Family Farm Weekend

Now that we've made it through Christmas (more on that later), I'm hopeful that we will have a bit of time to catch up on the many blog posts that we are behind on! As this blog serves as a great way for us to document activities and moments so that we ourselves can reflect on them later, we want to catch up on at least some posts so we can remember all of these beautiful moments that we have with our sons.

One of the best investments we have made since Jonah was born was a family membership to the Milwaukee County Zoo. We go there quite regularly - there was one period where we literally hit the zoo every month within the course of a year (a mild winter helped us maintain that record). It's a great way for us to get out of the house and enjoy seeing and learning about animals. In September, the zoo offered a Family Farm Weekend with activities focused more on traditional "farm" activities rather than animals that come from more exotic places. The weather was nice and we knew we needed a break from thinking about the upcoming move and home sale.

Jonah had the opportunity to participate in his first tractor pull, something we figure would make his Grandpa Gregg proud. He was literally the first kid to get on the tractor, which was a good thing, as Jonah saw the tractor and really wanted to get on it right away. We thought he was going to make an actual attempt to use the pedals on the tractor (he REFUSES to use them on his tricycle, even though his legs are now finally long enough that he can use them), but in the end he just used his feet on the ground. He pulled to the left and made a very spirited attempt to pull the tractor to the end of the short track. Unfortunately, he didn't make it all the way and he wasn't the most gracious about leaving the tractor behind (he wanted to continue to play with it), but it was a valiant effort! I'm sure there will be many more tractor pulls in his future!

Giving it his all.

In addition to the tractor pull, the zoo offered hay rides around one of the central loops. I made the mistake of telling Jonah that we weren't sitting on hay, but rather straw. For the rest of the day, he insisted on calling it a straw ride rather than a hay ride.

This is so much fun riding on the wagon!

As a part of the weekend's activities, the zoo had a variety of demonstrations and opportunities for kids to try their hand at "old-fashioned" activities. The timing wasn't exactly ideal to participate in many of the activities, but Jonah was at least able to try his hand at cranking ice cream (and of course, sampling the ice cream, which almost made us late for the tractor pull).

Are you sure I'm going to get some ice cream?

We made sure that we allowed for some time to play on the zoo's playground as well. Jonah has become increasingly daring on play equipment and we were able to catch him swinging one-handed from the bar at the top of one of the small slides. Jonah was also very interested in walking on the curb in the farm area (though he still required Daddy's hand at certain points).

Daredevil Jonah!

I want to be a big boy, but I'm not quite brave enough to do this alone.

No trip to the zoo would be complete without a ride on the train. Unfortunately, we weren't able to sit in the caboose, but we took last car that we could. Jonah is so excited by trains and proudly posed in the car for us:

We didn't spend as much time as usual looking at the animals for this visit, but a highlight was the elephant exhibit, where one of the elephants was wowing visitors with its reach across the ravine to get food on the other side. This photo doesn't quite do her antics justice.

What a fun day we had! We hope the zoo will offer this activity again and hope to attend again next year.