2013 – We went with Avengers for our matching family shirts this year.
It’s our tradition to stop at the Toy and Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley, OK on our way to China Camp. This year we ate lunch at Boomerangs Diner which is next door – they have some awesome fried pickles if you are ever in the area.
I bring a pocket full of quarters so the girls can ride the truck and Batmobile.
The girls went the predictable route for their costume choices 🙂
The Simpsons was a new display this year.
This was also a new display on loan from an avid cowboy/cowgirl collector.
Once again we had a great time wandering around the museum and talking about all the cool items they have. This is one of our favorite family traditions.
*Excuse me while we take a break from our normal style blog posts while I tell you a little about our field trip to Austin, Texas.*
Click on the photo to see album
If you watch the news you probably saw the very heated debate that occurred in our wonderful state last month over the change in abortion legislation. Never mind that 29 other states in America already have the same sorts of restrictions… all of a sudden the pro life population of Texas was branded as women haters and some fairly horrible things were said that I am unwilling to repeat here on our family blog. Needless to say, the pro-abortion side was very upset that any sort of restrictions were up for a vote and they were against abortion clinics having surgical healthcare standards like other states have.
In Texas if you want to support or reject a bill, you have to show up in person and sign a form to have it in the official count. It’s not enough to call or email your representatives office. In the first week of July the pro-lifers turned up 2 to 1 in support of the bill. And while we knew the bill would pass, I still wanted to go in person and sign the card in the second week of the special session of the legislature. It was deeply important to me to show up and also speak to our representative and senator. So Mike took a personal day off work and we loaded up and headed down. I considered it a chance for the girls to see the democratic process in action. We gave Nadia a basic explanation of what we were going to do and why.
Ceiling of the rotunda.
The girls in the rotunda.
I want to start by saying that I have never seen so many state troopers in one place at one time. One of them told me that they were called in from all over the state to be there for the week based on the behavior of the pro-abortion side when they stopped the vote on the bill the first time around. I was joking if you wanted to speed on the highways of Texas, then this was your week!
We headed over to the other side of the Capital to sign our cards in favor of SB2. Then we went looking for our representative. She was not in the office, but they did ask us to sign the guest book. They had a couple of big Planned Parenthood signs up, so I was pretty confident she would be voting against the bill 😉 We also had lunch and then went to our Senators office to sign the book and voice our opinion. The woman in there was so surprised that we were “actual constituents” and they offered us pizza, soda and candy.
All of a sudden Amelie says, “Der’s a lot of people here talking a lot.” A man in the office laughed and said, “And they aren’t saying much are they?” Mike said, “What do you think of that Amelie?” She said, “Dat’s crazy!” After that we headed out onto the lawn to take some photos before we headed back home.
Nadia brought her camera and the following were taken by her.
One major thing I observed was that if you are a pro-life man, you have NO say in this debate according to the pro-choice side. Pro life men are branded as women haters who have no rights, even if they are the father. But if you are a pro-choice man, well, you can say and do whatever you want. I saw a man there with his infant in a baby carrier with a sign that said “Rick Perry wants to legalize the rape of Texas women!” and his other sign was a lot more graphic. He had three women with him who obviously thought he was awesome because he was “standing up for them” even though his signs made no sense in relation to the bill. And don’t get me started on the UT student who started the whole “Bro-choice” thing that encouraged the college age guys to protest against the bill because if it passed it would “cramp their style” and make the ladies less like to sleep with them if they couldn’t get unfettered abortions. Because clearly those guys are showing how much they respect women and want them to have better healthcare options.
I saw a lot of other stuff that I am unwilling to type out here and I certainly didn’t take any photos because we had our kids with us and I was not looking for a confrontation. I am glad that we went and happy that the bill passed. I pray it will save more lives – babies and women.
*Now back to our regular style blog posts. Thanks for reading even though I know it’s not a popular topic.*
Once we had the car packed up we headed over to the Dosie Dough for breakfast. It was just as good the second time and we got more doughnut holes for the road. After breakfast we wanted to check out the town park.
We loved visiting this area of the country and staying in the cute town of Lititz. All too soon it was time to start our two day drive home. It was a wonderful trip and I am so glad we were able to visit so many family and friends.
On Thursday of our road trip we planned to spend the day with the Hameloth’s. We had breakfast at Dosie Dough which was this cute little coffee shop on the main street of Lititz. It was delicious food for a great price and they had the BEST doughnut holes which complimented our bagel breakfast sandwiches. After that we met the gang at the Julius Sturgis Pretzel factory for a tour. It was really cool to see how the pretzel got it’s shape and on the tour you get to make a pretzel with dough yourself.
We had some time before our tour started so we walked across the street and the kids just started running. I don’t know at what age you cross over, but you never see any adults who see a field and just start running around in circles just for the fun of it 😉
Â
Amelie and Jared showing off their finished creations.
After the pretzel tour we headed over to the Wilbur Chocolate store so we could give the Wilbur Buds a try. On this trip I learned about the long standing competition between Hershey and Wilbur and what came first, the Bud or the Kiss. We bought some treats and candy molds and we were off!
Lynnea suggested we try this place Isaac’s for lunch. All the sandwiches are named after birds which I got a kick out of because I love goofy stuff like that. The food was delicious and it gave us much needed fuel for our big day. We also stopped at Achenbach’s Pastry shop to get Long Johns for after dinner. The Long John is like a long skinny doughnut topped with different flavors of icing. YUM!!! I am know going to figure out what the Texas equivalent is and see if they are as good. The peanut butter topped one was my favorite.
Next up was the Lapp Vally Farm. We got to walk all around looking at the jersey cows, where they were milked and the fields. After wandering all around and the kids chasing the peacocks… we had ice cream in waffle cones (all made fresh on site). It was some seriously good ice cream.
Little cow having a taste of Nadia’s shirt. HA!
This guy was squawking while the kids were trying to sneak up on his mate.
I have no idea what they would have done if they were able to get close, but it was silly to watch.
After leaving the farm I saw this sign while driving down the road and asked Mike to stop. I bought a bottle of root beer and some strawberry preserves. I didn’t have the root beer until the next day, but it was really good. Very stout and flavorful – nothing like the grocery store stuff.
Â
We headed back to the Hameloth’s for playtime, dinner and smores. Nadia enjoyed watching them being made, but not eating them.
Lynnea and I. And all too soon it was time for us to head back to Lititz and get ready to hit the road in the morning. My one HUGE, GIANT regret of the trip was that we forgot to get a photo of all 8 kids together that night. Here I am a month later still kicking myself over it 🙂
And the saddest thing about leaving was all the tears shed by these two girls who are such good buddies. I managed to keep my sadness inside until we were about half a mile down the road and Nadia just started crying her eyes out. Then Mommy had to cry too.
We had so much fun with the Hameloth family. Thanks to all of you for showing us your beautiful part of America (and delicious food) and we hope to see you soon!
 
 
