Berry Fair: Terror for Kids?

For the first time, in a long time, the local fair was FREE this year, so we went. I met up with the Director of "Up with Kids," a new musical theater group starting in Rexburg. (It is based in Utah, but one of the directors moved to Rexburg and is starting a location here!) I'm super excited for Ella and James to get acting, singing and dancing and the awesomest part: I get to help and LEARN and just have fun all year round with kids. So check it out if you are interested!

Back to the fair--we saw the usual chickens, cows, sheep, but for some reason the kids thought we were going to buy an animal to bring home?

Um, not today. James really wanted to see some pigs and thankfully the pigs were being auctioned off, so we watched, listened. Anyone want an $800 pig? Good looking hogs for sure, but not for us. On the way out, we all grabbed free chocolate milks and headed to our next adventure: Huckleberry picking!

We like to go every year but it's not the end of the world if we can't or don't get more than a cup or so of berries. It's the adventure and driving up in the mountains we love. Not so much the washboard roads, but the trees, brush,walking in the forest and being in nature. We sure got plenty "adventure" today!

James wanted to act out of "adventure" once the shock wore off. 

This is the kids version of "A Cow-ardly Day"

Here's the Story:

First off, we went to our huckleberry "spot" and it was clean picked over only one berry left for every 40 bushes! Sad day. So we went farther up the hill, same story ALL OVER. Perhaps, we are too late in the season, but we had heard the season was later, so we thought it'd be perfect this week! Hm...we headed back to the car and drove a little farther down the road. Bob got out and found a handful of berries right by some barbed wire, but that was it. We headed farther down the road, waited for some cows to cross the road, and drove on...and the terrain changed, so we headed back to the barbed wire fence. This is where we made our first mistake. Bob took off on one side of the road, I took the kids to the other side. We went up the hill and were walking right next to the barbed wire. James was hanging back not wanting to come. . Bob crossed the road and was on the same side of us, but opposite side of barbed wire, close to the bottom of the hill. Ella was up ahead of me, as I grabbed James to bring him over where we were, on the little path. 

Just as Bob said, there were some huckleberry patches, I called to Ella and counted the FIVE I found...and we hear this mean throated sound. I look up from the berries and can see this big black animal side where the barbed wire either ended or have been down.. Is it a moose? Is it a bear? Does it have horns? Ella says, "Um, mom there's a cow" Sure enough. The cow saw us...and started running right at us! I grabbed Ella and threw her off the path the cow was charging down. We see the back of the beast ripping down the hillside. I grabbed James to pull him to safety and trip in the bushes. Then we roll a little bit down the hill. I call for Bob, who looks at me and says helplessly, "uh, I'm going to the van" and runs off for the van! (At this point, I am feeling quite deserted with no idea what to do with two kids and a raging cow coming right at me!!) All of a sudden the cow turns diagonal to us, still running and heads toward the van where Bob is running! Bob gets there, closes the door and the cow is only seconds behind him. The cow stops right in from of the van, sensing that's where the kids and I were heading...Now we are stuck, waiting for the cow to leave. 

Bob honks the horn once. Cow doesnt move. He lays on the horn again, and the cow backs up and runs around the van and over the hill and out of sight. The kids were petrified. I carry James and grab Ella's hand and RuN to the van. We all get into the same back door, and no one fought about it :) Yes, I was just as scared as they were. I'll admit, I was less than pleased with Bob's comment and then taking himself to safety. It was actually quite comical. You know, he sees the cow but isn't in immediate danger so he protects himself and leaves his wife and kids to fend for themselves...a little backwards, don't you think? But really, he was too far away to help me get the kids down, too far away to do anything, so he did the next best thing: Ran! And the running had to be what caused the cow to turn. There was no other explanation! If he hadn't run and attracted the cow's attention, today might have ended very differently for the three of us.

We are truly thankful for the protection we had today and know the Lord is watching over us. As for huckleberries, we brought home, I think 7 total...and they are  still sitting in the van. Obviously they weren't that important to us anymore :) As we left our "spot" and drove out toward home, we passed over 2 dozen cows on and in the road! (I wanted to take a picture but in the chaos of it all, thought I lost my phone but thankfully found it after we had passed all the herfers, hefers and baby cows.) 

I totally looked at cows a little differently after THAT ordeal! They weren't so nice and docile in their fenced pastures as I had previously thought. Perhaps, we smelled too much like the animals having been at the fair a few hours before. Poor James, just kept saying the cow was a bad animal and "we never go there again." Needless to say we are finding a new "spot" to pick huckleberries...that is if the kids still like them after today. 

"If we can make it, we are not buying it"....um, I like I'm vetoing that for huckleberry treats. We'll buy them! (at least this year anyway)