The Ultimate "Yes!"

I quit.

Goodbye 31 Days of Saying, "Yes!"

Now I'm saying, "Yes!" to returning to my common, ordinary blog posts written for and about my husband and kids and saying, "No" to continuing the 31 Days Challenge.

Go ahead...call me a quitter.

I don't mind.

It wasn't a bad thing.

It's just that I take things like that too seriously.

Can I tell you, though, that I did say "Yes!" to going on a field trip that I wasn't even sure I should sign us up for?

I debated on whether to take only the little boys and leave the big kids at home with their schoolwork...

or for none of us to go at all.

Then I decided to take all the kids and ask Grandma if she would like to go along too.

When Workaholic Jodi gets too overbearing, Sentimental Jodi has to step in and remind her that one of our top homeschooling goals is to do things as a family so that we will be close as a family...always.

And what a beautiful day for a field trip!

The sunshine, the colors of the trees, the beautiful blue sky freckled with clouds.

Kelsay Farms is a sixth generation working farm...

crops and dairy.

Bale Mountain...complete with tunnels and slides!

The tunnels scared me...not Top 10 scary...but scary.

No regrets whatsoever in taking my big kids.
English and math were right where we left them.

 I think that Josh went down this roller slide 25 times as least.

Matthew was tempted, but not enough to actually go through with it.

One of the aforementioned tunnels.

Scary, right?!

 I love, love, love these pictures!

It was probably about 9:00 in the morning when the kids reached the peak of Bale Mountain.

 Tractor!

Several of the pictures I took were under the direction of Matthew.

I think that you will be able to tell which ones.

Just remember...Tractor!

Our tour guide, Amy...

Amy is married to a sixth generation Kelsay who is in charge of the dairy production on the farm.

She was an excellent tour guide.

I loved the story she told of her first Thanksgiving dinner with her husband and their family.

They had all just sat down at the table after her mother-in-law had gone to much preparation when one of the "boys" yelled, "THE COWS ARE OUT!"

Everyone jumped up from dinner to go chase cows back into their pens.

I loved this story, because I grew up on a pig farm and can remember the pigs getting out and running down the road.  You learn how fast you can move when the livestock escape!

The Moo Choo Express

 Smile! 

Try to ignore the cows standing behind you smacking their lips...

and any other sound that you might hear coming from them.

 The Standoff

Oh so sweet!

These babies are only 12 days old.

Can you believe that there are at least two babies born everyday on this farm?

Sometimes as many as seven!

Ev...er...y day!

 Josh passed on petting them.

Here it comes, Matthew.

Face-to-face and a quick little scratch on the head.

This is one that I took for Matthew.

Can you guess why?

He tells me that we really need one of these yellow tractors at our house.

 And one of these too.

I have no idea where we would park it.

Sitting here on the farm, it doesn't look all that big, but I cannot imagine it in our yard.

Kind of like the big screen TV we bought all those years ago.

It really didn't look all that big in the Best Buy showroom...but once we got it into our family room?

Humongous. 

Bigger than humongous.

I love the reflection of the clouds and the sun in the windshield.

I could not call Matthew back to me.

We were supposed to be admiring the baby cows, but Matthew was drawn to the tractor.

 I called him back, but it was like he couldn't look back at me...
or even really hear me.

"Look at those tires, Mommy!"

Matthew was a little distracted here.

Another tractor was moving close, and he was afraid that it would run over us.

Here is one of the semis that take the milk down to Louisville.

The milk that comes from this farm goes to Dean's and is used for milk, cottage cheese and sour cream.

The milk that leaves today will be on the
store shelves in two days!

"Mommy!  Take a picture of that truck!
It's like my Hot Wheels!"

I noticed that there was an awful lot of red on this farm.

William said that he did see one green tractor.

Personally, the green ones are my favorite.

 From the farm to the store...

The Milking Parlor

Shhhhhhhh...

Be very, very quiet.

 After the tour and a cheese stick (don't forget to have at least 3 servings of dairy a day!), we got to play again.

Unbelievable!

My kids all chose this over Bale Mountain!

This is the Corn Crib.

Can you even believe this?!

 Awesome, right?!

 Corn Kernel Angel

Grandma says, "Why not?!"

I'm sorry.

I couldn't help but wonder if there were any furry friends buried in there somewhere.

You know that this is a mouse's paradise.

Carrie was drawn back out to the calves.

U241 was her favorite.

U251 is vying for her attention.

U241 is sucking on U251's ear.

Ear of Corn

He didn't even know they were there!

 William and Matthew worked hard to bury Josh in the corn.

Lunch time!

 Right before it was time to go, Josh warmed up to the babies.

I think because nobody was watching.

Bale Mountain, Hop Dots, and Pumpkin Bowling

Josh thinks that Matthew looks like a Super Hero in this picture.

I love this picture.

Grandma pulled Matthew's pockets out to make sure that all of the corn kernels were cleaned out.

We laughed when we found that they were still hanging out.

One of the tunnels that goes through
the middle of Bale Mountain.

The King of Bale Mountain!

One last slide...

 And an "After the Field Trip" treat...

 Since we were already out and about...and it was a beautiful day...and it was lunch time...

we decided to get some McDonalds and go to the park.

 I still wasn't ready to go home and get serious.

So...let's go to the apple orchard!

Hmmm...

 Pretty cool, huh?

Enjoying days full of autumn fun,