Farm Fun!

Our trio took a trip out to the farm this Sunday. It was sort of a spur of the moment trip on Hal and I's part. It ended up being a lot of fun but my initial motive was to have some built in rest time in the car. Let me explain.....

Sunday was my longest training run yet. I won't even go into my feelings about said run but just know that I had convinced myself and then reconvinced myself that I was DONE training when the weekend began. I had a horribly stinky attitude about the 12 mile run on the training calendar. How is it possible to be so angry at a piece of paper on the fridge? Well all I know is that I've wanted to rip it off and burn it numerous times in the past two weeks. With some much needed encouragement from my better half I ended up headed out for the run (without my usual running partners) with determination and vigor. This eventually turned into me wanting to collapse around mile 10. There's this problem I have with my Runkeeper app....the lady on there keeps reminding me of my pace and it doesn't take long until I feel like I'm competing with her (or myself, I guess)....but either way when I'm running alone I always end up forgetting the whole concept of pacing myself. By mile ten I'd hobbled into the door and tiptoed to the fridge since Riley and Hallie were sleeping. I downed a bottle of Gatorade and then realized that was a bad idea as it wanted to come right back up. I inhaled an orange, stood at the counter doing some soul searching, told myself I was a big fat pansy and found myself running out the door to finish the last two miles. Training guilt is such a cruel MONSTER!!! When I finished and finally did collapse on the garage floor to stretch I thought how nice it would be to have a few minutes of silence to rest. Nope. Out the door runs a rested, rambunctious and energized Lil Red. Oh no. My body was screaming "noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! Isn't that munchkin supposed to nap a lil longer?!?!?!" The only muscles that were capable of functioning were my eye muscles. Oh good....I could watch her start a fire but wouldn't be able to get up off the couch and rescue her. Ha! Ok, I kid. But when Riley mentioned a couple minutes later that he was going to drive his blue truck out to store in Papa's new building I immediately suggested that Hallie and I follow him and give him a ride back to town. YES! Sitting. All I needed was a bit of ankle motion and my hands resting on the wheel. I'll take it!!!! 

When we pulled up and got out to walk toward Papa's new farm building I noticed that Hallie was looking a little strange. Watery eyes, red cheeks and an unusual frown on her pretty face. But all of my concern was thrown to the wind when she lit up after spotting Papa. Riley and Bill spent a good fifteen minutes discussing what angle they should park their trucks. I kid you not. 

"How bout a 45 degree angle, babe?"

"Does it really matter dada?"

While the guys made the tough decisions Hal and I were reminded of the baby pot belly piggies down along the fence. Did someone say baby pigs??? Ok, WE. ARE. THERE!

The six piggies were squealing and snorting as we walked up which meant that Hal suddenly wasn't so hip on the idea of getting close to them....

"snort" "oink" "squeal"

"No offense guys but I think I'll just stay back here and talk to ya."

The important truck parking angle decisions had been made (whew) so next we set our sights on something even more fun than pigs. It was time for Hal's first go round on the tractor. Her usual timidness about loud objects mixed with the fact that she was starting to get sick made for a very unsure countenance....

"Has Papa had the proper training on that thing?"

"Ok, so he's a good driver...but tell me why I would want to ride it...."

"How bout I just ride it next time we come to the farm??"

Papa and Hallie hopped up on it before she could say no and got to driving.....

She steered for part of the ride and waved at me proudly. I've got to be honest and say that I'm surprised it didn't end in tears and screams because of the loud noise. I guess she's a farm chick after all! After we said goodbye to Papa we drove across the street to pop in and say hi to grandma Ida whom Hal has named "Meme." I find it slightly ironic considering she already has two meme's in her life....Emmi is "Meme" to her and grandma Detrixhe is "Meme" as well. I'm okay with three special Meme's if she is! Hal played the piano and went on a hunt for her regular toys that she plays with out there. It was cute to see her ask Ida where the tractor toy and bunny were. Ida was as happy as could be watching her play around.....

It became apparent that something just wasn't quite right with our girl after she began banging at the door to leave and hurried to the car and crawled up in her carseat to sit perfectly still. This doesn't happen. Despite ending the day on a yucky note with a fever and feeling crummy, I'd say that we had a great trip out to the farm.