Travel with kids

Living History Farms

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Last Wednesday zoo members were able to check out Living History Farms for free. It’s a great opportunity for the museum to introduce zoo members to another organization they might want to buy a membership for. It’s an even better opportunity for me to check out something that I usually wouldn’t pay to visit (my kids are too young to get much out of Living History Farms).

We decided to skip most of the farms and just go to the 1900 farm. We arrived there by tractor pulled wagon. The kids were so excited to see the tractor they didn’t even mind the wait.

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On the farm we checked out the animals. Elliot loved the cows. Audrey loved the horses. I loved the sheep. We were all happy.

After checking out the animals we walked to the pick up stop for the tractor. It was nice to get a little walk in. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the next tractor to arrive. They had a nice playground for the kids to play on. Unfortunately, it has been raining here for weeks, so the kids were pretty muddy after that.

We headed back into the historic village to check out the shops. Audrey ground up cinnamon with a mortar and pestle at the pharmacy. She thought that was pretty neat.

If the kids didn’t need naps we could have explored more of the town and checked out the other farms. We ended up spending about two hours there. That was enough for us. When the kids get older we’ll check it out again.

Camping

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Audrey and I went camping last weekend. It was the kind of camping I prefer – the kind in a camper with beds and a flush toilet and air conditioning.

We camp with our friends at their camper in North East Missouri. It is a four-hour drive according to google. According to a certain 3-year-old it takes 5 and a half hours. We stopped four times on the way down. But sometimes you need to stop and take a hike through a butterfly garden or play at a park. Hike is probably not the right word, as it is more of a flutter. Audrey is very interested in fluttering like a butterfly, so she runs around flapping her arms, saying “flutter, flutter, flutter.”

When we got to the camper we unpacked our stuff and headed out to do our traditional first night of camping dinner: pizza. 20180727_1832419192974046420378167.jpg

On Saturday it was a little chilly for July. It was too cold for the water park or the beach, so we explored playgrounds. We visited 3 before nap time. It is the first time I can remember Audrey falling right to sleep in the camper.

For dinner we decided to head to the Hootenanny – a restaurant that specializes in pie. I had a wrap for dinner that was delicious, but the pie was what stood out. I went with a slice of butterfinger pie.

After dinner we headed to another park. We then headed back to the camper, totally exhausted.20180728_1827422743126505580072048.jpg

Our drive home was faster than our drive down to Missouri. By that point Audrey had figured out that she wasn’t going to get a bag of M&Ms every time we stopped. We had been on the road for about three hours when we got to Oskaloosa. When we are on a road trip and it is clear that the kids need to get out and play I just drive around a small town off the highway until we find a park. They are usually easy to find. In Oskaloosa I found the best road trip park we have ever found. It was huge! There was a new playground, and old wooden playground, and an old playground with a rocket slide. It was so big I might be heading there next year for a special picnic day.

This week we are staying in Des Moines, which I’m looking forward to. I love to travel, but four nights out-of-town last week wore me out.

I hope you had a fun weekend too.

Elliot Eats Ice Cream

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I was in Cedar Falls visiting my parents this week. It was three days filled with parks, playing outside, and a visit to the library. We also had ice cream for lunch two days in a row.

I had never let the kids eat anything other than a healthy (ish) lunch before. Their minds were blown. My mind was blown on Wednesday when I saw how bad Elliot was at eating ice cream. At one point he thought the ice cream was too cold so he started eating the bottom of the cone. It made a huge mess.20180725_1235144603504716703335716.jpg

Luckily he appears to be a fast learner when it comes to ice cream. He was much cleaner today.20180726_1207524940877670906142349.jpg

Now it’s back to normal for Elliot. I wonder how many lunches it will take before he eats vegetables willingly again.