We started the first day at Thanksgiving Point. There was a great petting zoo there along with tons of other activities. Grandpa Ross spoiled Nate and bought some corn to feed the animals. Nate was especially enamored with the donkey. Robert patiently held the corn for Nate to feed the donkey with one kernel at a time. It took a long time. I think Nate gets the one at a time thing from me because if I give him everything all at once I get a great big mess. Eventually Robert gave up and threw all the remaining corn at the donkey.
There were tons of animals. Lots of ducks and geese, chicken and turkey, even peacocks and peahens. The goats were just the right height for Nate to get a good look at them. He loves animals so much and is really proud of his growing animal vocabulary. He'd point things out to me using the right name, sometimes really surprising me.
Of course, Uncle CW is the most fun for Nate. At the turkey coop CW would taunt the turkeys and get them all excited and angry. Nate laughed so hard. He got a real kick out of it. Honestly, though, I don't think CW was doing that for Nate's benefit.
There was a short hayride, minus hay, that we got to take the kids on. They seemed to enjoy it but Nate was much more interested in walking around as the wagon moved. This, of course, was against the rules and that didn't make for a happy camper. Eventually, I just gave up and figured if he hurt himself he'd learn his lesson. You gotta pick your battles, right?
I didn't think Nate would go for it, but they had pony rides for the really little kids. Much to my pleasure, once we got moving Nate really seemed to like it. He was such a big boy. He wouldn't let me let go of the horn of his saddle, though. That's definite progress for Robert's offspring considering Robert won't even mount a horse.
After all the fun ended at Thanksgiving Point, we had a BBQ at Robert's Aunt Nancy's home. They rented a giant blow up slide for the kids. I thought Nate needed to get in on that fun so I went down with him a couple of times before I made him try it on his own. His face was hilarious. I don't know if the picture shows it all that well, but his face never changed. Every time he went down this look of terror crossed his face. When he got to the bottom it became absolute jubilation. The kid loved the slide. I even went down it a few more times and managed to give myself a pretty nasty burn but it was totally worth it. The slide was up until 11pm and Nate hardly stopped.
Nate had so much fun with the slide that we are considering getting him one for his third birthday party coming up in September. The stairs were pretty steep for the little guy but that didn't stop him. I was so proud of how independent he was that night.
The family reunion was a great success and I had the best time finally meeting family and learning more about the faces I'd only seen in pictures. Robert has a really great family.
1 comment:
I remember taking my Kindergarteners on a fieldtrip to Thanksgiving Point. It's a great place for kids. Looks like Nate had a blast!
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