"This ride never ends."

"This ride never ends," says Stephanie.

Stephanie.
My favorite fun little sister.
My wise friend.
My 'loves to share her grand kids with me' sister.

Stephanie had the next shift of watching her grand kids - Lincoln and Emma.

(Check out previous post for the 1st shift story.)

http://johannahyland.blogspot.com/2013/10/its-super-late-notice-but.html 

We had made plans to do something fun with the kids that Saturday. It was a beautiful day to go to Gull Meadow Farms....a glorified pumpkin patch/apple orchard/corn maze/country store/apple cider in apple sippy cup kinda place. None of us had ever been there....and I had a coupon.

New, fun and a deal - so off we went!

This great big apple pumpkin play place was loads of fun. Lots of fun kid things to do. 

They loved the water pump ducky races, the hay bale maze, 

the giant bouncing pillow and the obstacle course.

The big hit was the giant drainage pipe tube slide. 

Steph and I went down once. We got our monies worth on just one time down... 

The kids went over and over again on that great big fun slide. 

2 hours went by quick here. We still needed to visit the petting zoo and take the wagon ride. 

We rode the bumpy wagon through the apple orchards and the pumpkin patch to get to petting zoo. Except we had our backs to the petting zoo side and we missed our stop...so... around we went...1 more long bumpy ride ...again.

This time we made sure we were watching for the petting zoo stop. 

Not sure how we missed it...there was a huge sign that said The Back Forty! 

That must be it...the rest of this fun place is in the Back Forty...of course. 

The Back Forty had lots of animals and more fun.Emma loved the animals.

They even had mini pumpkin checker games.

Lincoln was the pumpkin checker champion....yes, he loves to say he beat Aunt J'hanna. 

We were all played out. We walked out of the Back Forty to catch the wagon ride back.

As we waited, a smaller train came by and stopped. We got on it thinking it was our ride back. As we got going we thought maybe it was the scenic very bumpy ride back...no...we were going back to the Back Forty whether we wanted to or not.

After a very long time and a full circle of the whole Back Forty...it stopped at the petting zoo and everyone got off. A good sign to get off too but we were waiting for the parking lot stop - not that stop. The little train just kept going this time. It went right by the wagon stop and we were on our bumpy way around the Back Forty.. again! Even the kids had had enough of this ride.

Steph wisely says, "Ok...I get it...This ride never ends...if you don't get off!" 

We took her wise advise...we got off at the petting zoo and walked out of the Back Forty to the wagon stop. That trusty wagon did finally take us back.

It was a wonderful day. That ride did eventually end. We left with lots of fun memories, bags of apples, jugs of cider, and words of wisdom..."The ride never ends...if you don't get off."

Sometimes in life we get stuck on a ride. Some rides are fun...some rides are not. God takes us around those sometimes bumpy, sometimes tiring and sometimes painful rides until we decide to get off.

If you end up in a Back Forty ride of life today...It will end. Another ride will always be waiting. In the mean time, take in the scenery, the memories and the wisdom God gives you on the way.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you.You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and I will bring you back..." 
Jeremiah 29:11-14