Jackson + Mommy Date

Corey had an extra day off before the 4th of July and kept J home from school to have a Daddy + Jackson day.  They had such a fun day that I'd been looking forward to taking a day off work for my own date, and today was the big day.

I gave J options of the aquarium, the zoo (Woodland Park or Cougar Mountain), the farm or picking berries.  He decided on the farm and picking berries which was perfect, because I'd been wanting to try Remlinger Farm out, and it met both requirements and then some.

All week, we'd been talking about our date, and when I went into his classroom yesterday to pick him up, he was already gathering all his things that we normally gather at the end of the week (water bottle and blanket), which we bring home and clean before bringing them back on Monday. I could see his teachers trying to remind him it was only Thursday and that he didn't need to do that on Friday, but he of course remembered that he was going to be there today because of our date.  SO cute.

We started our day off with him sleeping in a little later than a normal weekday, taking Cole to school and running a few errands.  But once those necessities were done, we hit Starbucks for breakfast, and then finally we were on our way to the farm.

This is what he typically he considers a "nice smile" when we ask him to smile nicely for a pic.

He had so much fun picking raspberries - he would run up an aisle (which he was calling "estrallas" for some reason?) and pick a berry or two, only to run back and show me his finds, drop them off in the box and then run away again.

Raspberry picking is serious business.

These bad boys are in our sorbet maker as I type this - looking forward to fresh sorbet with a slice of the pie we picked up!

Once we decided we had enough berries to eat + make raspberry sorbet, we headed over to the farm.  There were so many more activities than I realized - and he was the perfect age to enjoy everything. He started with a pony ride on a pony named Apple, followed by warming up with a few smaller kid rides.

 Then we headed over to the bigger rides including a canoe, a big train, teacup-like barrels, ferris wheel, roller coaster and the list goes on.  Mixed in there was some climbing in/around a school bus, a fire engine and some tractors, and petting and feeding a few animals.

I couldn't believe how much he loved the big kid rides, especially after being so nervous on the small train at Fox Hollow Farm last summer.  But, he was laughing and (happily) screaming, and putting his arms up on all of them.

After the rides, we grabbed some lunch and watched a musician in the the theater for a bit, and all the kiddos got to play instruments on stage during one song, which J loved.

We wrapped up the day with purchases of not one but two of the musician's CDs (I told him he could pick one, without realizing there was a two-CD combo pack, which of course is the one he picked and I just couldn't say no), ice cream bars, froggy gummy candies, a marionberry/blackberry pie, and second rides on both the ferris wheel and the roller coaster.

We both had a total blast, and I can't wait to go back again soon.