Arbor Day Farm

This week I had a wonderful experience with my kids.  I've been trying to plan a rough sketch of our weeks now that Mason is working from home.  We had an entire day free, so I decided to take the kids to Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City, about 40 minutes South of us.  We went here in the Fall and did a hike, tour of the apple orchard, and played on their large playground.  Because of Covid, the tours weren't running, but everything else (besides the gift shop) was open, including their new treehouse adventure which wasn't complete when we went in the Fall.

I had to buy tickets the night prior for a reserved two hour time slot.  I was a little bummed at the end time, but soon realized once we arrived no one was going to be shooing us away.  We arrived at 11:00 and it was perfect.  The day was partially cloudy, and pretty hot, but that clouds helped a bunch.  I think they were offering 12 tickets every half-hour slot, so there weren't too many people there, and everyone who was there was very spaced out.

The kids played for about 45 minutes in this small nature playground area.  They had a blast!  I didn't remember this area from our first visit, but they enjoyed playing with large blocks, a water feature, xylophones, and just having fun.  I think it was extra enjoyable since they really haven't been to any playground or activities since March.  I had this BIG reminder as I started to get antsy and want to hike, that there was NO REASON to rush them.  I just finished the book, "Let Them be Kids." And here I was able to live that out.  It just really hit me, how often I'm hurrying them along to the next thing, or not being present in the moment with them, but it was fun to watch them play.

There were a few shells in the water feature, and Theo right away said, "Mom, this is just like in Harry Potter when they try to scoop up water in the cave."  Both Theo and Woodrow commented (at separate times) that one of the xylophones sounded just like music from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.  They're making connections. It was such a nice moment for me.  We played for quite a long time in the smaller play area and then on the larger climbing structures including a giant spider web and small zip line.

Eventually we got to go on the small creek trail and we got to see a doe and her fawns crossing the trail.  There are some fun interactive parts on the trail the the kids like to look at and then we were able to check out the large Treehouse Adventure.  It was set-up to be a one-way path, which I'm not sure if that was due to Covid, or if that's how it will always be set-up.  The kids had a lot of fun, and enjoyed the large trampoline in the sky the best, but they probably would have played on it more if they could go all different directions.  I was impressed Woodrow enjoyed it so much, since sometimes he gets nervous with heights.

We were pretty sweaty by the end of this loop, but the kids wanted to play just a bit more in the small nature garden, so they played there for awhile before we checked out the small store (grabbing some popcorn and apple cider), picking out our free trees to plant, and heading on our way home.