Today should be titled "fit everything else in" day. The kids had their vacation bucket list that just had to be completed before the vacation was over or we faced a major catastrophe. My only request when we are in this part of The Mitten is breakfast at my very favorite place in town. I will keep it nameless for fear if too many people know about it, I'll never get a table again. The coolest part is more than one year I've run into a friend from work that retired a few years ago--she's almost always in the area at the same time as us visiting family. So ironic that we're at the same little café at the same time each year! (This year I missed her by a day!)
My boys begrudgingly went to breakfast with me. I think they thought they would miss something at the cottage by us leaving... turns out they missed everyone eating breakfast and taking a long time to get ready! We were on our way back from town and they hadn't even left yet. We met the rest of the family at the local craft fair, and walked around there for awhile. H was already complaining about the heat--I had a feeling we were in for a long day.
After the craft fair, they just HAD to go to the petting farm. I hadn't been there yet, so in my mind, I couldn't understand why this place was a big deal. Turns out this is more than just a little petting farm--it's actually a really nice orchard and farm with a lot of well cared for animals and a ton of activities for kids to do besides just petting and feeding animals. There is a huge bouncing balloon (actually two, one for big kids that H was allowed on and one for smaller kids), a double slide, a huge sand pit, rubber duck racing, pedal cart racing, a train ride through the orchard, and even tetherball. There appears to be even more to do in the fall - pumpkin launching! - and I imagine the place is really packed with people then.
The goats were by far my favorite and H even got to hold the sweetest little guy that was just born the day before. It was the highlight of my day for sure. Feeding the birds is also fun, and it was just like Potter Park Zoo where you buy a popsicle stick with seeds glued to it for the birds to land on and eat. We got some great pics of all three kids holding birds while they ate, which is no easy feat when the birds aren't overly cooperative (or hungry!). This place is awesome. No wonder it was on the kids' "must do" list.
Next we stopped for lunch at a golf course. The food was great and we were able to sit on their deck outside. We then ventured to the Children's Hands On Museum--which seemed crazy to me since there wasn't a lot of time before they closed and it was a drive to get there. The kids had fun there but I could tell they were all getting tired from a long day full of activity. I was tired too! Our favorite areas that H and I discussed were the "rockstar band area" where H tried out a cool drum set as well as vocals... Parent of the Year award for him signing "My House" by Flo Ride for the whole third floor to hear...
He also had fun at the vet center as we worked on sick animals. My favorite area to interact with him was their Hungry Howie's pizza and ice cream counter. He pretended to take a call for an order while getting my food ready; "18 minutes??!?!! I can't do that!". He also made me my usual, a sundae with peanut butter and cookie dough.
When we finally got home after being gone for 10 hours, the kids wanted Tonka toaster pizzas on the fire for dinner so that's what we did. I got a great video of them dancing to their new favorite song to sing together--Meghan Trainor's NO. How appropriate. H and I went to bed at the same time and talked about our day as we laid there in the dark. It was a great way to end our extremely busy day.
No comments:
Post a Comment