The Number Field

Our church youth had an activity this evening at a corn maze. Last week I heard that they were looking for chaperones. I thought people would jump at the opportunity, because Jenny and I have always talked about how fun it would be to go through a corn maze. When I emailed the person in charge, he said that they didn't have many chaperones and we would be welcome to come along--we could even bring Elena. The place was only about twenty minutes away from us; later in the evening we met some new people who had to drive an hour and half to get there.

When the time came to enter the maze, they first asked the youth to sort themselves into groups of eight to ten. Then they told the adults to go find a group to accompany through the maze. While we were wandering around trying to find someone who could pair us with a group, we heard someone nearby calling our names. We didn't really think that anyone there knew us, so it was a bit of a surprise. Then we saw that it was two girls from our ward, one of whom was Elena's babysitter a few weeks ago. It felt good to be wanted.

The maze itself seemed about the right size and difficulty for us. We went in circles a couple of times. Some of our group wanted to stay in there longer, and intentionally led us down the wrong paths. Elena did very well. She took turns walking and being carried by Jenny and me. Whenever we got a little behind, the kids stopped to wait for us. It was still light when we entered the maze, but before long we had to start using our flashlights, which Elena liked.

After a while, we could tell that Elena was ready to be out, as were some of the group members. They outvoted those who just wanted to stay in the maze, and we stopped to look at the map for long enough to figure out where we needed to go. The deciding factor was the promise of hot chocolate once we got out. Once the decision was made, I was impressed with how quickly we got on the right track.

In addition to hot chocolate there was also a bonfire and makings for s'mores. Jenny toasted the first marshmallow and shared with Elena and me, then Elena and I did the second marshmallow. Elena liked warming up next to the fire--even though she was wearing her new winter coat, it was still chilly, especially for her ears and fingers. She wouldn't keep her hood up, and we don't yet have any mittens for her. Still, she was well behaved and mostly happy for the whole evening, and ran around enough to be ready for bed as soon as we returned home.