The Great Staycation: Day 1

In an effort to conserve cash and also my own sanity, we decided that trekking out for a couple days and returning home each evening was a great idea.

The Great Staycation was then the topic of numerous conversations. While we hope to do an overnight vacation later in the summer, right now this seemed like the ideal way to go.

When you live in such an area as ours, sometimes it's hard to come up with family-friendly options that aren't a 2-3 hour drive away.

Enter Kelley Farm. When you have a history nerd buff husband who digs this sort of thing and you want to share it with your kids, you go. You see, Reed worked at this historic farm in the summer of 1996, so he kind of knows the place. While we had been here many years ago, it had been way too long and all the kids hadn't been there yet. How did that happen?!

We ventured out and arrived right around (strategically planned) lunch time. With cooler bag in hand, we found this perfect little shady spot with benches. It also happened to make for a good photo or two as well.

As you can imagine, the farm has animals. Chickens, sheep, cattle, oxen, horses, pigs and cats to be exact. With weather as ideal as it was, it was the perfect place to spend a couple of hours exploring.

Can you guess who was in his glory? He wants to have a farm when he grows up, you know.

One day.

With many opportunities to try out the activities of the 1860's and roam around, it worked out for all the ages of our kids.

One of my favorite photos from the day, unedited. If this is what farm life looked like (in 2013, WITH electricity, thank you very much), I'd say sign us up!

*contentment*

And if this was farm life, this boy would SO be into it. He's got that farmer look down.

The rest of our afternoon included events of which I forgot to photograph for you all. We went to Two Scoops ice cream shop, stopped at a bakery to pick up a box of Reed's family favorite (we call them lady fingers), played at a playground/park and hit up Pizza Hut for supper. Phew.

After that, we made one more stop before heading back home. About an hour away from our house is a summer fun place with a water slide, bumper boats, mini golf and go karts. Due to our volunteer work we do for the diocesan marriage courses, each June they invite all of the families of those who volunteer for a FREE evening out to enjoy all of the attractions at this place.

We try not to miss this event as it is a great outing that we may not normally do as a family due to cost. We also get to visit with the other people we volunteer with and their families. 

Again, with the weather cooperating so well, we were happy to attend even after a long day away from home. 

Even the tiniest tot was still in good enough spirits to enjoy the evening, despite being just a wee bit little to go on any of the rides.

At days end we concluded it had been a good day to make memories. A week later, our kids are still talking about it and reminiscing of the fun we had.

All of that on a budget, no less.