Nana Visit - Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve

Counts5 has been here before, but today, with Nana here, we decided to try something different.  All 3 boys brought their bikes for the hike.  It was a gamble over the stroller, but we wanted to try it, and might as well when there are 3 adults to lug stuff.  First off, Wyatt orchestrated a whole-family tie dye shirt wearing, meaning we even had to dig Yannick's out of the dirty clothes!

The park is very close by, on the other side of Foothill from Z's school, so we took a chance and put all 6 of us in the Fit.  I acted as Zachary's booster seat.  Praise The Lord, we easily found a parking place - not so easy here.  We set off with all of our stuff - packed lunch, bikes, helmets, etc.

There is a steep hill at the start, so we had to walk the bikes down for the kids, then Nick threw a major tantrum about not wanting to go to the bathroom with me, and i thought, great, a disaster approaching.  But everyone was able to get it together and off we went.

Here are the boys on their first big bike outing.  It is a mile to the little farm.  An easy mile, but none of them have gone that far on their bikes.  Yannick and Wyatt practice a little bit every day, but Zachary doesn't get on his bike all that much.  That soon became obvious. At the start though, before the long bike ride, is a little place where they have enjoyed walking down to the creek and throwing rocks in.

I love that they still have their helmets on for playing in the creek - safety first! :)  We taught Zachary how to skip a rock, and after some practice, he finally got one to skip twice.  Big accomplishment!

Then off to the farm.  Wyatt and Yannick did great - very little complaining.  Wyatt only really complained at the end when we were nearly there.  Zachary however, was a big complainer.  His legs hurt, he did not like his bike, it was too heavy, legs could not make it, etc etc.  To be fair, I would probably feel the same way as I am not great on a bike, b/c my muscles are not used to to.  the little boys have had so much more experience, mainly back and forth in front of the house, but Zachary clearly needs to develop those muscles a bit.  It surely does not help that he rarely plays any running games at school.  he mostly only plays four square, which is doing little for cardio and leg muscle building.  But, he made it.  Right at the entrance to the farm were two wild deer, standing in the clearing.  We knew there were plenty here, because we had seen a bunch about 200 feet away last time, but this time there were two, and pretty close until they finally got spooked.  We got to watch them "run" away, which is so much more dainty and graceful than running.  More like hopping on all 4 hooves.  So pretty.  We looked at just a bit of the farm as we walked to the pavilion area to enjoy our picnic lunch.  There was a family of 4 kids sitting next to us.  The oldest daughter clearly wanted to get on stage, as did Zachary.  After finishing lunch, they could no longer resist.  here are our 3 guys "performing" on stage

Yannick doing his "peek-a-boo-boo" dance, and Wyatt and Zachary, OF COURSE, doing a bit of a "shake-your-BOO-dy" dance.  Zachary is obsessed with his billa and thinks that everyone else should be as well.

It all breaks down into wrestling and tattling eventually.

Then off to look at the animals.  The pigs were HUGE.  Seriously HUGE.  I don't remember them from last time.  I don't know why I did not take a picture of them.  Grossly huge.  Then off to the ducks, cows, sheep, rabbits, and finally, our favorite.  Earlier this month were born two sets of twins and one set of triplet goats.  So so cute!  We went over to look closer (but still behind the fence) at one of the baby goats that was right by the fence, and Wyatt got down very close to it, and it TOLD ON US!  It let out the cutest little baby bleat, with its tongue sticking out, and looked over at its mom for help.  So so cute!

By then the boys were tiring, especially Yannick who was going into his manic happy phase.  It was about 1pm, and we needed to get home for naps.  Plus we still had a mile to go back.  Zachary and Wyatt did much better on the way back.  Zachary had gotten a little scratch on his arm though, and was having a hard time riding, because he kept seeing his wound, so I got out the receiving blanket we use for changing Yannick and tied it around his arm (familiar to anyone?) and then he was able to ride again.  Yannick was noticeably more tired, but did great.  I would give him a big push every now and then, but he had no problems.  We stopped again at the little stream, and after that Yannick was done riding.  Art carried him the rest of the way.  But we were at the end, so it was not too bad.  Loaded all the kids up, W having a minor temper tantrum b/c Nana moved his bike when he wanted to ride it.  Instead of using words and communicating, W would prefer to melt down into tears.  Sigh.  That got worked out and we made it home safely and put everyone to bed.

Mom and I ran to Michaels to buy a poster frame since all their frames were on sale.