Dunes and Farms

Oh my gosh! 2 posts in such a short amount of time. And I don't even think Mike has noticed. This weekend, we drove to the Indiana Dunes. It's on Lake Michigan, there's a beach and everything. I was so pumped to climb the dunes, but after 1, I was done! Hiking up a hill in sand is super hard.

 A beach in Indiana! Who knew?

 Sydney was chomping at the bit to get in the water. But we had to hike a little first.

 The smoke stacks kind of take away from the beauty

 A picture after we had hiked up the dune, looking back at the beach

 Then we found this boardwalk/path and decided to see where it went. The campground, it turns out. Not very exciting, but it was still pretty.

 When we left the beach, we drove about an hour back, towards Fair Oaks Farms, because that was where we were going Sunday. We stopped at this candy factory. It's cute!

 This was a real life flowing pipe of chocolate! Chris REALLY thought this was cool.

 Sydney, making her own giant pixie stick. I think you can tour the factory too, which would have been really neat, but it was over for the day. Bummer, we might have to go back!

 Sunday, we went to Fair Oaks Farm. We got to tour the dairy barns from a bus and then we got off and watched them being milked. They are supposed to watch for signs of labor with the pregnant cows and move them to another barn where they give birth, but I think they missed this one, cause she had just had this baby and was still cleaning it off.

 Here's the milking machine. They know what to do, it's so cute. They know when to back off of it and when to get on. However, you do have some sneaky cows who DON'T get off and take a free ride. They say they really like going around on this thing. Don't worry, they can tell if a cow has already been milked so they just let her ride.

 After the ride was over, we went back to where we boarded the bus from and there were all kinds of cow related things to look at. Here's Sydney, trying to attach the milking machine to the cow.

 Next up was the Pig Adventure!!!! I was in hog heaven (pun intended). I must have this print (above)

 They don't let anyone come in direct contact with any of the animals to keep them and you from getting sick. So, they have a pig window, where they bring in a brand new, just born piglet! We got our pictures taken with it.

So many pigs!! I really wanted to smuggle a baby one out of there, but since there was no contact, my plan was foiled. I learned a few things about cows and pigs. It was a neat experience and I would recommend it.

What we've been up to

 We celebrated my grandma's 81st birthday at Huber's. The whole gang was there!

 I don't think I've posted any pics of my new cat. He's been with us 1 year and 2 days now. His name is Andy. We went into the pet store for hermit crab bedding and came out with him. He's very fat. About 19 lbs now. He was 14 lbs when we got him. I wondered how he was getting so big since I was only feeding him twice a day, then I discovered Chris was feeding him again, cause he just couldn't resist the kitty face.

 Sydney got to pet a wild baby bunny. This was in our yard and I think the bunny was literally frozen stiff with fear because our dog, Cori had just run by.

 We went to Myrtle Beach in June. This is the view from our balcony. It was great weather and Chris's mom and dad went with us, so it was nice to get to spend time with them and for them to get a whole week with Sydney.

 A man had this turtle out in a shopping center, taking donations for the rescue of sea animals, or something. It was probably for a drug addiction, but whatever. We actually took a wrong turn and found this, so that was kind of neat.

 Sydney found the coral (seaweed?) below and it had all these tiny crabs (above) crawling all over it.

 Sydney rode the bull! She needs some practice though.

 And here she is relaxing on the slip n slide in the front yard while I was slaving away doing landscaping.

 Relaxing with Andy.

My beautiful baby after our Mother/Daughter photo shoot. A local photographer wanted models that fit that bill for something special she's got planned, so we went. She looked SO cute and my mom fixed her hair so pretty! We had fun and I'm excited to see how they come out.