The Nielsen Family: Cornbelly's

Ella looks forward to Cornbelly's the second the first billboard sign appears on the freeway. She can't read but she knows the little corn guy=cow train, bouncing pillow, corn maze and lots of fun! This year Grandma Judi, Grandpa Kyle and Daddy all came with. The kids generally choose the activities we do. So of course we did the first thing we came to. These tire swings were cut into cool horses, cows and motorcycles etc.

Seth really liked riding his bull.

The bouncing pillows are always favorite. I like them because I get to jump with them. We put Seth onto the small child pillow but he wasn't into it...

until I started jumping with him. Then he didn't want to leave.

Ella is an old pro at the bouncing pillow. She had a great time.

Grandpa even joined in on the action and when they were done he taught Seth how to safely exit the jumping pillow via your behind.

We had fun bouncing as a family! Seth especially loved it when I held him and bounced because we got some sweet air. Ella liked Daddy to pop her up into the air.

Here is Seth on the little bouncy animal. He stopped shaking just short of brain damage. You will note he is making his trademark "CHEESE" face. You will see it a lot.

Everyone had to have a turn riding on the tractor. I had to have 2 turns.

Okay, we are total suckers for the stick your face in the cut out shots.

Like I said.

Ella vs. the beast: the saga continues. As you will remember, last year Ella finally worked up the nerve to touch the best on his toe. The previous year she would not go near it. This year in a show of complete domination she went all the way through the inside. I know. I was totally shocked.

Here we are ridin the grain train. Not as fun as it sounds and no it doesn't sound very fun. The kids liked it though. There were pumpkin scarecrows positioned throughout the course and fancifully decorated. Each time Seth saw one he yelled "pumpkin!!"

The surprise, come from behind, favorite this year were the pedal karts. In years previous the kids were never interested. This year they probably spent half an hour on them. Ella did a couple of solo rides on the smaller kart.

Grandpa supervised. Some of the turns were wicked sharp. Okay there was only 1 turn but it was a bit of a struggle for inexperienced riders.

Not to be left out of the fun, Seth wanted Daddy to take him on the big kart.

Then he needed to go again.

Then there were a couple of battle races. Mario Kart style, without the shells, banana peels or edging players off the road. Okay so nothing like Mario Kart.

Here's a shot of Grandpa and Ella about to get on their bike with "the beast" in the background.

When Rob saw the paint ball stand it was on. Rob used to be a big paint baller back in the day. It was time to pass on the skills to the next generation. Ella proved to be quite the crack shot, with a little help from Daddy. Together they won me a big slice of Magleby's chocolate cake. In my opinion a way better prize than a dumb stuffed animal.

A perennial favorite, the corn house. Like a ball pit only with corn. Where you can roll in corn, cover yourself in corn, make corn angels and of course get corn down your underwear/diaper. They loved it.

Seth our little mimic. Anything Ella does he can do too.

Seth loves to ride up on Daddy's shoulders. Ella wouldn't do it until she was 4.

Lame me. I didn't get any pictures of us inside the corn maze. That is because we were totally focused on getting out. Plus the dumb cheat sheet quiz didn't help at all. Who knows off hand how many times corn is mentioned in the bible?

We came out of the maze and after chatting with Rob for a second I realized Ella had wandered off. Actually it was just a little trick that Grandma and she had concocted. We were looking all over the general vicinity when I realized she was right in front of me, cleverly concealed in a cut out.

Seth was a fan of the pumpkin tether-ball game. He kept throwing it and saying "pumpkin ball!" Finally a pumpkin that he wouldn't get in trouble for throwing! When it was time to move on he sadly waved and softly said "Bye pumpkin ball".

The saddness was short lived because we hit the slides next. And we hit them hard.

Seth with Grandpa quite enjoying himself.

Ella went down by herself but wanted me to go down with her one time.

Woohoo go Grandma!

The first 10 times or so we had Seth go down on our laps. Then Rob made me cut the apron strings and let him go down alone, accompanied by Ella of course. Thank goodness for dads or kids wouldn't have any fun.

Don't worry he wasn't in too much danger. He had a few people waiting for him at the bottom.

Ahh yeah the Cow Train! Come on ride the train it's a cow train. Come on ride it. (Okay pretty lame attempt at mimicking that dumb song, sorry).

I love riding with Seth and he is little enough that he still enjoys riding with me. I wonder if he will still let me ride with him next year? I figure I have to take advantage of it while I can.

Ella remembered from LAST YEAR that one of the cows was named Bella. Which of course is similar to Ella. She searched the entire train for that cow with no luck. We began to think that maybe she had imagined the cow named Bella. After we had ridden the ride we saw 3 cows that had been removed because of broken seats. One of those cows... Bella. Sweet vindication!

Finally we ended our Cornbelly's adventure with a trip to the pumpkin princess playland. Ella picked out the princess Aurora outfit to dress up in and then jumped on the stage for some dancing and twirling.