Bike Races and Corn Mazes

This morning, we went to see Nathan and his friend, Lain, at the finishing line of a bike ride they did called the Beautiful Back Roads Century.  It was the 10th anniversary of the ride and there were around 1500 cyclists participating.  Nathan and Lain rode 50 miles today.  Last year, they participated as well and did the full century (100 miles).  The ride benefits the Hickory Log Men's Home for the mentally challenged.  The men from Hickory Log even volunteer at the event.

The kids love cheering on their Dad.  We made signs for them to hold.

Gunnar was asleep so he had to take his photo with Nathan later.

Afterwards, we headed out to Uncle Shucks Corn Maze in Dawsonville.  We decided that it would be nice to go earlier in the season to beat the crowds.  One thing we didn't think about was how hot it was today.  Ha ha.  Oh well, we had a great time in spite of the heat.

We decided to stick with the shorter route (a little over a mile long) since both Nathan and I were pushing double strollers and it was so hot.  They gave us a map, so Cooper became our navigator.

They had checkpoints throughout the maze where you could punch a hole in your map showing you had made it.  Also, it helped to give us a good idea of where we were.  I have to say that I have a horrible sense of direction.  Thank goodness, Nathan has a good sense of direction.  He ended up navigating us the rest of the way back :)

The kids thought it was tons of fun.  Grant kept talking about the "corn dogs" aka corn stalks all around us.  Celeste and Kindle were all smiles and using their maps to "navigate" us as well.  Gunnar was lulled to sleep by all of the bumping around on the cornstalks.

After the maze, we decided to shoot the corn cannon.  They had an old car with a spray painted target on it.  Cooper and Grant thought it was wonderful and they both hit the target.  Kindle gave it one try, but definitely did not want to try again.  Celeste and Gunnar didn't like it at all since it was so loud.

They had a mini maze for little kids to run through as well as some tires they could play on.  The kids thought it was great because they could do it all by themselves.

Finally, we went on a hayride.  The kids loved it since it reminded them of Grandpa's tractor (P.S. In case you read this Grandpa, they are hoping you can hook up a trailer with hay in it for hayrides too.  Ha Ha).  They had some banjo music playing while we rode around. The kids were clapping and stomping their feet along to the music.

It was a great day together as a family!