friday at the farm

i went back and forth about whether or not to join our neighbors at a 'petting' farm that is about 30-40 minutes from our house friday morning. first, we were leaving on vacation the next day and i had a lot to get done. second, it is not an inexpensive outing. and third, the morning was not going well. it was just one of those mornings where it shouldn't have been so hard but everything that could go wrong did.

friday was the first cold snap of the year and i was trying to figure out what shoes and jackets we could all wear since i hadn't really pulled out any cold weather clothes yet. it had rained the night before so i was trying to find madelyn's rain boots because i was expecting the farm to be a little muddy. they were no where to be found and i caught the pocket of my favorite (read: comfortable and presentable) maternity pants on something while looking for them. i later discovered that i had ripped the pocket quite noticeably and am pretty bummed about it.

then i threw together a picnic lunch for all three of us from scraps in the kitchen. we had intentionally let the food supply run low since we were heading out of town. this just made putting lunch and snacks together that much more time consuming.

i checked my email one more time to make sure that the weather hadn't changed our plans only to see a note that this might be a cash only destination. okay, fine. now i just need to stop by the bank on the way - not a big deal. only i realized that matt had my bank card at work with him. thankfully, he answered when i called and could bring my card out front.

i picked up my bank card from matt and then started to head to the bank which was about 15 or 20 minutes out of our way and we were already running about 20 minutes late - and i hate, hate being late. i was just trying to stay calm and not speed. it was only after i was most of the way to the bank that i realized i should have just stopped somewhere to buy a pack of gum and get cash back. oh well. thank goodness that we have a navigation system in the car! because every road i took from the bank heading to the farm seemed to end in a closed road and detour because of all the construction!

i was seriously considering turning around and going home because madelyn and mason had been having a whiny morning, we were very late, i was stressed out, etc. and one of the times madelyn started whining about wanting to go to the farm i told her that i was trying as hard as i could to get us there. after a few minutes she started randomly cheering me on, "you can do it, mom!". "keep trying, mom, you are doing great." i can't really remember all the words of encouragement she was giving me, but it totally lightened my mood and we managed to get there.

it was a really fun outing and i am glad that we persevered. while i think it is too expensive to be a frequent trip, i think that we will go again sometime with daddy and spend the whole day. there are pens and barns with the animals and you can just touch anything you want. here are some videos and pictures from the day.

i was just taking some video of mason checking out this huge hog, but it is so funny to see what he does when the hog, in its pen, comes in his direction.

these are some of the better animal pictures. the little goats were pretty popular with all the kids. mason would reach so far that he was on the tips of his toes, but he wouldn't step any closer than he was comfortable with towards any of the goats. he wouldn't touch the ducklings either, but he did like petting the bunnies. madelyn liked petting everything and really enjoyed her pony ride. usually she rides kind of stone faced, but she smiled the whole time and seemed to really enjoy the ride.


like i mentioned above, mason liked petting the bunnies. and, yes, madelyn is milking a live cow in the picture. there was just a cow set up waiting for any passerby to come over and milk it. the last picture is mason getting a little too much love from madelyn and our friend ava. he liked it at first, but then the girls just wouldn't stop.
and here is a video of ava and madelyn bouncing in the "hippity hop corral". for some reason this just struck me as super funny; like it was something from mickey mouse clubhouse.

all in all a really great outing for a cool day and worth all the effort. love.