This day of our Cincinnati trip, out in the country at Patrick and Laura's homestead in eastern Indiana, was so peaceful and beautiful and refreshing.
The drive out was lovely. There was a brief spell of really intense rain and lightning that was a little frightening, but it passed fairly quickly, and the rest of the drive was lovely country roads, farms, and GREEN! We prayed our rosary and listened to High School Musical songs, and simply looked out the windows and took in God's creation as well.
They have both egg chickens and meat chickens and it was really interesting to get the overview of it all. I am decidedly NOT a green thumb nor particularly great at anything animal related, but I enjoyed listening to Patrick and Laura share their passion for it. It is always beautiful and wonderful to listen to people share what makes them come alive, and it truly made their farm come so much more alive for me. Plus it's just interesting. I mean you could never run out of questions about farming and land and animals and...all the things.
The quiet peace of just taking a walk around and enjoying the wildflowers, the old red barn, the chicken coops, and the views surrounding was perfect.
The peace was sometimes interrupted by loud battle cries and military orders from these two, but it only added to the beauty of a day away from the hustle bustle to just roam free and live life to the full.
There is no joy like holding chicks, my girlies soon found out.
Laura, Emily, and I took all our kids (minus Kayla who was on an 8th grade trip with her daddy to a Cedar Point) to Amish Country to get some yummy (and cheap!) ice cream.
As you can see, no fun was had by any of these cousins. ;)
The Amish sold all kinds of wood furniture and you could sit on it outside while you enjoyed your ice cream. The swings were a hit.
(here's Kayla and Chris enjoying some roller coasters while we enjoyed the quiet peace)
Patrick and Laura have an above ground pool and the kids enjoyed that immensely.
magna-tile creations
More pool fun at sunset
In the evening, Patrick lit off a few awesome fireworks for us (it's a fun side hobby for him). The kids thought it was AWESOME (and it was). Great show, Patrick.
We stayed the night and guess where the kids were found early next morning?
Holding those sweet little chicks again
Is it not the sweetest thing to see all these adorable kids holding these adorable, fluffy chicks?
They named them, got pooped on by them, held them in different ways, joked about them, gushed over them, and spent TONS of time with those chicks.
And they insisted I hold them too, which was not a hard ask because I was only too happy to hold fluffy baby chicks as well. Thank you, Patrick and Laura, for having us out to the farm. It was absolutely lovely and we were so blessed to have some delicious meals with you, some quality time seeing your place, and some really beautiful and real conversations. We are grateful.
