Saturday, October 17, 2015

Field Trip: Lazy 5 Ranch

We've had a lot of rain lately. And after a summer of serious drought, several days in a row of solid rain seemed to be a whole, whole lot. So, when sunny skies finally prevailed the kids and I spent a day at Lazy 5 Ranch.

And, Grandma was visiting so obviously it was necessary to skip a day of school and do something fun together, 

And, I had a BOGO coupon that *couldn't* go to waste. 

And, we hadn't been since before Annalyse was born so we were definitely due for another visit.

Grandma, who is usually the first to touch, hold, and enjoy most any animal, had an unusually up-close-and-personal experience with some sort of very friendly Tibetan bull.

When our wagon stopped, he mozied over and lurched his slimy nose and dripping tongue our direction and stood waiting for a fistful of pellets to be dropped into his mouth,
When he wasn't fed quick enough, he made sure to let Grandma know he was waiting and was hungry.
And because one fistful wasn't enough, he mooed and slurped and slimed and waited for more. (Obviously this was way more traumatic for Grandma than for Jaxton.)
Finally, enough pellets hit the spot, and our new friend closed his mouth to munch, leaving Grandma with strings of slime all down her back and legs, and leaving Jaxton mesmerized and attempting to imitate his slurping tongue.

All of this was maybe two minutes. But all of this involved more squealing from Grandma, more pictures from other passengers, and more laughs from me than you can possibly imagine.
Annalyse was hesitant at first, not sure about feeding some of the buffalo and bulls that had tongues the size of her entire head. But, she quickly warmed up to the new furry friends and was petting and feeding anything that came her way.
Micah parked himself in the front corner of the wagon and dropped pellets to any animal that came his way. Grady Lee, on the other hand, was up and down and all over the place trying to either avoid certain animals or get closer to others.
As an unexpected bonus for us, we had a very empty wagon with just three other homeschooling families. So instead of having one bucket of feeding pellets for every two people, my kids got two full buckets a piece.

And the weather was perfect. And Grandma was there. And so, really, it was a totally perfect day.
I remember visiting when Micah was the age of Jaxton, and Micah was terrified of the giraffes. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with them, Funny to see Jaxton look up and reach for them, totally willing unphased by the furry giant in front of him. And, as you can see, Micah has gotten over his fear and held a steady bucket to the long-necked animals.
Will you check this kid out?! No fear. None.

In fact, he taunted the sheep and goats. He'd hold fist fulls of pellets through the fence and then take his hand out, then put it back in, then take it back out... laughing while the animals baa-ed and begged for food.

Stinker. (But at least he's cute.)
After a fun wagon ride through the park, we enjoyed wandering the petting zoo, playing on the playground, and having a picnic lunch. I love when learning and nature and outside and Grandma all collide... the perfect kind of school day if you ask me.

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