Adventure

Animal Farm

Posted on by Amy
Fall will be here soon. It’s my favorite season. In the fall I get all excited about going to new outdoor places and soaking up every possible moment of the beautiful weather, before Winter hits us like a slap in the face…

Yesterday we checked out a local animal farm, where they have all sorts of cool animals to look at and feed. When I paid our admission, we were given three bags of bread and told we could feed any of the animals we wanted, but just to “watch our fingers.” Miss got right to feeding some goats.


We had seen two beautiful peacocks walking around free right after we drove onto the property. As we went further, we saw there were lots of animals roaming around out in the open. I noticed one of the peacocks near where we were standing and tried to get a great photo of it. I was not successful. See that goat behind the peacock?
Shortly after I took this photo, that guy and one of his pals accosted us, trying to steal my bread and completely freaking Lass and Miss out. Lass was in her stroller, doing a great job, and Miss had been feeding the smaller caged goats. These two insane goats practically stood on top of the stroller, trying to get at the stack of bread I had pulled out of the bag and the pieces that had fallen on the ground. There was a cat trying to climb into Lass’s lap too. Needless to say, I forgot all about the peacock as I was frantically trying to strap on my Ergo while Miss was working on climbing up my leg saying, “Hold me Mommy! Hold me Mommy!” and Lass was screaming bloody murder. One of the women working there came over and started trying to pull the goats away just as I was getting Lass into the Ergo, her favorite spot.

I ended up pushing an empty stroller for the rest of our visit. It was a good spot to hold the bread I guess.

Fortunately, Miss quickly forgot about the goat attack and was right back into feeding them.



This guy kind of made her nervous though.

I thought he was really fun to feed. His tongue was super long and funny.

Miss kept getting freaked out though and dropping her bread each time he’d stick his tongue out to grab it. By the way, if you can’t tell from the photos, this guy is a buffalo. I think. They had Bison there too, but they were separate, and I’m pretty sure this guy was a buffalo. There were water buffalo too, which Miss thought was pretty fun, since we recently got the book, “Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?” in which there is a water buffalo.

This is the guy who freaked me out a little bit. Just for a second. With each of the animals we fed, I gave them a piece of bread before letting Miss do it, just to make sure it wasn’t going to take her little arm off or anything. When I held out a piece of bread to this ostrich, he stretched his neck out and grabbed at it so quickly, he startled me so much I jumped back, let out a screech, and dropped my bread.

After a second try though, he really was pretty friendly. Miss had no trouble feeding him.
She love seeing the ostrich eggs and kept asking if she could go get one and were they going to hatch. I thought it odd that they were just lying all around on the ground like that.
There were a few other odd things about the place. Like the fact that a stretch of our tour led us through this area that was full of trash,


and these. There were a bunch of them just in a pile in the trash area. Notice several of them still have fur on them? One was even a bit more fresh, but I didn’t take a photo of that one. Weird.
And many of the animals clearly needed a bit of grooming.

But, Miss didn’t even notice all that stuff. I just looked past it, after taking some photos of course, and we really did have a lot of fun.
There were so many different types of animals to see and being able to feed them was great.
Camels.

Horses. Miss loved the horses. And I loved seeing her run right up near them and then stop and stare, up, up, up at these big guys.

Lass enjoyed the horses too.
I was trying to get a photo showing how she was interested in them. What I got instead was a horse nipping my shoulder. I snapped this photo right as the big black and white one was taking a nibble. It didn’t hurt, but scared the heck out of me for a second.
I thought this pig was so funny, but was bummed that he didn’t want anything to do with us. We had to just drop our piece of bread for him, and he didn’t even sniff at it until we had walked on by.
Miss did get to feed some other pigs later though.
I loved this fawn. It ate out of our hands, and made this funny little squeaking sound asking for more.
The bison.
Eyeore.
This guy was a miniature dwarf pony. He was one of my favorites.

Birds.

Turtles.
I think these were porcupines.
There were a lot more animals too. When I asked Miss what her favorite was though, she said, “The cats.”
She loved this little bunny too.
And so did Lass.

It was a fun day. I’m glad we have something like this place nearby. I still have to take the girls to the bigger zoo soon though. Miss keeps asking to see giraffes, hippos, and rhinoceroses. So we’ll make that trip soon.

