Grant's Farm!

To celebrate our three day weekend and the beautiful late summer weather, we traveled to Kirkwood, MO again (home of the Magic House) to visit Grant's Farm. It was a perfect day for the trip- 75*, sunny and dry. A lot of other people must have thought so too because when we arrived we waited in a line of traffic for half an hour just to park! Once we found a space, we then waited another half hour to board the tram- good thing the weather was so lovely and Kieran was in a good mood!

Kieran LOVED the choo-choo-train (a.k.a.tram) He clung to me like a baby koala but loved every minute of the ride. When we got off he had a mild tantrum when he realized we weren't getting back on right away! You can see he is sporting his monkey jacket- the morning was a bit nippy- gotta love this early fall weather!

When we arrived it was nearly 11:30 and everyone was getting hungry so we headed over to the biergarten for a free beer (or two) for mommy and a brat for daddy. Kieran enjoyed some fries and of course cheese, crackers and grapes (his snack favorites). He also ate the better part of a peach and made a big sticky mess.

We purchased a bottle to feed the goats- not realizing Kieran would think it was for him! "Ba! Ba!" "No, no... this is for the goats!" Mommy had to be in charge of the bottle anyway because the goats mobbed us as soon as we walked in the gate- they aren't messing around! Luckily, Kieran is used to being surrounded by crazed, furry creatures and he was not the least bit put off by their presence. After a few pets, he was off to play in the sand which we didn't allow for too long since it was littered with goat droppings.

Kieran was very impressed with all the animals- camels, elephants, deer, giant turtles, a wide assortment of birds (including his beloved chickens- "ba! ba! ba!"), llamas, and many others- but one of his favorite things was hanging on the fence, playing in the dirt and picking up random pieces of plant litter and trash. I guess we didn't have to drive two hours to find that!

Toward the end of our stay, Kieran cooled off with a strawberry snow-cone and watched the black trumpeter swans with mommy. Mmmm, sugar, food coloring and ice tastes great!



Over all the trip was a great success. Kieran napped in both directions for the drive- which was a great relief to mommy and daddy. He was in a pleasant mood 99% of the time. Despite the initial long wait, once we got in, it didn't seem overly crowded. The weather was spectacular and the food wasn't half bad. There were lots of great animals to see, a "train" and a carousel- Kieran's favorite things! The only bummer of the day was Kieran's darned shoes. We had a great pair of leather Robbie sandals a few weeks ago but one went missing and so KP had been wearing a pair of not-so-great black Koala sandals recently. The problem with these shoes is that his pinky toe kept popping out the side so in a moment of rush and stupidity mommy opted for a pair of adorable Converse from the shoe bin this morning that had never been worn- bad choice. They just didn't fit. They were the right size but they wouldn't go on correctly and it was nearly impossible to get Kiearn to stop spreading his toes and curling his feet long enough to get the damned things on and tied! We must have spent more than half an hour messing with those stupid shoes. Lesson learned- don't try out anything new on a trip. They worked out okay in the end but they were a source of stress and a few unkind words between mommy and daddy at first!