Run, Pig, RUN!!!

Hillcrest Pig Races 2011!

It's that time again, our annual trip to Hillcrest for some apple pickin'! This year the apple pickin' was the very first week of October. Wait, did I say apple pickin'?!? I meant pig races! Although Hillcrest is known for it's apple picking during the fall around here, we pretty much go for the pig races. It's just so much fun we can't stand it! Of course we enjoy everything there, but these races are usually the highlight for us. Forget the apples, we want to see the pigs!:) This year, it was more fun to watch Hayden and Sawyer watch the pigs than it was to actually watch the pigs themselves...

Ready for the races!

How cute are they?!?

Run, pig, RUN!!

If Hayden said that phrase once, he said it 10,000 times during the races. He said it so much I was pretty sure Sawyer was about to start chanting with him. Well, he did in his own little way, but you know what I mean! I asked Hayden why he was cheering for 1 pig rather than all of the pigS(plural) and he said "Because I want that ONE to win Momma!" Duh! Of course that is why he was only saying run, PIG, run. If only I knew just which pig he was talking about. I'm sure Sawyer knew! I guess it really doesn't matter... they had a blast whichever pig they were cheering for!

Yay!

Can you believe something this little can get this excited?!?
I think he was as excited as the pigs racing
for the Oreo cookies!

Love this...

And love them! I love how Daddy is as excited watching
Sawyer as Sawyer is watching the pigs!

How could you not love this face?!?

See, that could have been a blog in and of itself... all about pig races. But, that was just the beginning of what we did that day. Would you believe Hayden got to milk his very first cow?!? Her name was Buttercup. Cute name huh?!?

Good job Hayd!

When he was finished I asked him if it was cool and he simply said..."Not really Mom, not really." Ha! I guess it didn't much compare to the high energy pig races! He had to actually work a little to even get to see some milk come out. Boring!:) He did however have tons of fun waiting in line for the wagon ride...

Mostly because of this yummy green sucker!

How cool is it that the driver let the boys sit with him?!?

We normally take a wagon ride that is pulled by a tractor, but this year it was a little warmer outside and we were able to ride on a smaller wagon that was pulled by mules. It was pretty cool because it was much smaller and more open than the one that is pulled by the tractor. It does kind of seem like a lot of weight for those mules though. They don't seem big enough to be able to pull all of us around the orchard, but looks can be deceiving I guess. They did just as good as the tractor! As a matter of fact, I enjoyed it more!

Sawyer loved his ride!

And Hayden enjoyed taking it all in while still eating his "sutter"!

I'm sure it won't be long before we are having to skip the wagon ride to do those pedal cars you can see in the background. I kind of like the laid back wagon ride, so the boys having short legs is working in my favor for now!:)

Remember that cow Hayden milked?!? Blog readers, meet Buttercup!

Normally there is a big bull that you can sit on, but for some reason the bull was replaced with Buttercup today. I kind of felt bad for her. She had to be tortured with the toddlers milking her and then tortured some more when they wanted to sit on her...

At least the toddlers thought it was fun!

Buttercup made a little move and slightly startled Sawyer at first...

But not enough to get him off! He just kept pointing
at her and saying "Whoa, whoa!" So cute!

Poor Buttercup. And to think Hayden had more fun playing on these huge tires than he ever dreamed of having up on Buttercup in the first place...

He would have climbed on these all day long had we let him!

I guess it's a boy thing. I'm pretty sure no girl would have thought climbing up on tractor tires would have been as cool as Hayden thought it was. Or as cool as Sawyer thought it was that Hayden was getting to do it! He'll be up there with him next year!

This year he just had fun watching his brother...

And scooting of course!:)

There were a few apple trees behind the tire area and it didn't take
Sawyer 3 seconds to be down the hill with those apples.
I'm pretty sure he scooted a hole right
in his jeans this day!

And this was the turkey Hayden ended up on once he finished climbing
all the tires! Can you tell he was just a little proud of himself?!?
He kept saying... "King of the Turkey!"

Just like Hayden could have stayed climbing the tires all day, Sawyer could have stayed with the animals. We don't normally pay the extra $3 to see these animals every year, but we had to do it this year for Sawyer. He loves them! It was definitely worth the extra money...

We are still working on what it means to "pet" an animal. Sawyer
still tries to bend down and hug each of them! We'll get it
one of these days! At least the animals are loved!:)

Hayden enjoyed waving to the bunnies, but when the nice lady
came over and asked him if he wanted to hold one he
made a run for it! I guess that meant no!

Hayden also had tons of fun up on this tractor that was in the
middle of the petting zoo. See that little sheep hiding
under there?!? I guess he didn't want to be petted!

Oh, and the reason you don't see a picture of Sawyer in this tractor is not because he didn't like it like Hayden did. He liked it just as much, if not more, he just feel through the tiny crack in it when he was sitting up there driving it before I could even snap a picture. Who knew there was a hole behind the seat?!? Let's just say he was not very fond of the tractor after that incident! He did however enjoy his ride on this horsey...

Isn't this the coolest swing?!?

We have pictures of Hayden on it each year, but he wanted nothing to do with it this time, so no horse tire swing riding for him! Sawyer couldn't do it by himself, but he sure had fun trying! He also loved having Daddy help him with the huge slide...

Can you tell he had a blast?!?

Hayden had fun chasing them down the slide!

Check out his hair!

And, after all that we finally got around to the orchard part of Hillcrest! That's right folks... we DID actually pick some apples!:) And in true Ronn fashion, we had fun doing it...

Hayden pretty much just ran around with the apples...

And Sawyer mostly threw them!

And both of them had a blast getting "in" the tree to pick them!:)

Fun, fun, fun!

Sawyer of course tried to scoot his way to the apples of his choosing...

And would get so very proud of himself when he would get one!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time helping Sawyer get the perfect apple...

Green and Red all in one... can't get better than that right?!? So cool!

And after all that fun we had in one day, here is our best family picture...

Doesn't look like we had too much fun huh?!?

Yes, you read that right, it was our best family picture meaning we took more that were worse than this one. Sad huh?!? Apparently today was not our day for taking family shots. Oh well, at least we all had a good time! Oh, and we got a new little friend to bring home with us. Blog readers, meet

Our newest bouncy ball!

We do not usually bring something home with us(other than food I mean... the apple fritters are to die for!), but we couldn't resist this little guy. His name is Borris and he was actually born on 05/12/2003 in Ely, MN at 9:42am. Who knew bouncy balls came with so much info?!? He had the cutest story ever to go along with his birth certificate/tag and the boys LOVE balls so the purchase was really a no brainer. ONE more ball in our house can't hurt can it?!? Well, maybe it can - despite it's soft appearance the ball itself is quite hard, but we got it anyway! It'll be another 365 days or so until we see you again Hillcrest... we'll miss you. Let those pigs of yours rest up for 2012! Until next year...

Live, laugh, SMILE!