warren dunes

This year we acquired a camper. Jeremy was adamant that we actually USE it so we planned a little trip up to Warren Dunes with Matthew & Jodi & kids.
The last time we were up there was 5 years ago, in the middle of a roasting July. (Disclaimer: it was still a great trip.) Going in September made for perfect camping weather - cold enough for coffee in the morning and evening and warm enough for beach and outdoor time during the day.

 Surprise! Found a flat tire when we pulled into our campsite.

 Jeremy's craigslist camping table. Yes, he is proud of it.

 Our site was right beside the campground and the bathrooms. :)

 Making Mountain Man's Breakfast one morning. It was a hit!

 She was digging this trike. She needed a push every now and then but did pretty well riding herself.

 That girl in the pink pants? She's Miss Bossy. I believe she's telling the boys they shouldn't throw sand...notice the sand throwing in the background?

 Teacher Jodi having the kids girls make people and animals from found nature objects.

 The beach was empty (yes!), and the water was cold but the kids didn't seem to mind. To be fair, the water was cold at nearly all the places I took the kids swimming this summer, so they were probably used to it.

 River's collection of "shells".

 Sand, sand everywhere...

It should come as a surprise to no one that when Mr. Social hits up the beach, he finds someone to talk to. So he met a man who was sand boarding on the dunes, and he let Jeremy and the kids use his board.

 Trying to fly kites at the beach. It was not really windy enough.

 Finally got it up in the air.

 Finally. A nap after a busy day on the beach.

 Poor little guy. Some lady went by our site and said that "her" seat was so cute! Does he look even a little bit like a girl?!?! No, he does not.

 This fence made a handy clothesline.

 Prepping hobo dinners.

 Ingenius or lazy? Using a roasting stick to propel the lady when needed...

 I don't believe I mentioned that spare also needed fixed...

I did not stem from a family of campers. I recall camping the year Wes was a baby (89!) at Mohican with another family. We tent camped and he must not have liked his bed made from a box because it seemed like he cried all night. Then we went to Turkey Run years later (94?) and it rained. A lot. We didn't go after that.
So I wasn't really sure how this whole camping this was going to work out, me being a novice and all. But we had so much fun, I'm planning trips for next year. :) Wanna come?

fair oaks farms

Several weeks ago we went to Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana with Jeremy's family. I thought it was a pretty cool place so I'm sharing, if you ever get that way. It was only about 2 hours for us.
It was scheduled to rain in the afternoon the day we went so we did the outdoor activities first.
**There is something for all ages here as far as activities. 
This looks like a easy peasy climbing deal but apparently it was pretty hard. None of the men got to the top on the "difficult" part. Bwahaha! I heard a lot of talk about how hard it was to get a grip on those climbing things. Excuses, excuses, men... (Kidding, it did look tough.)

Fair Oaks Farms is huge so they have cows having calves all the time. We witnessed this birth and believe, I broke out in a cold sweat watching her have contractions. Someone finally came out and helped ease the legs out and finally the calf was born. She had a boy too - I bonded with her. :)

That face on my girl - so Madeira.

This train was a big hit with the little girls. I didn't get a picture of it but River was a big fan of the corn maze. Who knew?

Her. :)

Us.

This was one of the those "interactive" type theaters. Where they randomly spray you with water and blast your ears with loudish noises. Not a fan. At the end, the cow on the screen lifts her tail and you get a face full of water...
Umm, but the content of the movie was interesting.

After the movie, you walk through their set up of the cow's stomachs and their anaerobic digestor display.

Luke, giving a try at climbing this wall with magnetic climbing gear. It was pretty tough - he didn't make it to the top either.

Because of diseases and cleanliness, our tour of the farm was pretty much all done by bus. This is just one of their dairy farms. They milk 2800 cows a day, 3 times a day. They get 8-10 gallons of milk per day per cow. Pretty crazy.

5 acres of cement where they mix the feed for the cows.

I thought this rotary was awesome. The cow steps on to her spot by herself where someone cleans her and puts the milker on. The milker is on for just 5 minutes but they're on the rotary for 8.5 minutes to allow time for cleaning, etc. Each cow steps off herself when she's done - I don't know if the rotary ever stops moving. These farmers or whoever behind this are efficiency experts.
Also highly efficient - the milk comes into a tank straight from the cow at around 101 degrees. In 5 minutes, it's cooled to 32 degrees.
Fair Oaks also has an anearobic digestor, turning all the cow poop into power, which not only fuels all their farms (11 right now) but extra for the local power grid. I think this is amazing!
I had to think of my dad while I was touring this place. Pretty sure he would have thought it was as incredible as I did, at least their methods of turning a dairy farm into a veritable milk factory.
Honestly, I can't tell you enough how scientific this place is. During the tour, they described just how the farm works - which is like clockwork. I'm probably biased but it sounds like people of German descent engineering this...but we'll save that for another post.

And lastly, what would a dairy farm without an ice cream shop be? Pretty lame. Mad, enjoying her ice cream. (And she does, greatly.)