Grant Family Farms/Swetsville Zoo

Danelle signed us up over the winter for a CSA membership with Grant Family Farms. We pick up a couple of bags of fresh organic vegetables and a half dozen eggs every week. They had an open house today, so we decided to drive up and check it out.

Thinking that a trip to a farm didn't sound like it would be the most interesting family outing, I searched for other attractions in the Fort Collins area and was reminded of the Swetsville Zoo.

Their chickens roost in converted buses.  I've lived in worse places.

I never imagined alpacas were the smartest animals.  But it's almost like this one was trying to look dumb.

Geese, on the other hand, are sinister, vile creatures.  I can still hear this one hissing at me.

Mia the longhorn didn't appear to much care what anyone thought of her.

No family event is complete without face painting.  Taryn decided to spend $12 of her own allowance to get a deluxe design.

The finished product was sort of like the offspring of Darth Maul and a pixie.  But she was happy with it.

Their flowers were gorgeous, but we somehow escaped without buying any.  A tomato plant, a dozen eggs and some honey did come back home with us, though.

From the farm it was just a few miles down I-25 to the truly unique Swetsville Zoo.  The kids unfortunately weren't that into it.  Zak had been there on a summer camp field trip once, and Taryn was just generally disinterested.  The adults, however, were pretty impressed.

An old Volkswagen Beetle had been turned into some fairly impressive nightmare fuel.

Most of the creations were extremely clever, if not downright ingenious.

Spider webs and cottonwood seeds made the already somewhat creepy sculptures slightly more so.

We slipped 10 bucks into Willy the Welder as we left.  All in all, a pretty fun start to summer vacation!