Adventures in KC

I think it is starting to hit us that we will soon be joining the parent club; therefore, we are trying to have all the fun we can. So what do you do in a big city with no kids you may ask? No, we didn't go clubbing... no we didn't go to haunted houses... we went to the Louisburg Cider Mill.

This is a tradition we do every year with the Oman's. We love driving 25 minutes to a farm in Loiusburg, KS to buy homemade apple cider doughnuts, stock up on jams or pancake mixes, see how the apple cider is made and hang out with the country folks. This year was no exception. We did have an extra guest though, and it was the Oman's cute little girl, Evie.

So the plan was, meet at the Oman's Friday evening, have a quick dinner, then drive to the cider mill to enjoy the stuff.

We were pretty mad when we got there and it was CLOSED for the night!!!

Seriously, it was 7:00 pm! Only in rural Kansas does this happen. Oh well, we watched from outside how the cider was made (I think the people inside thought we were stalkers.)

We also enjoyed the ambiance and took some fun pictures. Instead of homemade apple cider donuts, we enjoyed big city ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Maybe next year we will check the hours of operation before we go. I can't believe we aren't getting our donut fix this year!!!

Since we weren't totally fulfilled, we decided to take on another adventure the following week. My friends Daisie, Sarah; and I like to get together once a week during the day. Before I tell you what we did, you have to understand that children are involved. Now that you know, I can say. We drove 45 minutes north to Cameron, MO to go on a tour of the Shatto milk farm.

You may be snickering at this idea, but you must know that Shatto milk is amazing! They sell the milk in KC in bottles just like the good old days. Not only does the milk come in skim, 1%, 2% and whole, but they make different flavors such as banana, orange, strawberry, chocolate and root beer. A big reason to go on the tour is that you get to sample all of those. They were amazing! Trav and I liked the banana the best (and yes, Trav had the day off, so I made him come with us).

After the sampling part of the tour, we got to meet the owner of the cow farm. His name was Leroy Shatto. He was such a nice man. He explained to us how the milk was bottled and processed. It really was interesting. He told us that in 2006, his company won "small business of the year" in Missouri, so he and his wife had the opportunity to fly to Washington D.C. and meet President Bush. Leroy packed president Bush a quart of chocolate milk in a cooler and gave it to him not really expecting that the president could actually drink it, come on it could have been poisonous. Leroy got a phone call about 2 weeks later from the white house saying that President Bush really liked the chocolate milk. Apparently, Dick Chaney and president Bush drank the milk during one of their lunches. Leroy got a letter the next week from the white house. It was a picture of President Bush drinking the chocolate milk. We got to see the picture! It was pretty cool!

(our buddy Leroy)

After chatting it up with Leroy, we got to go see the farm. We met the cows and saw how it all worked. They allowed people to milk and feed the cows.

After we took this last picture, the huge cow behind us stood up and just drizzled poop all over that guy behind us. It was amazing! I hope that guy gets paid a lot of money!!!

The last part of the tour, they showed us how they milked the cows with machines. They had us hold our thumbs out to represent the cow udder. They put the machine on our thumb so we could feel what it would be like to be milked. It was a weird feeling, and I'm glad I'm not a cow.

I think he liked it.

The people who helped with the tour were probably the nicest people I've met in a long time. It makes me wonder what it would be like to grow up in the country. I always wanted to marry a cowboy. Maybe Trav could be a doctor for cowboys? There are a lot of farming accidents.

Now that we have totally lived it up; I think we can say we are ready to have a baby. She will be here any day now. I hope we can look back on our crazy days with no regrets!