Let’s Go to the Trac-TEUR!

I spent the afternoon yesterday up at Cedar Circle Farm hanging out with my family and enjoying their strawberry festival. Yes, it’s an event geared towards the younger set (hay rides! clowns! face painting!) but, hey, I’m a child at heart. Witness for the prosecution: one of my coworkers brought his kids into work today and they have been supplied with an endless stream of entertainment in the form of toys from my office. Plus, any excuse to see my sisters. 

I neglected to bring my camera, which is a real shame. Especially since my three-year-old nephew took a turn wearing my giant cat costume. You haven’t seen cute until you’ve seen a little guy wearing a giant foam cat head that comes down past his shoulders. He and I danced around being giant kitties (he was a baby giant kitty). And then we were steam rollers. And then he was a baby and I was his twin baby. And then we were kitties again.

And then I took a little nap.

No, actually Kristian was the one napping. Apparently the mere act of watching me goofing around with my nephew was enough to put him out like a light. The fact that he was sacked out in my brother-in-law’s lazy boy may or may not have been a contributing factor. The grownups decided that it was time to go outside and enjoy the day star for a bit, but my nephew was content to hang out and continue being a baby giant kitty cat. So, I said, “Let’s put on our farmer hats and go ride the tractors!” (Aside to my sister, Christina: thanks for letting the little guy wear your hat. I think I managed to keep him from mangling it too badly).

This became the rallying cry and my nephew gleefully sang out , “Let’s go to the tracTOR! Let’s go to the tracTOR!” Over and over. And over. And over again. Luckily, I think that he poops out rainbows and, thusly, can do no wrong by me. So I was endlessly amused by the tractor song. Especially when it was punctuated with a “hee haw!” See: Hope, extended childhood of. Of course, it was more like “Let’s go the tracTEUR! Let’s go to the tracTEUR!” Apparently, my nephew has some hidden frenchy tendencies that he’s not telling us about. Or one of the tractors is french. My money is not on the John Deere one.

We “drove” around on the tractors (I kept a look out for pirates) and then we harvested strawberries. Kristian and I gave my nephew the little berries that we found (“the little guy” strawberries) and he gave me the medium sized ones. Kristian, being the closest thing to a big guy around, got all of the “big guy” strawberries. This was a pretty good deal for us. We also brought some strawberries back for my sister and her husband. Although I had to pick and hold onto them. My nephew was very happy to announce that we had brought back “four whole strawberries” for them. Not so happy when he realized that he didn’t get to eat any of those strawberries, but he was still very good about sharing.

We hung out for about 5 hours altogether, but it really seemed to just fly right by. One moment we were arriving and the next minute it was time to go home. The time that we spent with my family was made all the more precious by the fact that we almost didn’t make the drive up. I was up from 2-6am that morning with some lady problems (sorry if that was TMI) and we seriously debated about wether or not we should go. My overwhelming and constant desire to spend as much time as humanly possible with my sisters won out in the end. The fact that we had promised my step-dad a ride home certainly helped. The moment I set eyes on everyone, I realized just how worth it the trip was.

And now I am le tired.