Baby Animal Days

One of my favorite things of living in Cache Valley is all the fun little family activities that go on all the time here. My favorite Spring activity is Baby Animal Days at the Heritage Center. It was the weekend of Easter (YES! I am REALLY that far behind! My goal for June is to catch up the blog, but we'll see if that happens.) and we had a great time and got some of our family to join us - Curt and Carla and Matt and Mandy and their kids all came up. It was pretty rainy all weekend, except the day we went, so that day was VERY crowded and the lines for everything were really long, but we still loved it! We had SO much fun and the kids loved being able to pet and hold so many little baby animals! Here are some of our many pictures of our fun day!

All ready for a day of baby animals!My cute Rylee! Her bows are bigger than her head, but I thought they were fun!Rylee and Daddy waiting to see the baby turtlesRylee ready to hold the baby turtle. These were my FAVORITE! They were SO tiny and cute - They fit inside Rylee's hand! - I wanted to take them home, but you have to have a teaching license because they are only for educational purposes! Rylee was pretty excited to hold the turtle, until it was in her hand and then she didn't like it much. I think its little feet on her hands creeped her out - She almost dropped the poor thing!Last year, Logan was terrified of the turtles for some reason, but he was really excited to hold them this time and did great! I think Rylee liked the turtles better from a distance...She doesn't want to touch it!After the turtles, we got a yummy snack and then headed to see the goats and the sheep. Logan was in HEAVEN! I could hardly keep track of him because he was from one animal to the next and loved them all.

He gets SO close to all the animals and talks to them in this sweet little baby voice. He is such a funny kid!

I finally got him to look away from the goat for a second for a picture!

Rylee was pretty cautious at first. She would touch a goat with one finger, and then back away to see if it was OK. By the time we were done, she was getting a little more brave, but still not too excited about it. Maybe she is worried about the germs like mommy!I think she felt more comfortable with the ones that were fenced.This is Rylee after she touched a goat. She would touch them with one finger, pull away and then laugh like she was so funny and then try again. Anytime we go anywhere with a map, it becomes an obsession of Logan's and he is always checking it and telling us where to go. I think it is so funny! This is him with his cousin Madi showing him where we are. He gets pretty concentrated!

Next, it was off to see MORE goats and sheep and also some cows and pigs!The kids were pretty excited to pet a REAL baby cow! Rylee and the cow - She is still looking pretty nervous!

The kids petting the baby pigs. They were so cute! The kids were really excited to see them! There were too many kids everywhere so I didn't get great pictures.

Here are Daddy and the kiddies waiting to see the baby ducks and chicks. The line was pretty long for these, but it was worth the wait!Rylee wasn't too patient though, so I had to chase her around a bit and she found a bench she had to sit on! I don't know where that obsession came from but she loves benches and little chairs and things. We finally got to see the baby ducks and they were adorable and the kids loved it! Rylee liked to pet the duck as long as mommy held it for her. She told EVERYONE after when they asked her about baby animal days, "I pet baby duck"Isn't this the sweetest boy ever? He was so happy to hold the little duck and loved him so much! Logan getting up close and personal with his little duck! After seeing this, I was tempted to go and buy the kids some for pets, but Darren reminded me they become BIG ducks!Rylee running around...The baby chicks were cute, too!My niece Madi took some pictures for me while we were holding the chicks, but she couldn't quite get us all in. This is the best one I have of Rylee.Logan loves his baby chick and I think he would have loved to take one home. My two favorite kids!!! The line for the bunnies was SO long so we decided to go for a pony ride instead since we missed out on that the last time. The line was long, but not as long as it had been throughout the day, so we decided to try it and I'm so glad that we did! The kids LOVED it! Here is Rylee watching the ponies - She was pretty excited for her turn. This is them in their helmets ready to ride! I think they were just as excited to wear the helmets as they were to ride the ponies. CHEESE! Does he looke excited or what???Rylee in her helmet - Bring on the ponies!!!Logan's pony was named Sport, so it was a perfect match for him! He was a little nervous when they first put him on the pony, but he did great and loved it after he started going! Doesn't he look like a natural up there?

I love this picture of Logan!Rylee did great, too. She looked SO tiny up there, I was a little nervous to let her do it, but she stayed on! The guy who worked there even had to go over at one point and get her to hold on to the saddle because she was trying to do some trick riding with no hands! My little dare devil!!!What a fun day! When you are this age, does it get any better than a pony ride? I'm so glad we waited so they could try this! We went to visit family that weekend for Easter, both kids LOVED telling everyone that they rode a pony! Rylee was so cute and said "I ride a PONY!" so excitedly with the most expressive face and talking with the hands! It made it totally worth it!!!The kids were POOPED after our busy day! Rylee fell asleep with her little balloon on her wrist. After the Heritage Center, we went to the park with Curt and Carla so Darren and Curt could play some soccer and the kids could play. Then we went to dinner with them. We had a great time! I didn't get any pictures of the cousins all day for some reason that day - I think it was a little too crazy and too many people everywhere - but we loved having them come up to hang out and the kids always love playing with their cousins! We love our family! We will really miss having Curt and Carla close when they move!!! Rylee is becoming very attached to little Rae Rae and they play so cute together.