I just realized the other day that we’ve been in Kalamazoo for two months now (and a few days) and I should probably take some time to reflect on how we’re feeling about it now. [Sidebar: when writing that sentence it was surprisingly challenging not to use some sort of jargon from work like “zoom out” or “step back”]. Anyway, I’ll do that in a subsequent post.

For now, let’s just share the requisite fall agrotainment kid photos. We headed out to a popular local apple orchard this morning (although if someone asked, I’d have to tell them that it’s way more agrotourism than it is real orchard, but maybe I’m wrong about that, and anyway that’s why most people show up, so who cares). Oh actually, it was the same place where this happened, but in that instance we were only there at night when none of the attractions were open. We met a colleague of K’s with her partner and some neighbors of theirs, had some amazing doughnuts, and then paid for our all-inclusive wristbands and headed for the kid zone. This place definitely had the widest variety of attractions of any pumpkin patch / apple orchard we’ve visited. Also, it had so many offerings that even though it was busy on a sunny, warm October weekend we didn’t have to wait in line for anything. I guess that’s just Michigan, and it’s awesome.

First up were the bouncy pillows. The twins weren’t really into it, but I thought it was way cooler than a bouncy castle because it was huge and you could run from one end to the other. They had one for kids under 36″ and another for the big kids, and adults were welcome.

Next we checked out the corn crib, and getting the kids to leave it involved threats and lots of whining. They would have been there till dark. Is this a new thing at orchards this year? Because I’ve never heard of it until this year but friends of ours just did it in New York. Regardless, it’s amazing.

Jonah rode a steel drum train pulled by a tractor, which he clearly loved. We didn’t send the twins because there weren’t seatbelts and we weren’t confident that one of them wouldn’t try to climb out while it was moving (and it was a true loop around the property, unsupervised).

Then came the obstacle course, which Jonah did eight or so times. The funny part was that on his last couple of times he really dragged out the rope climb at the end, turning on the drama and pretending to struggle (after he’d whipped up the hill the previous six times).

The twins needed a little help with the course.

The we fed some goats, and everyone loved it. They couldn’t get enough (goat food).

A family tractor train ride, pig races, and a trip down a giant slide wrapped up the day.

I just realized that I don’t have a single photo of the kids in a pumpkin patch. There was so much going on that it didn’t even occur to me until now. I guess that means that the transformation from agriculture to full-scale carnival is now complete. It makes me a little sad to be honest, but the kids love this stuff so much.