Year End Visitors!

We had a visit from Grandma Marla, Grandpa Sterling,
Aunt Chris, and Aunt Traci!

Louis loved all the attention :)
He can't wait for our visit to Utah and Wyoming (hopefully soon!)

Dan and I tried to find some interesting things to show our visitors.
We found Cedar Grove Cheese plant in a little town called Plain.

So we watched the big arms stirring the curds and weigh. When the
curds are ready the weigh is drained and the workers scoop the curds up.

They shovel them into the boxes lined with cheese cloth,
where the curds are then squeezed together to make bricks of cheese.

Cedar Grove has been open for a loooooooong time.
These pics were on the wall showing how they made cheese
before I was born. :)

I had a blast :) and Louis enjoyed himself too.

Gram and Grandpa seemed to enjoy the field trip.

We learned they make all kinds of cheeses!
Cow milk, organically fed cows milk, goat milk, buffalo milk...
I think I'll stick to my colby jack and mozz cheese :)

We got to taste a sample of Gouda cheese.
Not our favorite...

We did like the squeaky cheese curds though...

Louis was tuckered out from learning about cheese.

This little Cedar Grove plant was pretty small for how much
cheese is made daily! They get thousands and thousands of
pounds of milk to make cheese nonstop.

We lunched in Spring Green where there is an eclectic little shop
and diner called the General Store. I've been itching to try it out
since we moved here! My family got to be the guinea pigs :)
This guy behind the counter was quite the chef.

Never a dull moment with Traci and Chris :)

I think they love getting their pic taken!

Mom and Dad with a lighthouse! They had recently been to
New Hampshire and had a pic with a lighthouse there...

Dan and I showed them the tasty side of our new home: CULVERS.
We talked them into trying fried cheese curds :)

This was my favorite part of Saturday's adventures!
We live very near some Amish communities and often we'll see
buggies travelling on the roads. This one was completely enclosed
and looked toasty warm. We also saw a big group of kids playing
a game in the snow outside when we drove past.

Sorry so blurry. It was too cold to stop so this was a drive by shot.
There are buildings and homes with buggies outside and I love
driving by trying to spot them! Someday I'm going to find a
business and purchase some furniture from these amazing craftsmen.

We took our visitors to church with us! We were excited/
because Chris spoke and shared mission stories. We were glad since
we weren't there when she reported in her home ward.

We invited the missionary couple Elder and Sis Ekins over for lunch.
We had a great time visiting in our squishy space :)

I think my family had a fun time taking pics of us....

I can't help but post this one though because Dan loves to get Louis giggling...
with his rendition of "Lion King"...

The Rotary club put together a display for the first year here!
I loved driving around looking at the lights; a tradition my family did every year.
It was fun to share with them this year again. :)

Next year our church is going to put one in!

This guy was playing frisbee golf! The round blue frisbee
"moved" across the chain link fence. AWESOME!

The lights were coordinated to music and we tuned into a radio station to listen along!
We happened to time it just right to hear Feliz Navidad!
One of my VERY FAVORITE Christmas songs!!!
I'm sure my passengers LOVED me singing along. Couldn't help it, it was a very merry time!!!

Being so far away it feels like we don't get to see our families nearly enough!
You're in our hearts though and we love you very very much!

It was really quiet after the Fairbourn's left.
We had to spice things up a little
and Louis came to the rescue :)