A NEW location with animals!!

This is a ridiculous amount of pictures to upload into ONE post, but if you only KNEW how many OTHER pictures I wanted to include, you would be impressed at my restraint!

The children and I went to Deer Tracks Junction Saturday, late afternoon/evening, and we had the time of our lives.

What a great place for children (of all ages!) to play. First of all, this great playground/fort area is completely free and the kids just had a blast here. This play area is nice and open and has such a great SECRET! Here is Emma showing me her excitement AND telling me that she can totally disappear down this well!

So, all the kiddos got in on the fun. When we arrived here, it was about 4:30 in the afternoon--so there was still plenty of light and the sun was actually shining, even though it was a little bit cold outside.

At first, Kaity was going to have NOTHING to do with this. She was appalled!

But it did not take her too very long before she wanted to explore just like the older kids.

There are secret entranceways to tunnels inside this covered wagon, as well as UNDER it!

These guys completely crack me up when they are set free to do whatever comes into their heads. Pure JOY.

We played out here in this play area for at least the first hour. But there was so much more to do!

I kept telling the kids that there were animals to see! But I could NOT get them away from this great playground!

I thought the boys were going to go into orbit over this fort ...

SO much fun!

I had already purchased tickets to see the animals that were on the other side of the main building ...

So ... I finally convinced them that we would come back to the playground after we had visited the animals.

This is Kaity, all proud of herself for climbing quite a high rope wall. She was so pleased to reach the top ... ALL BY HERSELF.

Finally! The animals. THE cutest little pigs I have ever laid eyes on in my life! Ah ... NOW the kids were interested!

How sweet is this?

The gentleness these kids can display with animals is ... shocking (!!) when you watch how rough they can play with each other!

The goats! Oh my!

Oh my goodness ... Budgie Birds and Bunnies too? (this picture is completely out of order)

There are actually TWO petting areas here at Deer Tracks. If you want to do both sides, it is $7/each. This is the area that actually has DEER. And even though they were behind wire, they were pretty lovely to see.

All of the children got to feed them and pet their loveliness ...

But back to the other side for a minute ... I took some pictures of the kiddos with the birds and bunnies ...

I love these pictures so much!

Isn't Emma such a beautiful young girl? She is growing up so much. I remember exactly what it was like to be fourteen!

And Christopher, when he wasn't busy photographing the animals with his new phone (!), found time to hold the bunnies too.

This deer was quite taken with Chris and posed ever so nicely for his camera.

Matthew! Matthew is amazing with animals too. He is so kind and gentle with them.

Matthew had a blast with the Budgies. Look at his expression (far right), showing off with how many birds landed in his hand at one time.

Dear Kaity held the bunny for about five minutes. She sat completely still (shocking) and held this soft bunny very close to her. She was so tender.

Inside the beautiful log cabin lodge, there are lots of things to look at. There were two rather interesting jail cells. Christopher decided to pose as Billy the Kid.

Jail does not suit you, Christopher! Not even with a jail frog friend.

We purchased tiny flashlights at the gift shop and headed back out to the playground. More exploring and playing hide 'n seek took place for such a happy time.

Isn't this just the cutest place ever?

I'm SO glad we went to Deer Tracks!

We then had ice cream sundaes over at my house. The ice cream was too expensive there at the lodge. I had THREE of their favorite flavors of ice cream which they enjoyed at a much better price at The Beach House.