June 22 Animal Land

We decided to take the kids to the Animal land petting zoo in Bemidji. We purchased some food to feed the animals & off we went. First stop was the fish pond full of trout. Those little guys were serious when it came to eating the food. Dalton threw the little pellets in there & the fish practically jumped out of the water to get it. He was all excited. Next was the lazy kangaroo who didn’t want to get up for nothing. They also had a couple lions, a stinky pig/hog, a couple black bears, a big turtle & different types of monkeys. The kids wanted to feed them, but they seemed uninterested. Guess they were all full on bananas. One little guy was all hyped up on something. He went to jump into the hole in the wall & missed big time & kinda smacked himself on the wall. It was funny. He was the only one who ate the banana that Dalton put down the tube. Probably the most exciting part for the kids was walking amongst the deer. There was a separate fence area where they had a lot of deer. I’d say 40ish deer. They had some with big antlers that looked like reindeer then some small ones that Annika called Bambi & they even had some pure white deer, which I’ve never seen before. We had a ice cream cone full of corn feed & Kurt showed the kids how to feed the deer (they walked right up to us). Annika wanted to do it, but was a little freakish then Dalton said “I do it I do it” so Kurt gave him the cone & as soon as the deer came towards him, Dalton dropped the cone so fast & jerked his hand backward. It was funny. They both pet several deer & tried chasing them down. I of course noticed all the poop everywhere & thought about them bringing it into the trailer. Yuck. I made a mental note to take all shoes off before entering the trailer. I was ready to go so walked to the car to feed the baby while they finished up. Of course there’s no leaving without passing right thru the gift shop. Oh boy here we go. I went back in to make sure they washed their hands good & cleaned their feet/shoes on the foot brush (like the ones the golfers use). Annika wanted a toy of course, but we said no due to the bin full of toys in the trailer already. Usual routine = usual meltdown. I took the baby & Dalton out front to take a picture with the giant deer. Annika didn’t want to join us so we ignored her. We did get a picture of us out front & you can see her little legs by the deer’s back legs where she was trying to hide. Party pooper! We got back to the camp ground & I noticed a green dusting on Dalton’s sandals & mine. I figured it was the old poop we stepped in so I put him in the tub & washed his feet & Annika’s. Talk about nasty. I washed mine as well, but daddy passed, which meant poor Emry couldn’t be on the floor since his narly feet were all over the floor. Grrr…I try to keep the floor clean so little Miss Emry can have a bigger area to crawl around in versus being in her pack n play all the time, but it’s hard keeping a clean floor when 4 people are going in & out all the time. Sigh.

Anyway, I had promised the kids a kayak & paddle boat ride on the lake. Of course I was exhausted from little sleep the night before, but I made a promise. I took Annika first & we grabbed a kayak. I reminded her not to make any sudden moves or peer over the side because we could tip over into the cold water. As soon as I say that she sees a spider crawling next to her & freaks out “spider spider spider”. She started to move quickly to her left, but I grabbed her arm & said “don’t move or else we’ll tip over”. She stayed still while I whisked the spider overboard….or so I hoped. I didn’t see where he went. Gave me the willies, but we pressed on. The water was so clear you could see the bottom & there were only small waves from the one boat out there. Annika loved it & said “this is beautiful, you’re the best mommy ever”. Awww….apparently the meltdown from earlier was now a blur to her. She’s so good & loving & cooperative when it’s just the 2 of us, but once you add an extra kid in the mix is when she starts getting all crabby & uncooperative. I guess being the only child for 3 ½ years can make her like that. I told her it was Dalton’s turn, but I decided instead we would all get into the paddle boat since the chances of tipping over on that thing were slim. I could just see Dalton trying to put his hand in the water or even worse, jump in then our kayak would surely tip over. Of course Annika didn’t want her brother to come along, but oh well. That paddle boat was harder to handle & my legs were shaky from all the paddling, but it was worth it to take the kids out there. Dalton steered or tried to at least then Annika steered. We seemed to do a lot of circles…haha. Both kids wanted to peddle, but their little legs were just not long enough. I would have loved the help, but maybe in a few years when their legs stretch. Since they are little their attention spans are short so they were done sooner than I thought, but I was glad to rest my legs.  We put all our equipment up then headed back to the trailer where Emry had just fallen asleep outside with daddy. I was going to start dinner, but the kids wanted to go to the beach area. Hubby took them while I did the mom job inside. Not long afterward I hear a screaming kid. Uh oh I figured he was screaming because he didn’t want to come back to the trailer, but it turns out Dalton was throwing sand & got some in his eyes. Hopefully lesson learned here. I tried to wash his eyes out, but he screamed none the less. I even kissed his eyes to make them all better. Poor kid.

Speaking of my precious baby boy, he puts everything in his mouth. Why, I don’t know. Not sure if he’s getting more teeth or he’s just curious. Some of the things we’ve said recently “take the fire extinguisher out of your mouth, don’t eat the plastic off your tooth brush, don’t eat grass, get the tball thing out of your mouth, stop spitting bubbles under the table, get that rock out of your mouth, etc etc etc”.

On another note Miss Emry stood up all by herself without holding on to anything. We were sitting outside in the evening & she pulled herself up on my chair then let go. She just stood there like no big deal for at least 5 seconds. I videotaped her second attempt, but it wasn’t as long. She’s 8 months old & the time is just going too fast. Slow down baby girl.

The evening ended with us sitting outside before bed routine. We watched Annika play with the tball set. She’s pretty good & hits the ball pretty far. Hopefully she’ll want to play on a team when we get to CO. I bet she’ll look cute in her uniform. The kids made smores and that was that, but not before I saw Annika hit her brother over the head with her marsh mellow skewer thing. Sheesh.