Ben's Visit and Our Mini Vacation (also known as the LONGEST post ever!)

We've been SO BUSY lately!  We were so busy the week of the fair, then the following week my nephew Ben from Michigan came down and stayed with us for a week, and then last week we went to Indy for a couple days and did some traveling around central and northern Indiana.  Here's some pictures to catch you up on our comings and goings the last couple of weeks...

Jacob, Kaylee, & Ben just before the cavern tour

 Outside the grist mill.

 In the caverns

Squire Boone Jr's remains are in this casket, inside the cavern. Kind of freaky! 

 

Candlemaking at Squire Boone Village

4-wheeler fun

Shame on you Ben!  Don't tell your mom!  :-) 

Swimming at Harrison Crawford State Forest 

Fair Oaks Dairy Farm in Fair Oaks, Indiana

The bus tour at Fair Oaks takes you to one of their ten dairy operations.  These cows load and unload (all on their on) on this carrosel where they are milked three times a day.  They step on, get hooked up to the milker, go around the carrosel in 8 minutes (I think), and then get back off the carrosel.  It's pretty neat to watch.  They said every now and then a cow will forget to get off the carrosel.  They shut her milker off and she gets to go around for a free ride!

 

The Birthing Barn ~ They have stoplights throughout the facility to let you know when a calf is about to be born over in the birthing barn.  Red means nothings going on, yellow means hooves are out, and green means you better hustle on over because you're about to miss it!  We were there for one in the morning and again for one that afternoon.  It was amazing!

(Beware, this next picture is a little graphic...)

This little calf below was the one pictured above that we saw being born that morning.

A gigantic trampoline in the middle of a bunch of cornfields.

They LOVED this!

Kaylee practicing her milking skills. 

Three exhausted kids on the way back to Indianapolis after our day at Fair Oaks.

Since the kids were sleeping, we decided to take a little detour over to Purdue.  (A trip through central Indiana is NOT complete without a trip to Boilermaker country!)  We showed the kids the stadium, my dorm and apartment, one of the fountains, and a few other places on campus.  Kaylee and Jacob have both decided that they're going to go to Purdue.  We couldn't get a solid yes out of Anden... so we're going to have to work on him a bit.  :-)

As we were coming through, Jesse also decided to swing by the hog farm that he worked at throughout his years at Purdue.  We weren't going to stop, but then he spotted the farmer he worked for so we pulled in.  Delmar is close to 80 years old and is as spry as a spring chicken!  He was kind enough to let the kids meet some baby pigs that had been born earlier that week.  Also found out what a small world it is!  Found out Delmar was a classmate at Purdue with my Dad's cousin Ronald!

Indiana State Fair ~ Cattle Barn

Jacob at the DNR exhibit at the State Fair

Anden's first slushie on the way home from Indy.

  It was actually Jacob's, but Anden decided he needed some slushie too!

It's been a great couple of weeks!  Sorry to see the summer coming to a close.  The kids start back to school in a week and a half.  I always hate for school to start... means our summertime fun is over and the kids are that much older.  Sniff sniff.