Enjoying the Small (Country) Things

A favorite blogger of mine, Kelle Hampton, has such a positive outlook.  It's one of the MANY things I admire about her.  Recently I've been thinking, "Oh man, sometimes I wish we lived closer to the cities.  There are so many cool things to do there."  I've decided that day trips there are fun to do once in a while, but really, we have all kinds of cool things here too.  Just a different kind of cool.

Kelle also does blog posts titled "Enjoying the Small Things", because sometimes it is the small things that really bring us so much joy.  We have been enjoying the small things... country style:

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Milkapalooza:  An event put on by Cedar Summit Farm, a local dairy farm that produces a variety of organic products.  This annual event includes pony rides, petting farm animals, a tractor ride to see the cows, live music, vendors, and many tasty samplings of foods made with their organic milk and other products.  When asking Olivia what her favorite part was she said tasting all the yummy food.  Henry's favorite part was clearly petting all of the animals! (Oh yes, and he enjoyed the food too!)

I think this cow was preggers.  It looked like she swallowed a watermelon sideways.  I remember as a kid, that's always how I could tell when one of our farm animals was going to have a baby soon.

Mmmm, Milk!

Mustache from the drinkable yogurt.

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Bike rides:  I don't have any recent pictures of our rides, but this is certainly something I'm thankful for.  Biking down our gravel driveway and the road we live on is pure relaxation.  As I wheel behind Pat pulling the kids, I smile as I hear Henry giggle, and as I take in the country around us.  I love not having to share the road with anyone but a Dominoes pizza delivery guy, and our neighbor also out for a stroll.  We went for a ride after bath time last night, kids in jammies and snuggled in with their blankies.  We certainly need to do that more often.

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Fishing:  Sometimes I forget how lucky we are with the place my parents have.  We can just hop over there any time we like.  It's perfect for exploring, 4 wheeler rides, swimming, fishing, etc.  This weekend, we decided to give fishing a try.  Daddy and Olivia didn't have too much luck.  It took a while for their first bite, and it was a small one.  Nothing like last year where you could drop in the line and get one right away.  I've been on a mission to find a turtle this summer but didn't have any luck.  I did spot some deer tracks, and a frog bigger than my hand though!

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Skinny dipping:  I do have a picture of this one, but told myself I wouldn't post any naked pictures of Olivia since she's older now.  I was filling our cheap hard plastic pool with water from the hose one of these recent hot days.  I wasn't thinking the kids would swim then, we were just sticking in our feet, but they wanted more.  Not wanting to haul them in the house to change, I just stripped them down.  I was thankful we lived in such a secluded place, and crossed my fingers that no one would randomly stop by.  The kids had a blast!

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Gather 4 Food:  This event sponsored by Catholic Mutual, and hosted at local county park Cedar Lake Farm, was a perfect way to blend family fun with service.  There was a free lunch catered by Divine Swine, live music, a bouncy and face painting for the kids.  Oh, and what Catholic event would be complete without taking your picture with a cardboard cut out of the Pope?!  They had a large assembly line of products.  You grabbed a bag at the start of the line, and one of each item which included mostly personal hygiene items.  Then you wrote a note (or the kids colored pictures) to add to the bag.  The bags are used in disaster relief situations or passed out to the homeless.  I'm so glad we participated in this event, and look forward to doing it again!

My friend Becky was doing face painting, and was the one who told us about this great event.

Filled bag with many necessities.

Coloring her picture to go in the bag.

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We'll still take trips and go on adventures to some of the museums and parks in the cities that are on my mind, but in between, we'll enjoy the small things country living has to offer.