A Week to Remember

Posted on by Amy
We got back late last night from a long, tiring, yet fun-filled ten days at the Farm. The girls grew so much during the week it seems, with so much to do and so many loving people around to do it with. Both sets of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, a gazillion cousins. They saw cool and interesting things and had new experiences. This bird’s nest is just one example of the treasure trove of nature that is the Farm.

The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s made mostly of pieces of baling twine, twisted intricately around the branches and woven with grass, and probably other stuff. The general consensus was that it was probably an oriole’s nest. We didn’t bring it back with us, though that would have been a hell of a find for Miss to take to preschool. Miss’s Baba also gave her a robin’s egg, but we forgot that too. Miss saw deer, a coyote, a huge praying mantis, the biggest spider I’ve ever seen outside a glass case, a stick bug, and on and on. She really loved checking out the milkweed pods and walnuts that she found on the ground.
A different kind of new experience came for her in the form of corn. She has had sweet corn many times that I cut off the cob for her, but this week she had her first try at eating it right off the cob. She thought that was pretty cool.


But much more thrilling was her first ride on the “Great Big Mable” float pulled behind my in-law’s boat.



She didn’t seem scared in the slightest.
Just waving and smiling. My little daredevil.
Right after coming in from the boat and Mable ride, she went fishing with her Daddy. They caught several fish, and she had lots of fun with the worms.



One fish broke off their hook, so Miss sat and watched for fish with my mom while her Daddy went to get a new hook.
Then they were back in business.




Poor Lass is too little to get in on lots of the action her sister is getting into now, but she had great fun playing with her cousins. She really started moving with her walking this week too. Though she took her first steps shortly after turning 11 months, she never really got going with walking, and in fact until a few days ago, had almost stopped trying entirely. Now she’s really getting into it, choosing to walk instead of crawling more and more often, and stringing together more and more steps.

After her fishing time with her Dad, Miss got ready to go for a treasure hunt. She got all ready in her boots and headed out to the Ranger. The treasure hunt is one of my favorite things about the farm.
Tons of kids and adults pile on the Rangers and go off to explore and look for treasures of all kinds. I used to love going on treasure hunts when I first started coming to the Farm almost a decade ago. I was always the “City Mouse” to my husband’s “Country Mouse” family, and thoroughly enjoyed going out and being awed by all the finds. It’s a hundred times more fun to do it now with my kids.
We stopped to pick lots of wild flowers, which Lass loved.

Then we got down to the beach, where the kids splashed around and looked for shells and critters.

There were tons of tiny frogs hopping all around and the kids had a blast trying to catch them. Miss got to hold one that her older cousin caught for her. She also found a snake that her uncle grabbed up for her. That girl and her snakes…
Lass enjoyed the beach too.
It was really a week to remember. Every new experience for my girls seems like something new and amazing for me too. I love every minute of it.
Today we savored the trip and each other, happy to be home and back in our routine. Summer is winding down quickly here in the North Country. Today was crisp and felt very much like fall already. Football has started (Go Blue!). And preschool starts this week! Loving every minute.

Big Fat Vacation Post

Posted on by Amy

We came home to heavily falling snow yesterday. After a week of sunshine and warmth, we are now back to over a foot of snow and temps below 20 degrees. But we had a splendid time. Now there’s a word I don’t use often enough. Splendid. Our vacation was truly splendid. It was full of everything a vacation should be. Lots of time with family. Cherished moments for my girls to spend with my grandparents, their grandparents (both my parents and my husband’s), and my aunt and uncle.




Four generations here.



And in addition to the fantastic family time, we had all the elements of the perfect vacation.
Bubbles.

Sweaty, sunscreened skin and hair curled by humidity.
Dancing and funny faces in a could-have-been-made-for-my-toddler mirror.





The beach of course, complete with shelling, relaxing, sand play, checking out the surf (Miss would not get too near the water, and kind of freaked out the one time a wave did come up over her toes), bird watching, a picnic lunch, and a nap for our littlest, experiencing her first trip to the beach.













A fun visit with close friends. Two of my good friends from graduate school live about an hour south of my in-law’s house, so I was able to visit with them and let them see the girls.

Morning walks, during which we got to walk by the harbor and see the manatees. Miss got so excited to see them poking their noses up out of the water. Okay, I got really excited to see them too, as I had never seen a manatee in person before.
Here we’re getting ready to go.
And of course, pool time.

