Cox with the Crowleys

Yesterday we drove out to Centreville for the Cox Farms Fall Festival - opening weekend! We'd heard about it from Dave & Michelle who used to go every fall so soon after we moved here I put it on our calendar. We were not disappointed. The weather was gorgeous and before us lay 90 acres of barns, hay bales, giant slides galore, live entertainment, animal pens, and more!

There were pony rides,

Lots of slides,

All-you-can-eat fresh apples and cider,

and unlimited hay rides (we only went once - they were totally long!)

We hooked up with the Crowleys there - Matt, Gabe and little Lottie.

The short version is that I have known Matt my whole life. Truly. When I was a baby Mom took me to his mom's baby shower; he was born about a month after me. We were in the same primary, Sunday school, and seminary classes, same elementary and high schools. Around age 15 we recognized a mutual superiority in each other, which we still enjoy, and became excellent friends. We have always kept in touch, but not seen each other for probably 4 years. Here's the oldest photo I know of, of us together, circa 1979 (snatched from Matt's Facebook page; can you name the song?)

And here we are now with our 1-yr-olds.
(Gabe was kind enough to have Lottie on my birthday, 10 days after Ginger was born. And I'm pretty sure "Charlotte" and "Kari" come from the same ancient root name so really they named her after me, too.
Is that love or what?)

What a rockin' day with the kids and wonderful old friends you don't have to play get-to-know-you with, just catch-up, which was great. On the way out we picked up our complimentary pumpkins and a 1/2 gallon of cider to go with our monster bag of kettle corn. I think the Crowleys got a pie - nice.
Thanks, Cox. Thanks, Crowleys! We won't let it go four years again.