Cornbellys is an incredibly large and fun Fall Festival and Corn Maze that is just around the corner from our house. When Lydia was 3and Austin was a baby, David and I got Cornbellys season passes, because Lydia and Austin were both free, but ever since then we've not really done the Cornbelly's thing. A couple of years, we went with a homeschool group for a field trip, but not all of the attractions were open. Lydia's been able to go once or twice with friends that had an extra buddy pass. The last two years we haven't gone as a family at all, and whenever the kids ask I just say "We aren't doing Cornbellys this year." Mostly, because it's just SO expensive! We love going to orchards, fall festivals, pumpkin patches, and anything in that fall category and so I always felt like we weren't really missing out - we were just doing different things. But I know that the kids have really wanted to go, and we drive by it all the time so I know that they felt like they were missing out.
The kids asked if we could get season passes and I told them that they could choose to use their family money to buy season passes. It was $54 per person and they had to use basically all of their money for August, September, and October. They were excited about it, and that's the best thing about our "family money" is that they get to choose how to spend it. We got season passes and did our best to make them worth it! I did feel like we missed some of our other favorite fall activities (like a fall hike or going to the Santaquin Red Barn orchard and back 40) because we spent all of our extra hours at Cornbellys. But overall, I think it was worth it, and I think that the kids had a lot of fun.
We decided to take a picture in the same place every time we went - for documentation. I let them choose where, and they chose this great big silver pumpkin by the entrance. It was easy and I felt like I could snap one picture when we came and didn't worry too much about taking many more pictures while we were there. I just tried to enjoy it and to let the kids enjoy it, too.
Here are a few snippets of our many trips to Cornbelly's this season plus a few thoughts that come to me as I look back at these picutures. After loading all of the photos, it appears that we went a total of ten times (plus the sunflower festival). That means it was about $5 per visit, per person BUT we also got a punch card with 10 punches each. Those punches could be traded in for activities or treats. We got a lot of apple cider, plus a good combination of donuts, cinnamon rolls, brownies, churros, corn, cookies, caramel apples and more. So the value was really actually VERY good, because each of those things was pretty expensive to buy.
Cornbelly's #1
We could see David's office in the VISA building right across the field from Cornbellys. Every once in a while I would snap a picture and send it to David telling him that we "wished he was here" but that we were "grateful he was working so hard for us". Also, the big slides were really, really fun. Even Lucy (especially Lucy) loved going down them.
Cornbelly's#2
The weather was beautiful for almost all of our visits! It didn't start getting cold until the end and it was just such a beautiful month to be outside.
Cornbelly's #3
David finally got to go with us, and the thing the kids were the MOST excited to show him was this scary dragon in the haunted house area. The kids loved going through it on repeat. It was a little creepy because it was dark and mazelike inside, but not scary like some of the other haunted houses.
(Lucy did not like the dragon Haunted House like the other kids).
Austin chose to use two of his punches on the apple blasters and he was happy.
Cornbelly's #4
We made it through the corn maze!
Caleb and Lucy both preferred to spend their punches on apple cider (slush or hot, depending on the weather). They also combined a lot of their punches and shared things so that they could get the most bang for their punch/buck. Shown below: "A taste for a taste." (Trading sips with each other.)
Cornbelly's #6
My favorite thing that I got there was the Mexican corn. It was the best Mexican corn that I've ever had, including the ones that I had IN MEXICO. I had a canker at the time and that dampened my enjoyment of the salt, but I'm already dreaming about Cornbelly's next year so that I can get more corn.
Cornbelly's #7
At this point, we had finally made it through the entire venue and hit all of the different activities (or at least most of them). The kids had a pretty good idea of their favorite things and we started going back to those things instead of exploring new areas.
Cornbelly's #8
Cornbelly's has a night show at 8:30 every night and includes fireworks on the weekends. We hadn't been able to go any of the earlier weekends but on the last weekend before Halloween, I left Lucy and Caleb home with David and took Lydia and Austin. It was SO cold. But there were lights and fake snow and fireworks so it was worth it.
Cornbelly's #9
There was a trick-or-treating/costume parade and so we made sure to hit that. We also reaffirmed that Cornbelly's is more fun when Dad is there, too. Except it was SO cold and we ended up leaving earlier than planned because we couldn't take the frigid fall air.
Cornbelly's #10
I forgot to mention that we got season passes for me and the four kids, but not for David. However, each of our season passes came with one buddy pass. One of the times that David came, a kind lady let us use one of her bonus buddy passes so we didn't have to pay extra for the weekend - so on our last day of the season, we still had three extra buddy passes. We invited Matt, Brooklyn, and their kiddos to join us. It was cold, but not as cold as the day before and we had a good ole time.
We ended our last Cornbellys night by going out to eat at Zao, using some free coupons we got during the trick-or-treat parade. The kids loved eating out and it was nice to go eat some warm food after a fun day in the brisk fall air.
In conclusion,
This was a really fun way to celebrate fall this year. Cornbelly's didn't disappoint and now my kids have had the experience and don't feel like they are missing out so much. I don't know if we will get season passes again next year - but I think that we will at least save enough money to go once (plus buy a punch pass to share so that we can get some corn and cider). Cornbelly's for the 2023 win.
