If you were there, you know
If you weren’t, you’ll want to be next time
We began the day meeting at Teusink’s Pony Farm in Holland, on a perfectly fall-feeling day, with a temperature in the forties, a strong breeze, and a mix of sun and clouds. Several confirmed attendees stayed home because it was raining where they lived, but it did not rain in Holland until late in the evening. Take that Jenison!
Goats are hungry. Ducks too.
We met at the pay shack, paid our entrance fees (kids cost more than adults!), paid for a few bags of goat feed, and proceeded to feed goats and ducks.




At this point, the Simmons clan arrived at their promised 30-minutes late point in time, but were greeted with a hearty welcome by all. Jacqui began a verbal harassment of Louis for having a Starbucks coffee [foreshadowing] that would go on for the next 84 minutes or so. The Simmons children and their father wasted no time getting started on animal feeding.
At this point, we headed over to the pony ridin’ area for some pony ridin’ fun.


The great thing is, she’s super happy and friendly, too. She’s smiley and coos at most everyone, even in the freezing breeze.
Pony Rides
On to the barn
and relief from the wind. At this point, Claire was a bit cold, and perhaps so were some of the adults, if not willing to admit it. We were also joined at this point by Matt and Kate, a great addition to our mix. The barn at Teusink’s has a hay maze, a lazy cow in a pen who won’t so much look up at visitors, baby chicks and bunnies in buckets, and several animals in low pens. Our kids were all running in and out of the hay maze and holding bunnies and chicks for a good half hour. There was an awesome pig in one of the pens with tons of personality who would stand up above the rail and grunt to get his ears scratched, getting big laughs from all of us.


Hey! Ridin’
We left the barn to queue up for the hayride, which we figured should be coming back ’round in a few minutes. There was no one riding the ponies, so a few people snuck off to grab another pony ride while we waited and Max entertained me by trying his best to tip over the stairs that they use to load people onto the hay wagon. A few minutes later, the wagon returned, unloaded its passengers, and we boarded.
He spent much of the hayride snuggling up to Kate, who was seated next to me. He visited the kid seated across from us a few times, and Leah got to pet him a few times as well.








Back to the Goudie house
A few stayed back at Teusink’s to get in a few last thrills, but most of us headed back to our house for pizza, laughs, and crazy kid fun, indoors and out. We spent the afternoon and into the evening eating, drinking, gaming, bouncing, scootering, running, screaming, laughing, talking, and well, pretty much everythinging fun that we could think of. We were joined by Jef and Jennifer once they arose for the day, and they added to the festive atmosphere with their Spartan and Aggie gear.
The kids made use of toys in Leah’s room, Aly’s room, the living room, the basement playroom, the trampoline out back, and all manner of outside toys.
Earlier, all four girls were gathered around the iPad at the same time, it was pretty funny. Then, a few minutes later, Leah and Tatum were watching something on the iPad scrunched up side by side, and then Clarke disappeared to go play downstairs. When Leah emerged from the iPad stupor a few minutes later, she looked around and said “Where did my friend go?” It was adorable.
Aly and Max played a game of Apples to Apples downstairs with Jacqui, though I had to step in for the last few rounds when Claire made a loud call for her mother. Max made frequent use of the “redo” rule when it was his turn to judge. At the end of the game, Max pointed out that I was terrible at Apples to Apples, although I had won one of the three hands I had played, and of course I had judged one of those three, meaning I was one for two. Oh, by the way, Aly won.


I put the sidewalk chalk out and came out later to find that most of the driveway had been decorated, and quite well. Each of the kids had drawn their house. As the Simmons family headed out, the kids pointed out to Louis that the picture of their house was missing their great dane, so Louis quickly added this to the living room on the lower level:
All in all, we had a great Saturday, both adults and kids.