We've had an animal-filled past couple of weeks! Two Saturdays ago, Paul was going to be out of town so Wilder and I met my mom at my grandmother's farm in Covington. Wilder hadn't been since Christmas and I knew, with the stage he's in right now, that he would just eat it up. And he did. He had the best time being a little country boy for the day.
Looking for apples
Picking tomatoes with Grana
He LOVED picking tomatoes and wouldn't
stop until we had gotten every single one
that was ripe and filled two grocery bags
Moving on to the pear trees
Checking out what was in the barn. To this day, a week
and a half later, he can still tell you what all he saw:
bobcat, blue tractor, and an old truck. When he was
telling Paul about it the next day, Paul asked him what
color the old truck was and he said, Dirty. Haha, which is
true, it was covered in dust so you couldn't see what
color it was!
Watching the donkeys from the safety of the trailer
The back of my grandmother's house and one of the barns.
I have so many good childhood memories on this farm.
My little country boy
I could just eat him up! Love that sweet smile!
Jack, Jenny, and Susie Q -- only being nice
because we brought them food
Our share of the gazillion tomatoes we picked, so pretty!
Last week I was in a funk because of the one year anniversary of my dad's death, but I didn't want my sadness to affect Wilder so I tried to still do some fun stuff with him.
We had the playground to ourselves one day because
it was cold and wet but Wilder entertained himself
for half an hour just throwing stuff into the big
puddle under the monkey bars. I finally had to pry
him away from it when I was too cold to stand it
any longer. What is it with kids and puddles? :)
We walked back to the little lake behind our house
a few days in a row and it felt nice to sit out in the
sunshine and quiet.
One morning we went to storytime at the library and
then to Chick-fil-A for a little lunch date. It made him
so happy to have his own big boy drink with a straw,
to play in the playplace, and get a balloon... and that
made me happy.
That evening I was trying to start dinner and he
came into the kitchen wanting me to play. I
asked him to go play in the living room for a
little while, which I hate doing but sometimes
I just have to get stuff done, and he went in
there and read book after book until I was ready
to play. I'm so thankful (and a little baffled) to
have such a good little boy :)
Thursday was the anniversary. I tried my best
to focus on Wilder so we played outside all
morning and I fielded 1.4 million balls.
Paul calls this Wilder's "I"m going to eat you" smile haha
This little boy brought so much
sunshine into a dark day.
That afternoon we drove to Jackson and released
red balloons at my grandmother's house again
for my dad. I love this tradition. It's just a simple
way of connecting with my dad and telling him
that we love him and we're thinking of him.
I was a little afraid, based on how he's reacted
in the past to losing balloons, that Wilder
was going to freak out about us all purposely
letting our balloons go but, when it was time,
his balloon led the pack and he loved watching
them all float away.
This picture is totally grainy because it's so far away but
I had to include it here because, as we watched the balloons
sail away, a jet similar to the one my dad used to fly flew
across the sky behind them as if he was saying "Hi" back
to us. It was such an amazing moment. If you look to the left
of the balloons you can see the white speck of the plane.
Our little spot of joy...
After the balloons we went to eat at one of my
dad's favorite restaurants and had a good time
playing with Wilder and just being together.
On Friday my brother's wife, Lauren, was on fall break from vet school so she and I took Wilder to the safari park in Alamo, Tennessee. A local family has been collecting animals, exotic and otherwise, on their farm there for decades and they have, in recent years, turned it into the Tennessee Safari Park. They had tons of different animals from camels to kangaroos to ostriches to monkeys and other animals we couldn't even identify. We drove around the open area and fed a lot of them out of the car window. Lauren was nice enough to drive while I sat in the backseat with Wilder. He wasn't too sure about all those animals poking their heads through the window and I didn't really blame him -- they definitely weren't shy!
After we made the loop we parked and walked
around checking out the monkeys and the
animals at the petting zoo.
Waving to the monkey :)
My favorite was this enormous giraffe that
we fed carrots to. Wilder was not a fan
but he was drooling pretty heavily on
our heads so I kind of understand. Still it
was really cool to get that close to a giraffe.
That weekend was Paul's birthday so we drove to Nashville on Saturday and met his dad, Lisa, his sister, Lizanne, and Lisa's daughter, Sydney, at the Nashville Zoo for the afternoon. None of us had ever been to that zoo so it was fun to discover it together.
This was the first exhibit and the last time Wilder
was actually in the stroller. He spent the rest of
the three hours either running through the zoo, on
Paul's shoulders, or riding with Sydney on her
scooter (she had knee surgery recently and had to
rent an electric wheelchair for the afternoon).
Watching the monkeys "monkey-ing" around
Playing with Daddy G on the super cool playground
Check out this playground, one of the coolest
parts of the zoo. This only shows about 1/4 of it!
Wilder loooved the meerkats and is still talking
about the Meerkat -- stand -- rock! Haha :)
Checking out the giant owl with Lisa
Wilder with his Daddy G
Sooo excited to ride on the scooter with Sydney!
The baby leopards were the cutest!
Wilder wanted to hug them so badly :)
Checking out the flamingos
Showing off for Auntie Liz :)
Petting zoo fun
We all squeezed into the tiny train and Wilder
cried when we got off saying Wi-Wi drive! Wi-Wi drive!
over and over... so that was... fun?
The day was fun though and I think Paul had a very happy birthday!
I don't know about Wilder but I'm pretty animal-ed out for a while after all that. Although I'll never say no to doing something fun with my family so, who knows, we may be at the Memphis Zoo tomorrow!
Hope you all have a great weekend! What's your favorite animal-related thing to do in your area?
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