Mitchell Farms 2021

Last Friday, we took a delightful field trip to Mitchell Farms in Collins, MS with our homeschool fellowship group.  It has been a joy to have this group to do activities with while we are home.  Several families participated, which provided the boys a large group of kids to spend the day with.  There are several boys their age in the group and they all play very well together. 

Our group reservation was for 10:00 a.m.  Each family took a picnic lunch and we had a reserved pavilion to eat under.  Our family stayed until they closed at 4:00.  With the exception of the heat, it was fun-filled from start to finish.  

 

Arriving for an adventurous day at the farm

 

Which way do we go??

 

They started out on the rope swing.  They returned to this spot several times throughout the day.

 

Cruz on the slide.

 

Ben on the slide.

 

There are two of these large inflatable bounce pillows.  The boys enjoyed playing on both.

 

Our group rode the trailer ride together and did a tour of the farm.

 

Much to my surprise, they still wanted to ride in these train cars. 

 

With every paid entrance, you get to choose a pumpkin to take home.  Here is David hauling ours to the car.

 

more bouncing

 

This year the farm added a corn barn.  The kids loved playing there.

 

Reading to tackle the corn maze.

 

I took a photo of the pattern in case we got lost.

 

We have been to this farm on every trip home during the fall. We love it!  What we enjoyed most about this particular visit was that our boys are now big enough to explore it without us having to follow close behind them.  We spent a lot of our day sitting in the shade and watching them play from a distance.  Here, we had found a porch swing pavilion that was probably our favorite spot of the day.   Not everything about them growing up makes us sad. 

 

They played hard all day long.  It was great exercise.

 

 

How tall this fall?

 

This sweet photo was on my Facebook memories recently.  It was Cruz on his first trip to Mitchell Farms back in October 2010. 

Our family at Mitchell Farms 

Outings like this are what make me homesick every fall.  I would not trade anything for being home this year to make these memories together.  You can guarantee that next October I will be wishing I was there.

Road Trip to North Mississippi and Memphis

At the beginning of the month, we took a relaxing road trip to North Mississippi.  Our original plan was just to visit David's dad at his beautiful, new home in Oxford.  We ended up leaving a day early so we could spend a little time with former IMB missionaries Jeff and Karen Thomas.  The Thomas family faithfully served numerous years with the Pokomchi people group in Guatemala.  We had not seen them since they left the field so we were excited to catch up in person.  We arrived at their house on a Thursday afternoon and stayed overnight.  We spent the evening joyfully reminiscing stories from our years in Guatemala together, which brought smiles to all of our faces.

On Friday morning they drove us into Memphis for a little sightseeing. 

 

Our first stop was planned for the Bass Pro Shop.

 

Before we stopped, we crossed over the Mississippi River bridge into Arkansas and back just for the fun of it.

 

 

 

They were anxious to explore the inside of the pyramid.

 

 

Bass Pro Shop in Memphis

 

The target shooting was a highlight.

 

We eagerly rode the elevator to the top of the pyramid to experience the lookout.

 

going up...

 

The views from the top were amazing!

 

Mississippi River bridge

 

our family with Jeff and Karen

 

We casually strolled all over the store looking at almost everything.  It is a very cool place to visit.

 

Afterwards, we drove around downtown Memphis and they showed us Beale Street.

 

We had a delicious lunch at Central BBQ.

 

The line to get in to the restaurant was quite long.  While everyone waited, Cruz and I briefly wandered over to see the Lorraine Motel.

 

Enjoying lunch with mission friends at Central BBQ in Memphis.

 

Jeff entertained the boys in their backyard before we left their house late that afternoon. Our visit with them was special.  I am glad our calendars lined up so that we could make it happen.

 

We left the Thomas house and drove on to Oxford.  We arrived at David's dad's house just in time for supper.  Jodi had a yummy meal waiting for us to enjoy. We spent the rest of the evening playing several rounds of Apples to Apples. 

 

David and the boys with his dad and stepmom

 

On Saturday morning they drove us around Oxford showing us a few of the sights. One of those was the Ole Miss campus. 

We returned to their home in time for lunch and then spent the rest of the day excitedly watching SEC football games. We squeezed in a few more rounds of Apples to Apples in between.  That evening we went out for a meal at a local Mexican restaurant in town.

 

A few photos before church on Sunday morning.

 

Mr. Harold, Jodi, and the boys

 

Three generations of Whites.

 

We attended North Oxford Baptist Church that Sunday morning.   We then had lunch together before we got on the road to make the afternoon drive back home to Brookhaven.  We were a little sad to leave.  Our weekend had been fun-filled and relaxing in every way. We thoroughly enjoyed our time together.  We sure hope to make another visit to Oxford before we return to Guatemala.