Living in an Amish Paradise

The fun has arrived! Jill and Jenna got here on Wednesday and it is so good to have them here. And to know they'll be here for three weeks! I love how this morning, while making the long drive back to Melissa's house, Jill tells me, "Thank you for letting me come out here for so long." My response? "Thank you for wanting to be out here so long!" It never seems like long enough....

We are of course in the throes of school stuffs, so during the week there is not much opportunity for big outings or excursions. We did start last weekend off right with a trip down to Amish Country. We headed down to Berlin, where there was a rib cook-off and street festival, which consisted of some tables set up along the sidewalks and some pricey games that the kids didn't play. The ribs smelled good, but it was too crowded and there were way too many of us to try to stop and eat.

We piled back in he cars and went down the road to Schrock's Amish Farm, which Mom and Dad will remember as having a big barn with horses and kittens to pet. The barn was gone, but the pen with goats and a dirty cow was still there. You could walk right in and the goats were very friendly.Watch out for that poo!

Our next stop was the pet store where there were so many cute puppies for the kids to hold. I could have taken home a little toy yorkie right then and there, but Emma and Leah would not trade Angel (the guinea pig) in. I don't think Angel would get us the $500+ necessary to make a puppy purchase anyhow. Poor Emma accidentally dropped one of the little squirmy guys on the floor, and she felt so bad. Vernon, the nice Amish man who worked there, reassured her that it was ok, and that it had even happened to him before. He marveled that Emma and Leah are twins, and was very impressed by their Amish-sounding names! I think we got in good with Vernon...maybe he could have cut us a deal on the puppies!

Andrew holding item # 52 on his birthday list

As we left Schrock's, I was able to snap this picture of a cute little Amish boy weaving baskets. Notice the lovely hand-made bucket and water cooler at his side.For me, no trip to Amish Country is complete without a visit to Heini's Cheese Chalet. There are free samples galore of the best cheeses...that was pretty much lunch. We bought some of the discounted ends, and of course went across the hall for some fudge. Yum. Kauffman's Bakery is across the road with even more samples. Muesli bread, cream cheese brownies, pretzel donuts...it's all there waiting to be tried. And we tried them all. Some twice. Hey, there was no sign warding off greedy vultures at this place, so yeah, we double-dipped. And so, we had a lovely day in the country, seeing new sights (Jill, stop staring at the Amish people!) and tasting delicious food. Not everyone was impressed, however. Andrew has declared that he will never go back there again. Too much sacrifice (two hour car ride) without much reward (goats? puppies? cheese? who cares!) for this 6 year old. He much prefers the instant gratification of playing baseball with his dad. But he sure did enjoy the fudge we had for dessert yesterday!