Sweet Berry Farm.

Thirty minutes. That's how long it took to drive the last mile to Sweet Berry Farm this afternoon. That doesn't include the hour before that it took to get to that point. Was it worth it? Well, let's just say it was so we all feel better, shall we?

Happy times. Here the boys are walking in the parking lot to the farm. Such promise the day held at this moment, for we had already put the bad traffic behind us.

Oh how quickly it turned sour. So sour that Mateo lashed out at the paparazzo we call "Daddy." After waiting in a long line for the hay ride shuttle and being on the losing end of the full load capacity cut, his fit turned into leg grabbing, threatening to run away, and then the all out snot bawl. Poor baby.

Just look at the crowd. And that's only one side of the farm. There were WAY more people than that.
The hay ride, though, was nice. It was just the break we needed. Technically since we rode the shuttle over to the hay ride and back we ended up having three hay rides. With each ride Mateo's mood improved. I think the big tractor tires helped. On the tour they had neat little scarecrow vignettes on display. Can you see the mid-air basketball player? His legs kind of blend in with the background.

The corn maze was really fun. Mateo enjoyed playing the leader and telling us where to go... that is until I told him he was officially in charge. Right on cue he turned to us at the upcoming intersection, shrugged his shoulders and said, "where to go now?" That kid has great accidental comedic timing.

I neglected to mention we also had pumpkin and berry ice creams which were delicious. And we built a scarecrow. He's sitting on our patio waiting for his face to be drawn on. By that point in the day we were just ready to go, so no photos (yet) of that. Besides, our viewers deserve to see only the finished product, right? Later this week, my friends. Try to be patient.

You know, sometimes you just have to put on your smiles and force your way through something that doesn't turn out as you had imagined. And sometimes that alone makes everything turn out alright. At the end of the day a lollipop was what the doctor ordered. (Shhh... we won't tell that he ATE the gum inside. Oops! Oh, yeah, and we'll not mention the no pants thing either.) Finally Mommy and Daddy were finally able to relax and be their goofy selves again.