Hershberger Farms

For our last hurrah of summer vacation, we hitched a ride with Rachel and Brandon and Rachel's family to Amish Country for some good times at Hershberger's Farm & Bakery in Millersburg, OH.

After arriving, we headed straight for the bakery, which was adorable and offered a wide variety of baked goods, goodies, & homegrown produce. Everything looked delicious, but we went with a doughnut and a few fry pies for our treats, and boy were they scrumptious!

We also took home some fresh cooked kettle corn, prepared just like you see in the picture below. Yum-o!

Next up was the Farm's free petting zoo. Grace was a little wary of everything at first, but by the second go-around, she was down with the petting zoo scene. =)

Here's Travis & Grace with the biggest horse in the county:

The bunnies were SO soft!

Bunny's ears, Grace's ears!


After befriending the goats, Grace was more than happy to allow them to nibble on her pants and shoes. =)

I couldn't resist the urge pet those cute little animals too, and loved the baby bunnies, dogs, goats, and pot-bellied pigs.

Ooh, I just wanna squeeze 'em!

After our second tour of the petting zoo, we went on an Amish buggy ride:

A teenage Amish boy led us on our tour and explained the operations of the farm.

We had a great time!

(I just love how they have those reflectors on the back!)

After the buggy ride, we wrapped up our tour of the Farm by exploring the handmade Amish goods store.
They had this ginormous rocker out front, so we all took turns in it for a picture:

Huge huh?!


It makes Grace look so tiny!

As we left, I noticed this woman feeding the goats on the roof via a cone attached to the pully. So funny!

The coolest part of the trip though (or at least the most authentic) was probably seeing some Amish people gathering their hay in the fields and carting it home on their wagons, like this...

...or just riding down the street in their buggies too.

We loved getting a little taste of Amish country and can't wait to explore the Amish culture and countryside some more!

Akron Zoo

Wanting to make the most of the rest of Travis' summer break, we made back-to-back Zoo trips (unintential really, but it was super fun!). Day 1 (yesterday) was the Akron Zoo (which this post is dedicated to), and Day 2 (today) was the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (which I won't cover since we've posted pictures of it before).

The Akron Zoo (cool sign, huh?!). They also had these ginormous doors at the zoo entrance that were pretty cool too.



The zoo had an AWESOME jellyfish exhibit there that we all enjoyed:

Here are some of the other animals we saw:

A Komodo Dragon. (These guys are HUGE! I had NO idea how big they were! And they are seriously cool dudes.)

Turtles:

Tigers (this guy just kept pacing back and forth; we wished he would have come closer to us, but it was still cool to see him move):

Bald Eagles:

Another favorite exhibit of ours was the petting zoo:

This wall was just too cool to not get a picture by:

The Akron Zoo was the perfect size to cover in a morning outing. We had a great time, and will definitely be going back!

Kirtland

My parents had never been to Kirtland before, so this morning we headed out there for a tour of the old Kirtland town center and the temple.

Here we are in front of the Visitor's Center:





And the Newell K. Whitney Store:


This is an upper room of the store, where the School of the Prophets was held. I always love visiting this room, knowing I'm standing in a place where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have been.

(Our senior missionary guide was sweet enough to take this picture for us:)

Sitting by the fireplace where the men threw in their pipes after recieving the Word of Wisdom from the Prophet:

The Johnson Inn:

The Ashery:

Aren't the wild flowers here SO beautiful?!

I spotted this little guy on our way back to the Johnson Inn and couldn't miss the photo op!

Here we are leaving the old town center with our senior missionary guide. Him and his wife gave us a fabulous tour!

After we left the Visitor's Center, my parents toured the Kirtland Temple while we walked around the grounds and explored the museum at the Temple Visitor's Center, which had some really neat artifacts like the Temple's original weathervane and a 1st edition Book of Mormon.

We love living so close to Church History Sites, and having family come to visit so we have another excuse to go see them! Thanks for the wonderful visit mom and dad! We miss you!

Come on Ride the Train!

My dad, a life-long train fan, treated all of us to a tour of the area this morning on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Dad, this post is dedicated to you!

Here we are boarding the train:

All aboard!

In our seats, getting ready for our tour to begin:

Mom and Dad Reed: (As you can see, we relocated partway through the trip to get a better view and a little more space for Grace =) )

Grace & Grandpa watching the scenery:

Our Family:

The train ride also included an audio tour which explained the history of the area (especially the canal). It was super interesting!

As you can imagine, a 4-hour train ride was a bit much for Grace, so we did some other things to keep her entertained, like read books...

...snuggled...

...sang...

...and danced!

("Reach for the sky, so high, so high!")

(Her signing "swim")

Here's some of the scenery we saw. It was so beautiful and green!

We passed a swamp where they had eagle and heron nests. Cool huh?

A bend of the river:

Dad was real chummy with the staff, who even held up the train to let him step off and take this picture!

Here we are with one of the crew members after our ride:

And back at the Station:

Thanks for the great time, mom and dad!