Arbor Day Farm, Day 1

I'm still going back through some of our old photos and posting some memories!

Our trip back in November down to Nebraska City was a lot of fun--the kids loved going to visit Arbor Day Farm.  We bought a family pass so we could spend some time there both days of our trip and will hopefully make it back in the summer when everything is green :)  Just make sure you go on a nice day because almost everything to do there is outdoors!  It was the perfect way to burn off some energy after we'd been driving a good chunk of the day to get there.  We made sure to leave early enough that we would still have a few hours to explore before they closed for the day.

We studied the map first thing and asked the kids what they wanted to see the most to make sure we got to go there--they could not resist a giant tree house and asked to go there immediately. I can't say that I blame them--even though I have an irrational fear of man made heights, I still go up in tree houses, towers, and lighthouses whenever I am able ;)  I had to pass on the tree house, though, much to my disappointment.  A few years back I did a lot of damage to one of my knees, including completely severing my ACL so sometimes it becomes very unstable and lots of stairs are a very bad idea.  So I watched from the bottom and waved as everyone else reached the top and shouted excitedly about how high they were :p Maybe next time I'll make it up there!

Right next to the tree house was the Nature Cabin and it was filled with many exhibits about local plant and wildlife, including a glass beehive so the kids could see all the bees swarming about working.  One of the kids favorite things to do whenever we are at the Toledo Zoo in Ohio is to visit the indoor section of Nature's Neighborhood to check out the bees so they were really excited to discover Arbor Day Farm had one, too!  No matter how many places we visit with a bee exhibit, they are just as excited.

Further down the trail they found an area that quickly became their favorite--obstacles!  They loved trying out their skills and trying to walk on the rope:

And nearby was a web to try out.  They decided being a spider was exhausting because the web kept moving and was hard to move around on.

My Busy Little B had recently lost more teeth and was forever telling me to get a picture of his gap.  I have no idea why he found that so exciting but I was willing to go with it.

Just around the bend was another fun play area.  They got to build with giant wooden blocks, float leaves and pine cones down a stream, play giant xylophones, and relax in hammocks.

Our last stop that day was the greenhouse where they each got to pick out a tree to take home.  And play one more game, of course!