Dairy Discovery

Last Friday night, Jon, Eli, and I (Matea stayed with Grandma) headed out to a dairy farm in Alto for their family fun night. You got a tour of the farm, ice cream, milk, cheese, a hayride, a bonfire, and could play in their straw maze and corn crib. We thought it would be nice to have a night with just Eli to have some fun and thought it would educational too. We ended up with an even more "interactive" tour than we thought we would!

When we arrived we got our milk and cheese first and then Eli played a little bit in the "corn sandbox" as he called it, while we waited for the next tour to start.

Posing with my souvenir cow.

I'm happy to be here!

Playing in my corn crib . . .

The first stop on the tour was the milking room, which the tour leader said could be "overwhelming" sometimes. Eli just stared with big wide eyes. The cows are on a raised platform and all you see of them are their backsides and their udders. Then they are hooked up to machinery that moves by itself. And it's a very narrow corridor between the milking platforms. And it smells. So overwhelming is a good word. When we came in some cows were also coming in, and apparently we made some of them nervous because they started pooping everywhere. But when the poo hit the metal floor it just sprayed out - all over us. Yep, direct hits. Hair, clothes, the whole bit. Thankfully not mouth, eyes, or hands. They gave us towels to wipe up and we didn't think it was that big of a deal (some lady near us freaked out like cow poo was atomic waste or something). Eli said, and is convinced, that the cows "milked on us." We tried to clarify once and then thought he should just stick with the milk philosophy. :)

Standing by the giant steel drums of milk. They make 13,000 gallons a day! 

After the milking parlor it was on to the barns! We saw a calf that was only an hour and a half old! That was neat. It was all wobbly legged and cute. Eli didn't want to go near it though. Same with the big cows. He did say once, "I never saw a real cow. These cows are big."

Wobble wobble cute little calf.

Whatcha lookin' at? We're trying to eat here.

After the main barns we headed to the calf barn, and Eli got to feed a baby calf. He was getting ancy though and kept mooing at the babies. He fed the calf for a bit and then lost interest. In his defense, the bottle they gave us was very full and it took the calf a long time to finish it. Longer than a 4 year old's attention span. :)

This guy is thirsty!

I like feeding baby cows (for a minute at least!)

Kisses.

This cow kept trying to lick Eli. She had a crush on him I guess. :)

After the cows it was time for the ice cream and straw maze. The maze was definitely Eli's favorite thing there. He would have kept playing in that thing for a LONG LONG time. But, it was time for a hayride. Then one more game of hide-and-seek in the maze with Mommy and Daddy and it was almost 9:30 and time to head home. We were the last ones there and had a great time!

Going into the straw maze with my ice cream cone. Mom warned him of the dangers of this, but it all turned out okay. :)

Back in the maze and ready to go hide for hide-and-seek.

Where's Daddy?

I can run and jump all over this maze!

Off to our hay ride!

I even got to ride a cow! What a lucky boy!