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Monday, June 01, 2009

Over the River and Through the Woods on a Llama Farm We Go

A couple months ago, I a received an email saying that our outdoor parenting group was organizing a hike and picnic with llamas. To say that I was excited is an understatement. I immediately put down the deposit. The Big Giraffe, while enjoying the club immensely, has always appeared to be somewhat skeptical of whether or not he should belong to this club just by the fact it is an outdoor parenting club. Needless to say, he was not quite as excited as me, but did agree that it sounded fun.



I had been looking forward to this trip ever since. Unfortunately, my MIL broke her tail bone and is in a rehab center. Understandably the Big Giraffe flew out to CO to be with her. Well, despite the fact that it was a hike and that I was single parenting and there was just no way I could wear my younger son (YS) in the hiking backpack without needing to be in a rehab center myself, I decided that the boys and I were still going to go on it. It was a hike with llamas after all! MA had truly outdone itself with bizarre yet fantastic activities.



I carefully explained the rules to the boys. 1)They were to wear sneakers 2) They would be walking. 3) No, really I wouldn't be carrying either one of them. They immediately agreed to it. I'm not sure how much of it was excitement and how much of it was realizing even at a young age that their mother had lost it. Probably it was a combination of both.



We headed out to the Pinetum Farm the next day. I gave silent prayer of thanks that I had a GPS otherwise I would still be looking for the llama farm. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, there were an awful lot of teeny tiny streets that kept on changing names. We actually arrived early much to the boys delight. Why? Well, in addition to llamas the farm also had chickens and geese and...drum roll here...a cat. Yes, one of the highlights of their trip was seeing a cat. It's not like we don't have two of them at home or anything.



The hike was great. I got to "walk" my llama with a pink leash. It was similar to walking our golden retriver. Just like how he stops and sniffs every five feet, Stone stopped to eat leaves off of a tree. In fact, I imagine it was quite similar to how it would feel to walk a giraffe. The boys of course insisted on climbing up every rock in sight and took a few spills. Not surprisingly, this didn't seem to phase them in the least.



We got to a place with a picnic table and fire pit. The staff cooked up the hamburgers and hot dogs the club had brought. Each family also contributed something. Our contribution was s'mores. My excitement over s'mores was almost up there with walking a llama. Almost, but not quite. I hadn't had a s'mores since I was a camp counselor over ten years ago. Sadly, the boys were not at all impressed with s'mores making me wonder yet again how I could have given birth to them.



So what were the boys excited about? Feeding the llamas carrots, holding onto the leash, peeing on trees since there weren't any bathrooms and watching another llama go number 2. Yes, I think the last one might have one the prize for the most exciting "event" of the trip.



As for the Big Giraffe arrived home tonight, I made sure to take plenty of pictures of me the boys feeding the llamas.

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: You can travel hours away for fun and excitement for your kids only to have the most exciting event be seeing a cat which you could have done right in your own house.

Labels:

posted by Alex Elliot @ 6:08 PM   2 comments
2 Comments:

  • At 6/02/2009 1:04 PM, Blogger Heather said…

    Why do kids get all excited over a cat? Mine do the same thing, and YES, we own a cat. Strange children.

     

  • At 6/29/2009 8:35 AM, Blogger Goofball said…

    I still get excited over cats ;)

    so didn't the llama's spit? I'd be afraid they turn angry at me for some unknown reason.

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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