Down on Grandpa's Farm

My friend Brenda invited our family to go with theirs for Easter to her parent's farm/ranch a few hours away.  It is calving season and she thought our kids would enjoy seeing all the baby cows and running around in the giant acreage.  She was so right.  I guess I didn't realize it until we were out there just how much we needed to get away from the city and from our cramped apartment.  It was so nice not to smell my neighbors smoking or hear them yelling during the hockey games through the wall or cussing at their kids through the wall.  It was also so nice for the kids to be able to run around and play in such a large house and especially also outside.  We had a total blast and seriously we couldn't have been around more warm and welcoming people.  They were an amazing family.  Here are some of our highlights:

The girls met some of Brenda's nieces and nephews and made fast friendships with them.  Chloe ran around with Lacey for hours and hours. The best was the day Lacey showed up with a raven carcass and just walked around with it all day making it pretend fly. I couldn't stop laughing.  The girls weren't sure if they should be impressed or grossed out.

Tati collected an egg from the hen house that reeked like nothing you've ever smelled before (the house not the egg).

Gavin graduated into a forward facing position for driving.  He loved being able to watch the movie playing in the car with the kids.  He kept giggling and kicking his feet with joy.

Gavin ever improved his walking and also started to think that he could walk downstairs like all the big people do (as in standing, facing forward) and almost died a few times.  We've convinced him at least for now that he needs to still crawl down backwards.

Tati rode inside a tractor with "Grandpa" Bryce and got to honk the horn.  She also really enjoyed it when he honked the horn at her after she got out.

All the kids absolutely fell in love with the dogs on the farm.  There were three of them and for some reason I kept hearing them talk in my head since they looked just like the dogs in "Babe". (I love that movie.)

I learned how to drive a quad.  For some reason I thought that was going to be harder than it was.  The kids LOVED driving around all together.  And there was something about the hum of the engine that made Gavi fall asleep every time.  It was super fun.

I saw a city boy actually PULL a baby cow out of his Mommy's vajayjay and I felt both grossed out and strangely emotional as she had her baby although I could've done without all her farts during her efforts.  Ha, ha.  Too bad no photos of this one.

We enjoyed the favorite past time of youth on farms of running on bales of hay and it was actually super fun and I didn't sneeze even once! Also, although my heart raced a few times at their dare devil-ness, nobody fell off because it is a lot higher than it looks in these pics.

The kids enjoying molding and rolling and re-rolling and flouring sugar cookies.  I NEVER make sugar cookies because it seems so play-doh-ish but they were quite yummy and the girls loved it so much that I vowed to get over my touching dough at least a bit for them.  Tati went a little overboard on the sprinkles and then just ate sprinkles while everybody else actually frosted their cookies.

We had a campfire and played in a hammock.

We mooed at a lot of cows and even got to pet a few.

If you want to see a cow having a baby, you can enlarge this picture.

We pet some horses.

We even helped with some of the farm work.

We had the best time.  We loved it.  Honestly who knew that the farm life would appeal to me so much?  I told Greg if this whole Geology thing doesn't pan out, we can always become farmers.