Riley got to experience the farm for the first time last weekend, on a spectacularly glorious day. (Too bad we hadn’t found time to make the trip a month or so earlier; otherwise, I could have included it in his “firsts” book. Oh well; c’est la vie.)
Kenny and I figured that our boy would love being up there, and we were not mistaken one bit. Although a little overwhelmed at being introduced up-close-and-personal to real, live creatures of both bovine and equine descent, Riley-bean had the time of his life. After all, he loves being outside, and this day was spent almost entirely in the great outdoors.
The sticks available on the ground for Riley to find were just short of infinite. I’m sure he would have been happy to walk around collecting all day, but we had other things to do.
Luckily, Grandpa provided the distraction of a tractor, and the sticks were soon forgotten. Riley got to ride on Grandpa’s lap for a decent stretch on the way to feed the cows, and he even almost fell asleep despite the noise of the engine and the bumpy ride.
Then Kenny showed Riley the big supply of hay in the barn. Riley was a little intimidated at the tall stack and didn’t want to climb on it, but he was willing to sit in someone’s lap. And while we all demonstrated what farmers do with small pieces of hay, Zac bounced around above us on the stack. Jumping and climbing on the stack is apparently Zac’s favorite thing about going to the farm, and I can’t say I blame him. It looked like lots of fun.
Somewhere among all of the fun we managed to cook a delicious fajita lunch over the campfire, as well as celebrate Kenny’s birthday with presents and gooey butter cake. Yum.
We also detoured across the road at one point to the neighbors’ land to meet their horses. If only we had had time to ride! The horses were all huge and gorgeous, but Riley wasn’t too happy when we plopped him on the back of one.
After the horses, Grandma of course had to take Riley for his very first {short and safe} ride on the four-wheeler. Vroom-vroom!
Then I guess Riley was feeling confident because he decided he wanted to try driving the tractor.
With all of that activity, it was no wonder the boy fell fast asleep on his daddy’s lap during the tractor ride back to the campsite. He was OUT.
And he remained firmly asleep even after being transferred to me. (However, he then promptly woke up when we put him in his carseat and didn’t close his eyes again the whole way home. I guess a twenty-minute power nap was all he needed!)
Long story short, I would definitely call Riley’s first farm adventure a complete and utter success. We had such a wonderful time, and we captured so many great moments throughout the day, thanks to Grandma’s and Nopsi’s cameras.
Thanks for organizing the day, Grandma and Grandpa! Let’s do a trip like this again soon, okay? Do you think we could order up the exact same temperatures and conditions?
Because in terms of a day spent outdoors, it was pretty close to perfect.