This was our second dip in the pool for the week. Somehow we did not get any photos the first time. And unfortunately the pool heater got turned off by accident, so the water was a bit too cold for our second swimming attempt. But Miss really wanted to go in the pool, so her daddy got into the cold water and took her swimming. Reluctantly. . .
Sort of.


This dip in the pool only lasted a few minutes before we coaxed a blue-lipped, teeth-chattering Miss to get dry and blow bubbles instead of swimming.
In the evenings we had some grown up time playing cards with my in-laws. My husband and I taught them to play Euchre. I haven’t played Euchre since graduate school, and I forgot how much I enjoy it.
It was a great vacation. I almost didn’t want to come home. But now we’re here and I’m glad. We’re snuggled in and refreshed to get through the last of the cold weather. We’re looking forward to spring here. I can’t wait to see the crocuses pop up and feel the warm sun bringing everything back to life. I can’t wait to get my girls out and playing in the yard, going to the park and for walks in our new double stroller. Big things to come. Potty training. And this:
That’s avocado.
She seemed to like it at first.
And then maybe not so much.
Not sure if it was the taste or texture she was shuddering about.
We’ll try again tomorrow!

Arizona

Posted on by Amy
We got back late last night from our trip to Arizona. It was a very good trip. The girls were fantastic on the planes rides going and coming. Our flight was so late last night that Miss stretched out on the floor of the plane to go to sleep. We didn’t have reliable wireless while we were there. So though I had intended to post once or twice during the week, here’s one big fat post to tell you all about the trip.
Our first morning there, Miss was ecstatic about the sun and warm weather. I chose this house to rent specifically because of the large grassy area where she could play and the fence around the pool. Here she is marveling at the wonderful weather.

It wasnt quite as warm as I thought it would be but the weather was the same every day. Sun. 70-ish degrees. Almost no clouds. Not warm enough to swim, but warm enough to play outside a lot. And my big girl loves to play outside.
It was the first thing she asked her daddy to do every morning. With the time change she was getting up a bit earlier than usual, and my generous husband got up with her every morning to let me sleep in a little bit. And every morning, even though it was still pretty chilly early on, she asked right away to go outside. They had tons of fun just playing in the yard.
We got out and about quite a bit as well. We went to the Phoenix Zoo.
Miss got to feed a giraffe. The first time she tried to feed him the lettuce leaf his crazy-long tongue kind of freaked her out and she dropped it.
So the she watched her daddy do it
and gave it another try.
Watching the cheetahs.
Lunch time.
Lass was a superstar, just hanging out in the stroller we rented or in her Ergo carrier.
Miss asked all day to see the monkeys. They had a nice “Monkey Village” where we could go in and walk around with the monkeys on the loose all around us. Miss got a kick out of looking for them up in the trees.
“Where’d he go?”
We took a nice walk in Papago Park.


We went to a playground near our rental house.

That’s my girl!!

One afternoon my hubby gave me a break to go to a local spa for a treatment. It was amazing and such a nice treat for Mama!!
We all enjoyed our break from the cold and snow. It was nice to just be outside and play without being crazy bundled up and freezing. It was also cool to see all the flora of such a different climate. I had never been to Arizona or any place like it before, so it was fun for me to see all the different cacti and other plants and to show them to Miss.



We also had fun looking at ants. Fortunately, this time of year there aren’t many other bugs or creepy critters in Arizona.


Interestingly, one of my favorite outings of the whole trip was to a bunch of Main Street art galleries. They have amazing galleries in Scottsdale and we spent one morning sampling many of them. Miss seemed to have as much fun (if not more) looking at the art as she did at the zoo. She “oohed” and “aahed” and pointed out all the things she recognized. At the first gallery we went into she saw some large cartoon-like female statues and she pointed to them and said “Oh, Big Mama!” We all cracked up, including the woman working at the gallery. Miss is still talking about the “Big Mama” statue.
Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by how friendly the people are in Scottsdale and how much fun we had. I had never really thought of Arizona as a place high on my list of places I wanted to visit (other than to the Grand Canyon), but it is definitely a place we will likely go again. It’s nice to have a break from the cold, and we will have some great friends moving there we would love to visit. And I want to spend some more time browsing the art galleries as we barely scratched the surface this time.
It’s snowing here as I type this. Fortunately it is a bit warmer than when we left last week (think 20 degrees versus zero). Of course, even though it’s snowy and cold here, we are very happy to be home.