My mom has been pestering me to take Zach to
Upland Hills Farm, in Oxford, MI for over a month now and Matt and I were ready to throw in the towel and say to her, “We can’t do it this year mom, maybe next year.” Something always came up. The weather here has been so cold and wet, Zach has been fighting a cold, (that we are currently praying doesn’t turn into an earache or something worse.), and we are constantly running here or there. However, my mom was so persistent that we gave in and I just wanted to say, “Mom, Thank You! You gave Matt and me a day with our son that we will remember forever. It was perfect and if you had given in to us it wouldn’t have happened. Thanks for being so stubborn!”
The day was just a few degrees shy of a perfect fall day. I didn’t know until we pulled up that I had been to Upland Hills Farm almost every year as a child. I immediately recognized all of the wooden jungle gyms shaped like mini barns, old tractors sunk into the ground to climb on and most of the barns. A ton of fond memories with my family and all of my childhood friends came flooding back. I had a ton of fun there and was immediately excited to share that experience with my son. And the day did not disappoint.
It started with Zach getting up close and personnel with several dozen ducks. He got to feed them and I have to say that even though he got nipped once by a very impatient duck, this was one of the highlights of his day. He kept trying to go back to the duck area every time we set him down.
Zach got to pet a baby goat that was trying to eat all of the flowers around the barns. He also got to pet a cow, and a little black kitten. He was so cute to watch walk through the barns. We have been learning what sounds the different animals make and Zach tried to talk to each of the animals as we pointed them out. He could be heard mooing, baaing, neighing, and oinking as we walked through the different barns and saw each animal up close.
After eating some donuts as we warmed up in the sun we went for a hayride through the woods to the pumpkin patch. Luckily, we had not got pumpkins yet and we got to run through the pumpkin patch with Zach. He had so much fun running from pumpkin to pumpkin as Matt and I tried to pick out two that weren’t too big to carry. The patch was on a hill, and in an open space Zach is fearless. There were a few times we thought he was going to go head first tumbling down the hill but he didn’t care because he was having too much fun.
Matt and I cannot wait to go back for our next trip with him because Zach is at home on the farm. Let’s hope I can keep this love alive within him as he grows older.
