on the cake for a picture. My mom brought a carrot cake for my cake.
Phyllis helping Ryan Hokie Pokie

Ryan
Nate the somber 11 year old
Cliff also pretty somber at 11 years old. Look how broad his shoulders are.




My four boys


Daddy and Lane

Boating Fun

Ron and Dena have been so busy with the restaruant this summer that they have not gotten to take the boat out very much. We took it out with just our family one Sunday after church as kind of a pre birthday party for the boys. We had a lot of fun!

Ryan tried out the tube, but he didn't want to stay in it more than a few minutes before he said, "Mommy, I back in boat!" So we let his big brothers climb back in the tube and off we went again. They like it to be rough and wet, so Josh was mostly doing circles. Yes, we are THOSE people. Ryan really did not like it when the boat banked and he was getting really close to the water.
Despite getting his cheeks pinched by his life jacket Lane did take a nap.



We put the canopy on so that the little kids (and secretly Mommy) didn't get sunburned. Here is Josh.
Lane
Cliff
Nate
Ryan

Josh's Birthday

It has been over a month since Josh's Birthday, but here are the pictures of him blowing out his candles. Ron and Dena, Jake and Steph and my parents all came up for the Sunday afternoon celebration!