Best buddies at the farm

Emily Couchman had her 6th birthday party today at Christian Way Farm. Stephen and Evan wore several adults out as they zipped from the pig to the hay castle to the tractor train to the corn maze to the pumpkin patch and to the combine. Brenden shot this wonderful photo of the two buddies in their element.

So happy it hurts!

Doesn't get any better than this.

Cheese and Entertainment

Rockam has recently expanded his mealtime repetoire to include small cubes of cheese, banana and bread. Makes for a rather monochromatic mix of munchies, but he doesn't seem to mind.

I took more than one video of this. Some of the other ones show him having more success at actually getting the cheese in his mouth, but he had this huge green boogie dripping out of his nose the whole time. I thought this video was a little more appetizing! Plus, we get the bonus of Stephen's strange antics in the background.

Kangaroo Zoo

Stephen makes friends with a very chilled out red kangaroo at Kentucky Down Under, an Aussie-themed wildlife park that Steve calls the "Kangaroo Zoo."

Rockam also got in on the petting action.

Notice that this mama has an extra leg sticking out of her pouch.

Some interesting facts about kangaroos-- they can choose when to have their joeys, even suspending an embryo for two years if conditions make it a bad time to have a baby!

Our guide also said that there was a kind of wallabee that can drink salt water without adverse effects. He said that parts of Australia can have 7 to 10-year droughts! This photo is still the red kangaroo from the first photo.

While Stephen was petting him, the kangaroo kept rolling back and forth, sometimes giving Steve a bit of a spook! (But that didn't stop him from petting.)

A lady commented, "He's watching the kangaroo, but we're all watching your son--he's so cute!"

We also watched a sheepherding demonstration and learned that sheep products are in marshmallows, Jell-O, chapstick and other gelatin-containing items.

After milking "Sugar" the cow, Stephen said, "I have to wash my hands cuz I touched the pink thing!"

After several handwashes and a couple trips to the potty, we let Stephen run off some energy on a nice grassy hill.

We took a break there too.

Then, on to another demonstration with digereedoos and a baby roo in a bag.

The staff member said that she carries this joey everywhere-- grocery store, movies, etc., because she's getting him acclimated to humans and our noises. This is how they were able to tame the other kangaroos in the walkalong. Wild kangaroos, according to our guide, are quite dangerous because they can box and kick or even kill you with a quick middle-toenail in the stomach move.

We also saw some interesting birds, such as the laughing kookaburra... the photo is still on my camera though. Another park visitor who apparently knows a lot about birds was able to trill her tongue and get him to laugh... it was a hysterical, human-like laugh! Too bad we didn't have the flip cam on us to capture it.

The air was perfect, the drive was just under two hours and the park was a great way to spend Joe's last day of fall break.

brothers in the bed again