Last year, Uncle Dillon had the idea of both sets of grandparents taking a vacation with the little ones, so at the end of July, we all spent a week in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
It was only (what should have been) a 7.5 hour drive for us and 10 hours for everyone else. We hit terrible traffic, but fortunately, we had planned on doing the drive down in two days for Will's sake. We had planned on checking into a hotel early and taking the kids swimming on Friday night, but congestion and needing to stop every hour and ten minutes for Will made us get to New Jersey late in the evening. Our swimming was put off until Saturday morning, but Will really enjoyed his first time in a big pool. We then took our time in getting to the house.
I tried to keep my proclamations of "Buggy! Buggy! Horse pulling a plow!" down to a minimum as we drove through the Pennsylvania countryside. (David says I failed.) Once we unloaded at the house, we went to meet Grandma and Grandpa C and Dillon at a smorgasbord for dinner.
The house we stayed in was definitely in the middle of Amish country. We saw buggies pass every hour from about 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. This definitely thrilled my (formerly Amish romance-reading) soul.
Walking to Sunday services
Cooling off in a pool we brought
Will enjoyed the reprieve from the ~100 degree temperature on Sunday
Enjoying a doorway bouncer we unfortunately can't use at home
Sprawling, family style
Some of the Amish households near the house were farms, but others were just houses with enough land for a garden plot. When there wasn't room for a full barn, they would have carriage houses.
Sacked out after our Sunday walk
Will has been plate diving for some time. He still isn't showing signs that he's ready for solids (as a comparison, Avonlea Jane first had solids at a little over nine months). We decided we would let him lick some food, though, so Willie tried his first taste of watermelon.
Watching the guys play Frisbee in the near dark
On Monday, we took a buggy ride and toured a working Amish farm
On the way to the farm: the buggy path and the walking path through the corn field
The farmer was a supplier for Land o' Lakes, and his operation wasn't much different from dairy farms run with electricity. Avonlea Jane enjoyed seeing his animals but kept failing to get the farmer's attention for her questions: "Farmer, excuse me, farmer, Mr. Farmer."
Grandpa had to pry Avonlea Jane's shirt away from this little calf.
Squeezed in the buggy
Grandpa has some homemade rootbeer in his hands, made by the farmer's wife and grandchildren
The most amazing thing about the Amish homes were their size. You need a big house when you have nine children and your in-laws living with you and you occasionally host a church service for 100+ people.
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