Cox Farms, Part I

If you live in the DC area, you've probably heard of Cox Farms. It's definitely one of the very best fall festivals in the area and is hugely popular.

We first brought Chuck to Cox Farms when he was 18 months old back in October of 2005! We lived much closer to the city back then and Mike and I both remember driving to the farm and thinking, "Holy Far Away! Where are we!? Are we still in Virginia!?"

Now, with two kids and a large SUV, we live in the sprawling suburbs -- right across the street from the farm! And since I absolutely love looking at old pictures before moving on to the new ones, here's some shots from Chuck's first trip to Cox Farms. (Side note: oh my god, my kiddo was and still is the very cutest 'lil man! Also, I look pretty cute with short hair -- and also in my early twenties!)

Cox was on a much smaller scale back then with some pumpkins, some farm animals and a few slides. It grows bigger and better every year and is now a HUGE fall experience with hayrides, dozens of slides - big and small, a corn maze, farm animals, and much, much more! Man, maybe I should be the spokesperson??

I have invited several friends to join us at the farm this year (like I said, it's right across the street), so here's a look at our first after school trip with our dearest friends, The Allens -- Cox Farms, Part I.


First stop: The giant barn slide.

Bubble Machine in the little kiddo section!! Chase all the bubbles!!!

Rope Swing!!

And... on to the Castle slide...

And thanks to Jenny, I got to be in a few of the shots, too!!

Up next: the racing slide!

This was a cool addition to the farm this year -- a spin the wheel game to find out where to go next!

So, where did we go next...? The hayride!!!

Again, thanks to Jenny, there is evidence that I was there!! Also, Henry was expecting something to be loud...?

And then the kids were off to the corn maze!!!

Except for Henry, who didn't want to go, so we sat outside and ate cookies in the wagon!

Then we decided it was time for some farm chores! This was one of the kids' favorite spots!

Henry's favorite farm chore?? Scooping up corn and throwing it, of course! I was pelted with a lot of corn to catch these shots! (And also, it hurts.)

And then a stop at the volcano slide (told you there are a lot of slides!!) before we headed over to the goats (spoiler alert: the goats were my favorite). The kids kept waiting at the bottom to high-five whoever was going down! They did this on all the slides of the day and I thought it was really sweet (they really do love each other!).

And, now, the goats. Oh!!! The sweet, sweet goats!! We LOVED the goats! First, let me say that I did not expect Charlie to go in to the goat pen because he's NEVER gone into a petting zoo before. He's never, ever wanted to pet a farm animal. And I also expected Henry to freak out once the goats got close to him. But both of my boys surprised me. They loved it! All the goats were babies and were much smaller than the scary big goats that will knock you over. After we got home, we decided that our Catty McFatty was bigger than most of them. The goat pen was just beyond precious. And Henry loved running around and screaming "gooooooooats!!!"

Henry in action: "Goooooooats!!!!!!!"

Favorite picture of the day:

On our way out, we picked up our mini pumpkins (included in the price of admission) and bought some of the very best kettle corn and apple cider ever. Like, ever.