Amish Country

Since we were already in Millersburg last Sunday night, and since my sister and I are a little obsessed (okay, completely obsessed) with the Amish, we decided to stay the night and spend the next day in Amish Country. Now when most people go to Amish Country they spend the day shopping and eating, but when you are obsessed with learning everything you can about the Amish people, like us, you do other things. Ideally we would have found a nice Amish family willing to let us live with them for a week, but we had to settle something a little less drastic.

Our first stop was the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center where we talked for awhile with a Mennonite man and watched a movie on the Amish and Mennonite history. We each bought non-fiction books there too (which I'm loving!). The Mennonite man gave us a map of all the "off the beaten path" places to experience the real-life Amish life. My mom ended up meeting us there and while the kids slept in the car, we explored. We had a really good time, but we want to go back again without kids and really explore and take more pictures.

Had to make sure the trip was fun for the kids too, so we met Whitney's friends and went to an Amish petting zoo/safari. Now I was totally expecting to see just cows and goats (typical farm animals) and was a little irritated they were charging $10 to see this, but it turned out to be awesome! They gave us feed and took us out in a horse drawn wagon. It was an hour drive and we feed mules, ostriches, antelope, elk, water buffalo, llamas, zebras, pigs, bulls, buffalo, yaks...you name it! They came right up to us to eat. It was great. The boys also got a chance to each "drive" the wagon. Definitely worsth the money!

This is how most of us reacted when the animals ate out of our buckets.

This guy was really hungry!