Kentucky visit.

Stan and I were given the gift of being able to go and see Isaac, Alex, their families, and Sara in December. Stan had surgery on his nose on December 1, so we planned the trip a week after surgery, because he needed to be off work for two weeks. By the way, he can breathe so much better than he ever has and the snoring has been reduced so much!!!

Isaac had been gone for training. We were so fortunate that he was able to come home and be with his family and visit with us for a few days.

Alex and Brydie and all their children came to the airport to pick us up. It was so much fun. Brydie said they had been counting down the days. There home is beautiful and decked out for the holidays. Both families had been battling with illness. Since Isaac was gone, Heidi had not gotten her tree up. Brydie suggested that we go and help her. Stan got up in the 'scary' attic with her and brought the decorations down. We were able to have the tree up and decorated before Isaac got home. He was tired, and very appreciative that he didn't have to do it.

The kids had a great time with all the decorating. They mixed a little Halloween with Christmas. Maddie thought the stockings should go on her feet. She also really, really thought that Zach should be a reindeer. You can't believe how long she ran after him to put that on his head! The more she chased the faster he crawled. It was quite a feat on her part to complete the chase!

Zach wasn't impressed with the end result and it went away quickly.

One of the highlights of the trip was being able to visit with Isaac and Heidi's Amish neighbors. They have a dairy in a tie st all barn, which Isaac had never seen. They use draft horses to do a lot of the work, besides pulling their buggies.

There were 10 of us over there, invading these quiet people. But they seemed very happy to have us and we enjoyed a good visit. This particular horse, Beauty, had finished moving the big bales of hay on a sled. They took her big harness and told her to go home. She walked right over to her barn, but kids wanted to pet her. When they were all done, she walked in, waited for her stall door to be opened and went in. I was a little amazed at how little the stalls were, that was the only thing that made me a little sad.

They came over for a visit at Isaac's house the next evening. We had such a nice visit and learned a little bit more about the Amish than we had known before.

There was a hill between the house and barns. The kids had a great time running up it and sliding down on their bums...until some starting taking cuts. Then the tears started and the kids and moms left. Stan had a great time with the older gentleman. One of the 'extra' jobs he does is to fix the pulsaters for other dairies. He was quite excited that someone knew what he was talking about and took interest in how he did things.

Sara came by and we were also able to see her and Bethany, a friend from years ago. Even though there was illness among very person there, while we were there, it was a relaxing and soooo enjoyable visit. Stan and Alex were able to help Isaac tear out a wall to enlarge their living room. We need them to post pictures of how they are finishing it. We just really, really enjoyed our visit with our family. We love them so much!