Purina Farms and the Brewery

As the school year quickly approaches, I have found myself wanting to do as much with my last few days of freedom as I can. So we have been taking advantage of this nice weather and getting out to be tourists in our own city (and outlying area).

I told Clayton that living in the city is growing on me. As a country girl, I never thought I would live so deeply in the city. But, now I can't imagine living anywhere else. Don't get me wrong, I would still love to retire there. I often long for the peace and quiet, or a long walk along the gravel road. I am happy to be enjoying the place I call home, now. Right now, right here, we can give our children lots of interesting experiences and show them things I only read about in books as a child. I love still being able to go home to the country and take them there to see the cows at my dad's farm and let them roam around bare foot.

Colin has been interested in factories after watching a DVD about machines and how they are made. Clayton and I hadn't been to the brewery for a long time, so we went on the tour to show Colin a factory. We were very disappointed that the packaging part was closed because of escalator problems, but he did enjoy seeing how things worked to make beer. I know, not the best thing to show him, but he doesn't think much of beer (I don't drink except for social gatherings and Clayton rarely drinks anything at home.) Anyway, at the end you get your free beers and we let Colin have his first soda ever! It was a rootbeer. Catch the photos below of him drinking it and then his face afterwards. I think he liked it, but the carbonation made his mouth feel funny. Poor guy, I guess I deprive him. I only let him drink milk and water at home - not even juice!

Audrey just loved the pretzels that came with the free drinks. It was a hit with the entire family!

This is a little video of Audrey with lots of pretzels in her hands while she drinks.



The rest of these photos are of Purina Farms. Audrey loved the sheep and cows, but was afraid of them if they got too close! We went with my friend Eleanor and her son, Emmett. Emmett is four days younger than Audrey. We're so excited that Eleanor will be Audrey's teacher in the afternoon this year! Yay! She and Emmett will be great friends.

The real hit of the whole morning was the dog diving show. Here is an arial shot of a dog catching a frizbee on his way into the pool. It was a great morning and lovely weather!