A Trip to the Farm

This past weekend, the kids and I took a trip up to Sherwood while Perry was busy reffing basketball games at the State Am in Bismarck.  We had a great time with Papa and Grandma; on Friday night, we attended the PTO carnival.  Natalie enjoyed all the noise while Calvin went down the gigantic inflatable slide about 30 times.  

The highlight of the weekend, though, was a trip to a local farm to see some farm animals!  I had planned on taking both Natalie and Calvin, but it was just too cold for Natalie to be outside.  So, Papa, Calvin and I jumped into the pickup and drove out to the farm of Guy and Wendy Solemsaas.  They have three beautiful daughters, Madeline, Grace, and Lily, who helped show us around the barnyard.  I'm sorry if I spelled their names wrong, Wendy!  

First up, we met some cats...lots of cats who are as friendly as can be.  

  Calvin has no fear of animals, and went right to work carrying them around.  By the way, check out that vintage E.T. beanie!  I didn't pack for 30 degree weather, so you can also see Natalie's jacket underneath the grey sweatshirt.  Sorry, Calvin.

I couldn't believe how friendly the cats were!  Calvin was so focused on holding as many cats as possible.  But pictures don't do it justice...so here's a video of his kitty-chasing adventure...

There were also bunnies in this barn that were SOOOOO soft, but Calvin was not interested.  He was obsessed with the cats.

In the next barn, we caught a glimpse of a calf that was born just hours before we arrived.  The mama cow was a bit protective, so I just took a picture for Calvin and we moved to the next barn.  Sorry for the poor picture quality...I don't really have any excuse for why that happened.   

The next barn was full of sheep!  Big sheep, little lambs...they were all there, and they all have names.  I was amazed at how they all knew every single sheep by name.  Guy says he wanted to name them #1, #2, #3, etc., but with a house full of girls, he had no choice but to let them choose names for each one.  

Calvin ran around with the sheep in this pen and only got knocked down once.  I was surprised that he didn't seem all that anxious about being in a cage with animals that were larger than him.  I think he had focused in on the lambs, so he didn't really notice the bigger sheep.

Here is Grace helping Calvin pet a little lamb...

 He even got to pick up a lamb...for a short period of time.  They wiggle a bit more than the kittens do!

At one point, we had him penned up with a bunch of lambs, and he had fun petting them and attempting to carry them around.

Thank you, again, to the Solemsaas family for letting us stop by on a cold Sunday morning.  Calvin had so much fun, and so did I!  You're right...there is something very special about how little kids interact with animals.  We can't wait to come back this summer to meet some more farm friends!