Grant's Farm

A few weeks ago, we went to Grant's Farm, finally! We had been hearing about it forever, and just never gotten there. It was really fun...long tram ride through most of the land, which was decorated for Halloween, petting zoo, elephants, camels, donkeys, lots of other stuff, too, and free beer for Nile (and not just a little cup, either! They give you a big aluminum bottle of it plus 2 free glasses). The Clydesdales were beautiful, though I only got one picture. And there was a charming little area to eat, as well. My favorite part was watching the kids pet/feed the little goats...more to come on that:) My other favorite part was that admission is free, except for parking.

Sorry, mom, the horse put his head down right when I took the picture:(

Cool Halloween decorations!

Daddy and Josie on the tram ride

Blurry picture, but I love my little guy's face while he was daydreaming.

We took a picture of Big Fred for our Texas cousins:)

The goats...getting acquainted.

This is out of order, but after about 15 minutes with the goats (there were literally about 40 of them in this huge pen), I realized Gabe was the only one who hadn't had any interaction with the goats:) He was so funny about it ("No, I'm not scared of them. I just don't really want to pet them")...finally, he found one he thought would be safe to pet. It was asleep. That's why he chose it. Hilarious. So, as he crouches down beside it, I get ready to take a picture. Unbeknownst to him, a different little goat is coming up behind him, and I start laughing so hard I can't take the picture, but Gabe has no idea why I'm laughing. This other little goat puts his head right up under Gabe's arm, just butts right in and scares Gabe half to death. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. I am so mad that I couldn't stop laughing and get the picture taken. I was doubled over-we were all cracking up. Anyway, this is Gabe and his sleeping goat:)

Josie did really well feeding the goats at first, but then the aggressive ones started jumping up on her, and almost knocked her over. Their hooves came up to her shoulders, of course, and they were face to face. She then said, "I think I'd like to go out of here, now, mommy". So cute. One started nibbling on my leg and jumped up on me, too. I may have let out a startled little scream that made some passersby laugh at me. I didn't really love them, either.

Seth looks like he is enjoying this, but informed me later that he didn't really like the goats:) What can I say, we are dog people. And we like to LOOK at other animals.

This is the little village area...

I don't like beer (much to Nile's dismay), but he wanted me to hold it for the sake of the picture:)

And some pics of Josie and my childcare kiddos painting our pumpkins...

Eckert's Apple Orchard

We had a fun time at the apple orchard last weekend. This one had pig races, camel/pony rides (which we did not do b/c they cost extra), a small petting zoo, pumpkin launching, a fort to play in, rides, lots of food stands, and hay rides. Probably more stuff that I am not remembering, as well. It was 74 and beautiful!

Seth took this shot of the pig races;)

I was smiling, but not for long. Somehow Nile disappeared when it was time for this ride, and I had to go with them. I dislike spinning things, but the kids were laughing so hard and having such a blast that it was worth it.

Watching the Jack-O-Lobber launch pumpkins half a mile...pretty cool.

Beautiful view of STL in the background

Back for more petting at the end of our visit, but tragically, this little fellow bit Josie's finger and broke her heart. She cried, which this tough girl does not often do...her feelings were hurt so badly. I tried to explain that we keep our hands flat when feeding them for good reason;)