Amish country weekend..........

On Bill's birthday, we decided to book a trip to Amish country during the peak fall season. This past Friday we took that trip. It was fabulous. The drive was beautiful, the hotel was nice and the kids enjoyed all the attractions. We did a lot and I took many pictures!
Here's one of Andrew's favorite things to do. We took a mini-train ride through a farm and the country.


Next we stopped at Heini's Cheese Chalet. Delicious cheese. Regretable name.
We enjoyed our hotel. Lily and Andrew are at the age that any pool is a great pool and any hotel with a pool makes them happy. I think to them, it's a giant slumber party with a pool. We enjoyed the pool to ourselves for almost 2 hours on Friday night and for an hour and a half on Saturday.

Here we are outside the Wendell Forge Company. I don't always enjoy having my picture taken, but I must admit, I like how this one turned out.

Probably the highlight of the trip for everyone was taking an hour long horse drawn wagon through an animal preserve. The weather was just perfect and the scenery was beautiful. I think the kids each loved having a bucket of food to feed the animals.

I personally didn't realize how close the animals got. Here the zebra came up to the back of our wagon and my camera lens was not wide enough to get a great shot!

They had lots of baby animals including this pot bellied pigs. Isn't the polka dot one cute?

The closest animal we got to was a Scottish Yak. Here he is begging for food from Lily. I don't know much about Scottish Yaks, but I did learn that they are a bit intimidating when they get this close and they don't have the best smelling breath.
Bill got to feed an ostridge. They eat with gusto and you can watch the long, slow path the food takes when they swallow.
My personal favorite was the giraffes. They were so beautiful, strange and sweet. This particular one is named "Big George." I happen to love how this photo came out.
Finally, the country side was just gorgeous. Many of the leaves were blown down by recent high winds. Still, what foliage remained was quite beautiful. It was a very fun family get away!