moo

My sister, Beth, has taken on another job—a super-fun one at a petting farm. Bridget and I went out to see her on Saturday, and at first Bridget was intimidated by the animals. I blame it on the llama. I was holding a tray of carrots in my left hand, and Bridget on my left arm. We were walking around the barn feeding the animals when the llama stretched out its neck, right to Bridget's side, and started eating the carrots! It took a while for her to want to get down among the animals after that.

Bridget warmed up to running around on her own when we went to the pond. Ignoring the geese and ducks, she proceeded to climb up the one step to the porch/dock they have there, and down it. Up it, and down it. Up it, and down it. When mommy (yes, me) got bored, I encouraged her to walk farther along the pond. Still ignoring the geese, she saw a family come out from behind the trees on the far side of the pond. She went running that way, and soon we found ourselves in a pathway between the cow pasture and the trees lining the pond. The pathway ended at a gate, closed and chained, barring entry into the cow pasture. The shiny silver chain attracted Bridget and she immediately began playing with it—tugging at it, trying to get it loose, and pulling at the gate itself trying to open it. So cute! I thought, and probably told her. I snapped a few pictures and watched her as she played. Suddenly, I noticed a sound. A loud, mooing sound. I looked back and all of the cows in the pasture were looking our way and mooing earnestly (and angrily, I imagined). Every single one of them. Uh, oops.

When I got Bridget away from the gate and headed back toward the pond, a steer with long horns came charging at the fence, still mooing. He didn't come all the way to the fence, though—he stopped at the trough and seemed quite disappointed to find it empty. A few more cows stood there staring at us and mooing, and some of the little ones even came up to the fence to be scratched. Bridget looked at them but wouldn't touch them—she acted more interested in the stick she had picked up than in the cows. I think she was still a bit intimidated at that point.

While we were there, Beth took Bridget on her first pony ride—she was quite intimidated at first, but loved it when the pony started moving and kept trying to go back to the pony corral afterward—and on her first hay ride, which Bridget also loved. We had so much fun and I'll definitely go back again—Bridget loved it! By the time I was ready to leave, Bridget was running back and forth through the barn, letting the bunnies nibble on her fingers, going up to the youngest pony and the baby goats, and trying to steal other people's strollers to push around. She didn't want to leave! But since I hadn't had lunch and she hadn't had a nap and it was already after 4:00, I had to end the fun. Don't worry, Bridget—there will be a next time!