Amish Hospitality

   Our first stop down in Southern MN was at an Amish family farm...they always welcome us like we are family ~ I am so thankful Tricia shares her friends with us & now they are my friends too!

As we waited for Lizzy (the mom) to come home we walked around & enjoyed the beauty of their farm.

   My favorite part of all was the clothes' line on a -9 F day.  The clothes actually weren't even frozen stiff but were flapping in the wind.  The simplicity & order of it was just beautiful!

   Then we saw Lizzy coming!

And of course, we even enjoyed Buggy

rides before they put the horse away.

(Annie, Sam, Tricia & Bo)

It is not respectful to take pictures of the Amish, but the horse was acting up a little (itching to get back to the barn :), So Paul said it would be okay to take a few pictures if he turned away.

They wlecomed us in and it was our first visit

to the NEW home they had just built.

And of course, Bo was a little maniac the

whole time but they LOVED it! 

I had to snap this picture the one second

Bo sat still with Dad in the rocking chair:

Believe me, it didn't last long.

   As the sun set & the lamps were lit we spent hours visiting.  I shared with Lizzy how Bo had written on my kitchen cupboard with a permanent marker & she said she had a product for me.  As she gave me "the speal" the Melaluca salesman gave her (he wrote on a picture with a Sharpie & wiped the photo clean) she took out a Sharpie & the cleaner & drew on her table covering....well it didn't come off!  She said she will think of me & remember my visit everyday :)  We laughed & laughed & then she wrote on her wall determined to show me how fabulous the cleaner was!  It came off :)  & I left with little bottle of the cleaner she made me take :)That lead to a story of when she was 5 and her cousins asked, "Who wants their face painted black?"  She said she sat up tall & begged for the honor.  I asked her what they painted it with & she got a big smile & said,  "It was black buggy paint."  Well then we were already laughing ~as Lizzy is quite the storyteller ~ all the way through the rest of the story.  She said once her whole face, including her eyelids, was painted black they sent her out to run around the windmill in the freezing cold.  She said once she got about halfway to the windmill, the oilbased paint was drying & it was no longer fun!  She shared that she had blisters all over her face from the kerosene as they rubbed her face clean.  Oh did we laugh!  It was a perfect night!

Enough about me!  Tomorrow I look forward to visiting your blogs again!  So much has happened this week that I miss you all!