More from that Birthday...

OOOH. Waaaaait, wait a minute. I forgot something. And once I tell you about it, you'll understand that I likely blocked this day's memory intentionally. It wasn't pretty.

This day was Keith's actual birthday, and our plan was to go to some apple festival in north GA. We were all a little cranky that morning, but got loaded up after feeding Dada breakfast on the bed/couch.  And we were all excited to do the applefest thing...until we got to the actual fest, and it looked smaller than we imagined, and we saw the wet grass we'd have to trample with strollers and the unattractive and rather large people we'd be fighting in line for some apple fritters (the only sign I could see was for apple fritters). So we debated-is it worth all the effort to go see some kountry (yes, with a K) crafts? We decided no.

So instead we headed back to a corn maze we saw on our almost 2 hour drive to the apple festival. Yes, almost 2 hours. Little people were definitely antsy when we got out of the car.

But, they perked up when we saw the entrance to the corn maze. Fun! We were going to have fun.

Right?

Now, I should preface the rest of the post by saying that normally Keith and I are pretty good at heeding cues that the day was just not going as we planned and that we should abort and head home. But not today. We were determined to have some birthday fun. Dammit.

So we ignored that Grady did NOT want to talk on his own at all, and we greeted the inflatable scarecrow.

And we stopped and let Cole point at and speak to seemingly every plant.

And we thought it was cute that he was so excited that he ran into the maze.

Oooh, I got the easy baby today, I thought as I watched Keith carry 40lbs of GradyLovin' through the maze. Cole is just walking/running on his own. Nice!

It seems I spoke too soon. See how he's pointing into the corn here? He's pointing to let me know that in 4 seconds, before I could lower the camera all the way, he was going to run into that exact spot. Yes, that's right, despite us discussing corn maze rules, he was going off the path, into the corn and was going to dissapear for minutes while yelling "I NOT!" when we told him to come back.

And we yelled this for several minutes. And then finally Keith, still holding Grady, went through the corn after Cole.

Anyone who has tried to get a dog inside a house that does not want to come inside knows what happens next. You run a little after the dog, and it thinks its a game and runs further away. While laughing. Or panting open-mouthed, in a dog's case. So Cole played this game until Dada caught up with him, and then got a stern talking-to. Momma was not in the mood for games. In retrospect I am so glad we got to the maze first because if it were filled with other people I'd be the mom that got those "wow, she's a mean mom" looks.

We regrouped. And we found the first stop in the maze! Only took us 25 minutes.

And we walked a little more. Notice Cole isn't in this picture. That's because I have a deathgrip on his hand. This wasn't going to run through corn again. I don't care how much he whined about having to hold hands.

And at least I wasn't carrying a big boy.

And we found hole punch place #2! Excellent. Things are looking good.

And then, as quickly as it looked good, it turned ugly. All of the sudden noses are running, tempers are flaring, stomachs are growling, Cole was eyeing any small opening in the corn, and I had an unusually strong urge to drink a beer. I don't even like beer. So, we aborted.

Thankfully the lady at the ticket booth told us, if we needed to escape, to find the yellow tape, it would lead us out.

Even after finding the tape, it took us another 15 minutes to get out. Phew! That maze was big. And difficult. See? Craziness.

Cole ran into the corn just to the left of her left eye, if you're wondering. And we said "F*ck it" about near that triangle on her forehead.

Eh. So...not the best outing. But we salvaged it with some chicken nuggets and pretzel sticks and came home and napped. Or some of us napped.

Some of us tackled this.