Goats and Llamas and Chickens...Oh My!

This past Friday, Campbell and I went on an adventure to an animal farm about 45 minutes outside of town. This farm sits on 40 acres and has a ton of animals to look at and feed (if you're brave enough!). My friend organized this outing for a few of us and our kids, so we met early Friday morning and drove up there together.

I realized on this trip that I am truly a city girl. Don't get me wrong, I love doing activities with Campbell that are a little different. It was a gorgeous drive through the country on a nice fall morning. But I am just not too keen on the fresh smell of cow manure in the morning, all the flies, and the dirty animals! I knew I'd sound like a total snob when I typed that out, and I see that I do. But really, it's the truth! I bought two bags of feed, thinking I'd be brave enough to feed the animals. Ha! I didn't have it in me to fill my hand with feed and let the animals eat out of my hand. I know, total wimp. So instead, my strategy was to launch big handfuls of feed into the pins and let the animals run and get it. Hey, it worked for me. :) And I blame my fear on Travis. He told me that there was a little girl in the news who lost a finger to a zebra at a petting zoo, and I've been freaked out ever since!

Campbell was somewhat indifferent about the whole experience. Obviously she's too young to really understand where we were. I pushed her in the stroller and put her right up next to the fence. She gave me a few strange looks, probably realizing that we weren't in the suburbs anymore. I got her out of the stroller for a photo op and also to let her look around. One thing she does love is fresh air! She loves to feel a breeze in her face, it always makes her giggle. I love that about her! I really enjoyed seeing the giraffes and some of the big buffalo-type animals. (I really need to work on my animal identification skills. At one point, I told my friend I thought I saw the elk. Yeah...it was a reindeer. hahaha Apparently elk are a LOT bigger than reindeer. City girl...)

There was a very disappointing aspect to the day. While we all enjoyed seeing the goats, buffalo-thingys, horses, and cows...we were pretty upset to see the environment in which some of the other animals were kept. There were monkeys in tiny, chain-link cages without any room to swing or play. There was a dingo in a cinderblock cage with a cement floor all by himself. There was a baboon who was obviously insane from running circles in his tiny cage. And lastly, a terribly skinny dog all alone who was in desperate need of attention, room to run, and a good meal. We were pretty upset and some of my friends even reported the farm to the proper authorities that day.

In spite of some of the unfortunate conditions, Campbell and I still managed to have a good morning. Will we go back? Probably not. But I'm glad us city girls made an effort to hang out on the farm.

Goats...

And llamas...

And chickens...Oh My!

Campbell is guarding the bag of feed with her foot, since she knows her Mommy is too big of a wuss to feed it to the animals.

This is a reindeer, not an elk, just FYI. :)

Switching gears...

Saturday morning, the Justice family got up at the crack of dawn and headed to Uptown for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to benefit breast cancer research. This cause is very close to our hearts as Travis' grandmother, Nanny, is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed several years ago, underwent extensive chemotherapy, and is doing fantastic and living life to its fullest! We also walked in honor of my friend, Emily, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in August. Emily is my age and has two little girls. Thank goodness she was extremely vigilant since her mother is a breast cancer survivor. They found hers very early and her prognosis seems to be good. She's got a long, hard road ahead of her though, and it really hit close to home to have a friend my age diagnosed with this terrible disease. Travis and I both spent most of the morning getting choked up, just overwhelmed at the 15,000 people there to walk in support of this cause...seeing all the survivors in pink t-shirts...thinking about Nanny...thinking about Emily...it was a special morning and we felt great about it. What didn't feel so great was my legs the next day - for some reason we ran half of the 5K! I had no idea I could do that!! I am just now getting back my ability to walk, but I felt great about running and feel pretty motivated to try it out again sometime very soon. Travis and I also agreed that it's very important to continue to take Campbell to things like that. We want her to grow up knowing the importance of community, and reaching out to help people that you don't even know. What a positive message to send to her! I was too short to see the mass of people when we started the race. As we came down a hill, Travis had me turn around and see the people behind us - wow! And there were just as many ahead of us...it was pretty awesome.

Here are some pictures from our morning at the walk.

Just before the start of the Race for the Cure

Campbell had a sign on her stroller that said she was racing in celebration of her Nanny.

All of those little dots in the background are people...15,000 of them...racing for the cure!

Lastly, I want to share a story about a little girl that had a profound impact on me Saturday morning. As we were heading back to the car, a family stopped us and asked how old our little girl was. They commented on how adorable she was (which we of course appreciated). We then asked about their baby girl who was six months old. She was tiny! We're used to Campbell dwarfing other kids because she's so big. But then one of the family members explained that Baby Nicole was a preemie and only 4 pounds 6 ounces at birth. Wow, we told them how great she looked now. After a little chit chat, they told us that Nicole lost her mommy to breast cancer. It was then that I noticed they were all wearing pictures of Nicole's mommy who had recently passed away. Then we understood why Nicole was a preemie, her mommy was too sick. I felt like I'd had the wind knocked out of me. I stumbled through a few polite things, barely able to speak I was so stunned and heartbroken. As soon as we walked away, the tears came. Talk about hitting close to home. To see a baby girl without a mother really and truly broke my heart. Everyone deserves to grow up with a mommy. And so Baby Nicole, that's why we walked that morning. For your mommy, and all the other moms, nannies, sisters, aunts, friends... I really feel like I'll never forget that little girl and her sweet family!