Amish Country

While Nana was here visiting, we wanted to take a day trip down to Amish country in Holmes County, Ohio, about 2 hours away. We picked the perfect day for it. It was so beautiful just driving among the rolling hills and green pastures. We started our trip at Rolling Ridge Ranch where you can ride in horse-drawn wagons through 80 acres and see (and feed!) tons of animals up close and personal. Andrew and LoganSummer and Hannah How cool is this - a zebra/donkey mix! I think they called them Zonkeys.

The boys' first reaction to the animals.

Eventually they got brave enough to feed them.

Look at the antlers on this guy!
This one tried to steal Logan's bucket!

I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the grown-ups. Nana and I really got a kick out of it!

This was too cute: Toward the end of the ride when the animal feed was gone, this ostrich continued to follow our wagon. I overheard Logan talking to him. "Sorry Birdie, we're all done! There's no more, Birdie. We're all done!" After the ride, we visited the petting zoo.
Hannah liked the ducklings and bunnies best.Next, we visited Heini's cheese factory. Who knew there were so many kinds of cheeses? We got to taste them all. Yummy fudge too. Sadly, we were too late for the cheese-making tour; we'll have to catch that next time.

By the time we made it to the Amish Door restaurant for lunch, Hannah was tired and very cranky. The only thing that kept her happy was building towers of creamer cups and then knocking them down. When that lost it's appeal, she had a complete, inconsolable meltdown and Nana had to take her out of the restaurant while the boys and I finished our meals. (Thanks Mom!) The food was delicious and the kids loved their free cookies at the bakery!

What a fun little trip in our own backyard! Thanks so much, Ali, for all the recommendations! We had a blast!

Girls' Night Out

...at The Melting Pot!