breakfast on the farm

Early Sunday morning we roused our sleepy kids from their cozy beds, packed the van with the essential diaper bag and water bottles and headed into farm country for breakfast on the farm.

Upon arrival we boarded the horse drawn carriage and were delivered to the breakfast queue.  Our breakfast was served by friendly people with ready smiles and consisted of a generous helping of ham and cheese omelets, porkies (sausage links), deep-fried cheese curds, cinnamon rolls, bagels and cream cheese, yogurt, milk and cheese and cheese and more cheese! 

We found a seat under the big blue and white striped tent and began eating the large breakfast.  I learned that eating down-wind of the cow barn isn't pleasant and is rather tricky to keep your appetite, but I soon dug in and filled my tummy in spite of the aroma.   I ate more cheese at this breakfast than I had in the past two weeks, but it was oh so good!

After breakfast we said hello to the cows in the barn and proceeded to the line that would eventually allow us to board a tractor pulled trailer for a farm tour.  What a tour!  I have only been on a dairy farm one other time and it was much smaller than this one.  The gentleman giving the tour was fabulous and very informative.  Did you know that a cow's optimal temperature is 50 degrees fahrenheit?!  No kidding!  So when you see those commercials that say California cows are happy.... just remember that they're probably too hot!  :)  I could bore you with all the details, but I'm sure it would be too much information and your eyes would probably be too tired to finish reading this post.  :)  Let's just say that those cows are probably managed better than my kids!  (That might not even be a joke.)

Next we climbed on all sorts of farm equipment that was monstrous in size! Combines, utility tractors and more.

We then squeezed our way into the 4H tent that was way too small.  The place was packed and we were soon being shoved by a few rude parents on their way to see all the animals as if they were going to break out of their pens and run away any minute.  After collecting ourselves and our self control, we wandered from pen to pen.  The kids enjoyed seeing some newborn calves born anywhere from May 31st to June 2nd, just a day before we were there.  Ethan noted that their eyes were huge!  We pet alpaca and sheep, a miniature pony, piglets and many kittens.  Ethan, Megan and Mason held a rabbit (unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Mason but Patrick tells me it was cute and fleeting!) and Ethan seemed to be in animal heaven.  I think he will be employed in one way or another assisting animals someday.

Tripping out of the 4H tent we found a frozen custard stand and each enjoyed a vanilla sundae while watching the breakfast line grow in length by the minute!  (I'm sure it helped that our governor and congressman made an appearance and were serving breakfast for a while.)  We had no idea this adventure was so popular.  When we headed out that morning we thought there would be a few hundred or so people in attendance but I'd guess there were thousands!

After licking our spoons and custard cups clean we started to meander towards the exit.  We stopped and climbed on a few tractors on our way out and looked for an Allis-Chalmers to use in a photo for Grandpa Jerry, but the only one we saw was actually working at towing the tour trailers.

(ha, ha!  I love the squinty faces on everyone.  Sun was bright and shiny!)

We found our vehicle and loaded in. We were on the road for maybe five minutes when Mason's blinks became long and his breathing evened out to a peaceful pace.  I'm sure he dreamt about tractors and cows since there was a small smile on his little face along with some cheese crumbs and custard smudges!  We all had a satisfying breakfast on the farm.