Hitchin' up the buggy, churnin' lots of butter, raised a barn on Monday, soon I'll raise anotha

This Friday we packed up the whole family (puppies included) and trekked out to Amish Country, Indiana. We stayed in a pet-friendly hotel in Shipshewana and had a lovely weekend of relaxing and doing...really, nothing. Which is the beauty of vacation to Amishland, there is nothing to do there, nowhere you have to be, no schedules, no rush...you just b-r-e-a-t-h-e and be still. You can open your windows at night and hear the clip-clop of horse drawn buggies traveling down the road, as you sit and read or knit or sip cocoa and just CHILL.

Amishland is my Happy Place. The pace is slow and easy, the people are genuine, the food is amazing. There is homemade noodles, like you've never had anywhere before and this peanut butter spread that I'm sure my endocrinologist wouldn't be too pleased to hear I had and the PIE. Oh, the pie. More pies than Bakers Square, all homemade and wonderful. There's lots of great shopping to be had, lots of artisan shops and of course beautiful quilts.

And there are farms. Miles and miles of farms. So naturally, I thought we're going to Amishland, surely I would be able to find some Amish milk while we're out there. We buy Jackson Amish non-homogenized organic whole milk. Lots of reasons, but he prefers it so much now and it's not that much more expensive than Horizon Organics or Organic Valley (the factory farms of organic dairy - don't get me started!) We went to every store in Amishland in our quest for Moose's milkies. None. Not even any organic milk to be had! We ended up having to drive over 1/2 hour away into "town" to a health food store, where we bought the same brand of milk we buy here at Whole Foods. It's from the Kalona Amish Farms in Kalona, Iowa. I was pretty irritated that I couldn't find any good milk! I was ready to walk up to an Amish house & knock and ask if I could have some milk. I only needed about a quart, sheesh. Such milk drama!

The Girls did great on their trip out there and back. They napped in the back of the Jeep, and we timed our travel to coincide with Moose's naptime so he snoozed too. We drove out on Friday, enjoyed a fab Amish dinner at Das Dutchman Essenhaus Friday night, spent Saturday shopping for handcrafted wooden toys, organic pastured humanely raised and euthanized Amish meat and other Amish yummies, and went into "town" for milk and dinner. Sunday, everything is pretty much closed so we drove into the "town" that was the other direction because they have a Sonic there. You know I had to get my cheese tots and cream slush on, yo. Then today we took a leisurely pace returning home, stopping to rescue a lost dog on the way home. We had Chiropractor appointments this afternoon, then we went to do a little grocery shopping and we're all back home now, well adjusted all around.

Last night I snapped a few camera phone pics of Jackson after he fell asleep. I call this one, "Surrender to Slumber"



And here he is from another angle. So tiny, precious and sweet! I just want to eat him up! But that would be mean.