On Monday night I finally got to take my first harvest meal to the field. It seems so late in September to me, so I'm sure it seems late to the guys. So I loaded up the big blue van (maybe a picture at a later time) that we serve meals out of, also loaded up both the kids ( a new challenge this year), and headed out to the field. Last year usually only Ben went with me and Carol or someone would keep Madalyn because she was only a few months old. We had a good meal and miraculously Madalyn did quite well.
After supper, Jay Dee didn't have to head out right away in the truck, so we hung around for a bit and let the kids get some excerise. Madalyn was quite intrigued by the little hills, or rows as we call them. But to her, I'm sure they were big hills! Ben enjoyed stomping down the bean stalks that were still standing.
At one point I told Ben he should walk to the pivot. In my mind I was thinking, "oh, good idea Mom, that way it will wear him out and he'll sleep good." I really didn't think he'd even do it. But Ben's thought, "hey mom, how about I run!" And away he went. He kept trying to get Maddie to come with him. She made it a little ways and then turned back. Ben didn't end up going all the way, because he said he got tired, but he made it almost there. He is the little dark blue blob in the middle of the road below.
One of I'm sure many pictures to come of the combine and harvest. This is where Royce will spend the next 5 weeks. I also took the picture because of the pretty sky. Harvest time and fall are always such a pretty time of year.
Madalyn gets pretty excited these days when I say we're going to see Daddy. Last night after Jay Dee ate supper, he and Ben took a truck to the elevator and so Maddie and I stayed at the field. Apparently Maddie didn't realize daddy had left, because she took off walking up along this truck and the entire time all I heard was "Da". When she got to the front and looked up and no one was there, she turned around and looked at me with the most puzzling look. It was rather quite cute. She's definitely her Daddy's girl.
She's the little purple blob by the back trailer. 
We also decided to eat lunch at the zoo. It was such a beautiful day and while we were eating we kept having a friendly visitor who would pick up everything that everyone dropped. I loved watching the peacock, but we never could get him to show all this feathers. I really wanted Ben to see them. I remember my great uncle having peacocks on his farm and I always loved looking at their feathers.
The Children's Zoo is also a great place for the kids to play and experience things they don't normally get too. One thing they have is this giant rope spider web. Ben was so worried that a big spider would get him if he crawled into the middle. 
They also have a new butterfly pavillion that wasn't there the last time we visited. Outside it is this BIG caterpillar. It took Ben several tries to get up on the thing, but he finally did. The only bad part about the butterflies is that it got cold a couple days before we went and so they weren't very active. Actually, I think several of them had died. But we managed to get at least one good picture of a monarch.
Another area in the zoo they have a "hands on" exhibit. This time they had out a rabbit, and even Maddie got in on the action. He was pretty soft!
