Trip to Indianapolis, IN October 2010
We had a sidewalk chalk welcome when we arrived at the Christensen's! Julie and Olivia had been busy.
Beautiful colored mums!
The fall colors were peaking!
Pumpkins everywhere!
The fall colors were peaking!
Pumpkins everywhere!
The tree over our picnic table!
More pumpkins!
Gavin & Olivia
Time for Jason to grill!
what is wrong with this picture????
Besta and Olivia had fun drawing on the sidewalk.....
Then Mommy took out the Halloween decorations and found Olivia's witch hat. It didn't take her long to find the broom!
Gavin wanted a hat too! ( :
We played on the neigbor's playset!
The little witch did tricks!
Gavin
On Sunday we drove to Fair Oaks Dairy Farm in Northwest Indian. We met Jaki and Jeremy there. Fair Oaks Farms is home to 30,000 dairy cows located on 10 separate dairy sites.
To grow silage, corn and alfalfa to feed these 30,000 cows it takes approximately 17,000 acres which is the equivalent of 56,000 football fields.
Environmentally sound farming practices are used to protect the soil and water for future generations; and, more than 3,000 acres are set aside to protect the streams and watersheds, and to provide habitat for wildlife.
Each of the 30,000 cows is milked three times per day, and more than 80,000 milkings are performed everyday, in a 24 hour, 365 day-a-year dairy farm that never shuts down.
To care for these cows, a staff of veterinarians, nutritionists, and herdsmen are available 24 hours a day to attend to any cow's health needs.
This highly trained team also cares for an average of 80 calves that are born on Fair Oaks Farm everyday.
Each of the cows produces almost 10 gallons of milk per day, and in total, Fair Oaks Farms produces enough fluid milk to supply all the citizens of Chicago with milk each year. 4 million glasses of milk are produced each day.
We took a 45 minute bus tour of the farm and saw how 72 cows merrily get milked all at once on a giant carousel.
We drove through one of the 10 barns that houses 300o Holstein cows. We saw where they process manure to produce electricity and fertilizer.
And had great fun on the jumping pillow!
Olivia is a natural when it comes to trampolines. She could jump all day!!
And I had great fun taking pictures of everyone in the air!!
Jeremy drove his John Deere!
Hard work!
Ymmm!
We practiced putting the milking machine on the cows!
Bestefar was the fastest, but he has had lots of practice!
Bestefar was the fastest, but he has had lots of practice!
Jeremy, Gavin & Olivia
We all had a fun day!
We all had a fun day!
Then it was time to say good-bye and head back to Indy, Jaki and Jeremy back to Huntley!
As we drove on Highway 65, north of Lafayette, there were miles and miles of wind turbines as far as the eye could see, on both sides of the road. They are amazing!
We were lucky that the rain stayed away all day but made a beautiful rainbow for us on the way home.
Aunt Jodi handed down Connor's tool table to Gavin. He was very busy with his tools.
(I sewed this dress for Christen and now it fits Olivia. Thanks for sharing Christen! Olivia looks as beautiful in it as you did!)
Then Olivia modeled her Mermaid costume! I loved it!
The morning of the day we flew back to WA there were tornado warnings with sirens for Jason & Julie's subdivision. So we spent some time in the basement in the dark (no power) before we left for the Children's Museum. There were many trees down and siding was torn off of homes. Luckily no damage to their home.
The kids LOVE this museum but the dinosaurs are their favorite. The color of the sky changes...it is awesome!
Olivia slipped right into her dinosaur costume and showed us how she sits on the eggs so they can hatch.
Gavin too!! ( :
There is so much to learn at the museum!
This is what the ceiling looks like when you look up....
Then off to the construction zone to shovel some mulch into the wheelbarrow........
The museum has 4 floors and we saw only a small portion of it before we had to leave for the airport. Gavin cried because he wanted to stay.....
I think Bestefar really liked it!! It had awesome music.
We had a wonderful week!! Thank you to Jason and Julie for your hospitality. It was great to spend time with you and the kids!
We miss you and can't wait for Christmas!
We left your hot, humid weather and came home to 43 and rain in Seattle! Whew!
Love, Besta and Bestefar