A Busy Day...

So, we had EVERY intention of going to the Shedd Aquarium today - until I decided to call and *make sure* that it was, indeed, a Community Discount Day like it was listed as at the end of August when I took note of all the September days... and of course, it WASN'T.  Ugh.

Being as though Ralph is STILL at home with us - $18 a head is NOT too feasible for admission when you add the cost of gas and CHICAGO PARKING FEES to the grand total!  Double UGH.

We decided to go to Lamb's Farm, and wander around the farmyard for a while.  At the very least, Greyson got some pretty amusing close encounters with some of the critters there.  Go figure, though - his favorite animals of the trip?  The cats wandering around the barns.  He gets to play with our two furry beasts every day, and he latches onto the cats on the farm.  There was even one sweet little white cat that took it upon itself to follow Grey around for a bit.  =)

Anyhow, I think there were two highlights to our day - or at least two moments where I laughed so hard, I thought for SURE I'd never recover.  First, we visited this fella:

Greyson walked up and stood *right* next to the fence surrounding the horse's enclosure, looking at his SHOES for some reason... when the horse wandered on over, leaned its head on over and DOWN to the top of Grey's unsuspecting head.  Only when he felt the horse BREATHING into his hair did he look up... and came eye-to-nostril with our beloved white beauty!!!  Needless to say, he let out a little yelp and scampered away from the fence - then quickly turning down the offer to be lifted up to pet his new "buddy."  Heh.  All he wanted was a little love!!!  So, Mommy gave in a lent the big brown-eyed sap some petting.  =)

A short time later, we happened upon this little guy:

He came trotting right over the second we got close to his enclosure, and I made a comment to Grey about how he wanted to say "Hi" to him.  So, Greyson walked up to the fence and put his face nice and close to get a better look... when the goat nudged its nose right up on the other side, and quickly stuck its tongue out to give Greyson a kiss!  =)  Priceless.  He certainly was an animal magnet there at Lamb's Farm!!

Here are a few of the other critters we got to see while there:

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture of the THAT Llama's buddy - the llama we affectionately dubbed "Phyllis Diller" because it had this INCREDIBLY awkward mass of hair atop its head that looked like a BAD excuse for a wig... and made us immediately think of the animal's new namesake.  She just kinda hung out on the sidelines and watched as the one in the photo persistently nudged its head into our faces BEGGING for a little bit of our family LURVE.  =P

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty good, DEFINITELY autumn day.  Who knew that it could go from 80 to 52 in less than a week's time?!  (DUH, anyone who's lived in Chicago for more than 6 months, that's who!  Heh.)