Finally...the farm

We'd been planning on taking the kids to the farm (Thanksgiving Point) since March, but every weekend was either bad weather or more pressing activities took precedence (like pulling burly juniper bushes out of our yard or cleaning up the tree that has been chopped down for, er, two years). This last weekend there were finally no excuses. Memorial Day meant Paul didn't have to work so we packed up the little boys and headed for THE FARM.

Note: We almost didn't go at all due to an "injury" little brother got from a rowdy big brother (all hopped up on farm anticipation). Boy was D relieved to find out that his brother could actually still walk. He was actually relieved to find out that the farm trip was not to be postponed.

I knew Lieutenant would love the farm. The second Paul set him down he was practically inside the fence saying "hi" to the goats. (PS goats are pretty freaky)

This is how D preferred his animal viewing - from about three feet back where it would be impossible for any teeth, tongues, hooves, or horns to even get close to him.

Lt. started baaaa-ing instantly upon seeing this fellow, but even after he switched from baaaa-ing to "hi", that sheep still didn't move a muscle...

I think this was probably D's favorite part of the farm - the peafowls. They were sure noisy! It's too bad we couldn't get them agitated enough to spread their feathers. It probably takes a lot to get these guys agitated though since they get handfuls of corn pelted at them roughly every two minutes.

Paul likes how D is holding his arm behind his back in this picture. Imagine how much D's caution increased (by about a million) after reading that sign - "Please Do Not Feed Your Fingers to the horses" (PS what is going on with the capitalization on that sign???)

But he was brave enough to give the horse a pat-pat on the forehead. This picture is post pat-pat. He looks pretty relieved to still have all his fingers intact!

Lt. got in on the action too and felt the nice horse's soft ear. D was pretty relieved Lt. still had all of his fingers afterward as well.

Waiting in line to ride the horses

Lt. didn't look up from his horse one time. Probably trying to figure out what exactly in the world was going on.

D rode his horse all by himself - which was a MAJOR accomplishment! He had fun and even wanted to do it again!

Lt. couldn't figure out why I kept saying "cow" and making mooo-ing noises at this chap. Guess in his mind all cows are black and white because he kept turning and pointing and moooo-ing at the black and white cow. No love for the brown cow.

This was a little house for kiddos to go in. I'm not sure really why. Old country town theme?? I think this building was "Miss Kitty's Dance Hall" or something to that effect. And the jail was next door. And they're both looking for an airplane they hear.

Here we are exiting the horse and cart ride around the farm. About halfway through I thought I was going to have to tell the driver to just head straight for the hospital. Bumpy.

Okay, this might have been D's favorite part of the farm. It's a close one. Both boys loved feeding the ducks and geese corn. They shared the corn and had so much fun hurling it at the birds (although most of Lt's ricocheted off the fence and landed back by his feet - for him to throw again of course). Who cares that none of the birds actually ate anything! I'm sure that the corn is a foot deep at the bottom of that pond.

This was the last stop before we headed out (minus the gift shop where D blew $1.20 on some mini-horses and a ladybug for Lt.). It was pretty much past nap time and Lt. was all tuckered out and probably jealous of the pigs he was watching sleep. Let's pretend that his mouth isn't anywhere even close to that fence because it was nasty.

A couple of random notes about our farm trip...
The last time we went to the farm was almost two years ago, literally the day before Lt. was born. This time when we went to the farm, Lt. wore the same shorts and shoes that D wore last time we went. Also, I would like to report that the city slickers did great this year - nobody wore flip-flops or pants (don't worry we did wear shorts). Remember what happened last time we went to the farm? And finally, I really tried my hardest to only put 10 pictures in this post. Couldn't make it happen.