and on his farm there were some cows......

last week i took hendrix to the iowa state dairy farm open house, and we got to go for a tour of the cow barns and milking facility.  as they pulled us through the barn hendrix got so excited and started hollering "cow" and "another" over and over and over again.

it was fun to see his enthusiasm!  

and i found the tour really interesting too.

there are over 400 milking cows currently housed in this one barn!

after the tour hendrix got to see a calf up close and even pet it, but of course my monkey boy wasn't satisfied to stop there, he wanted to climb in with him.   

this is so much fun, mom!

there were some fun educational booths set up as part of the open house, and also some yummy dairy treats (including chocolate milk and yogurt.....yum!)

he really enjoyed the trip, and kept pointing to the barns and saying 'cows'.

but this was his sad response when i told him he couldn't 'ride' the cow......

we save that for horses, buddy. ;)

going to feed the horses!

hendrix horse obsession is still alive and strong.  he insists that we buy carrots every time we are at the grocery store, just to feed to the horses.  and then he has to hold them in the car on the way there, yelling horsey, the entire ride.

his love for horses has encouraged a love for carrots though, so i can't really complain about that.  i think that he wonders if he can eat enough carrots to turn into a horse...... ;)  we also feed carrots to his rocking horse, and his stuffed horse.  gotta share the love!

he is also getting more and more daring about the horses.  at first he was fascinated but a little frightened by how large they were.  he wanted to be held, and didn't really want to touch them.

now he feeds them all by himself, and sometimes scares me as he seems fearless of their teeth.  

we have to walk around and say hi to all the horses before we leave (which there are currently probably over 20 at the stables on campus, including 6 or 7 baby horses), oh and he knows the difference between the momma horses, the daddy horse, and the colts, and calls them accordingly.   

he is never ready to leave.  while he has gotten a bit better with goodbyes each time, it is generally a battle to get him buckled into his carseat after seeing the horses.  he has mastered the arched back and is very strong.

i am so glad that he is so passionate about something, and really it has been fun for me to learn more about horses.  they never really caught my interest before.

it has become somewhat of a tradition that whenever we have family or friends in town, we take them with us to feed the horses.  it is always fun to share his enthusiasm, and i think everyone enjoys watching him!