Our Visit to Amish Country

So after we dropped Laura and Emma O off at the airport on Monday morning, we had the whole day available to spend together as a family. (One of the perks of Brett being on his VA rotation is that Labor Day was actually a recognized holiday at the hospital, and he didn't have to go in to round or operate.) We'd tossed around a couple of ideas of what to do, and finally decided to drive an hour north of Pittsburgh to the Amish Countryside. This is something we figured we should cross off of our proverbial "list" before we move from PA to GA next summer. 

Our first stop was New Wilmington, where we soon realized that coming on a holiday might not have been the best idea; almost everything in the quaint little village appeared to be closed. (Clearly, we hadn't given our timing much consideration!) We did stop in a couple of shops that were open, but they weren't all that exciting. It didn't take too long for us to decide to drive down the road to the town of Volant, which boasted more specialty shops with open doors. We spent a while walking from store to store, checking out the country goods, but purchasing very little. By the end of our "spree", we had quite a haul -- a jar of strawberry jam, two pieces of Cow Tales candy, and three letter cookie cutters (one K, one P, and one mystery initial). :)

These handsome fellers make my heart go pitter-patter.

 Yes, I know I'm a mean momma for putting a bonnet on my son.

 Trying to solve an old-fashioned twisted nail puzzle.

Couldn't wait to bust this open!

A couple of pioneers, these two. 

 Begging Daddy for bites of candy.

 Stopping to take a load off.

 He got a kick out of this ugly doll, and kept saying, "Hiiii, Baby!"

 Spotted a caterpillar while waiting outside for Mommy.

Showing off the "Kaiser" baking pan we found in The Kitchen Shoppe.

Despite being in Amish country, we didn't actually see many Amish people. I guess they were home enjoying the holiday? While driving from New Wilmington to Volant, we did pass two buggies driving out by some of their farms, but no one was out and about in town. Brett commented that he felt the need to drive slowly, even on the more open roads outside of New Wilmington and Volant, because he's seen several Amish children who come into UPMC with trauma injuries after reckless drivers have hit their buggies. :(

As you can imagine, browsing in tiny shops where Mommy and Daddy are having to constantly remind you not to pull things off the shelves was notsofun for our little guys, and soon they were feeling ready for lunch, as well. Once we'd seen as much as we felt we could, we drove 11 miles away to the outlet mall in Grove City (where the crazy crowds of Labor Day shoppers provided a drastic change from the calm and peace of the Amish countryside!). Eating in the food court was our first priority, as by that time Brett and I were pretty hungry, too. The outlet stores were nice, but we only hit up three of them before deciding to load back up in the van and head home. We did pick up a new shirt for Kaiser and some leggings for Sissy at Gap Kids, as well as a couple of shirts and pants for Daddy and a light sweater for Mommy at Banana Republic. (I don't know about you, but I only want to buy at a factory store if it's a really great bargain, and I didn't feel like many items were priced all that low...)

Kaiser and Porter did great on the ride back to Pittsburgh (thanks to the portable DVD player we brought along, of course), but then the rest of the evening kind of unraveled as we realized that we had an extremely over-tired 3 1/2-year-old on our hands. I guess the weekend was finally catching up with him, and he threw a psychotic 2+ hourlong tantrum, the likes of which I've never seen. Seriously, Folks, it was B-A-D -- so bad, in fact, that we sent him to bed without his dinner! I know that may sound cruel, but Brett and I both felt he'd eaten plenty to sustain him for the day, he needed to know his behavior toward us was unacceptable and we meant business, and, after refusing to nap, his body needed sleep more than food! It broke my momma's heart, but by the time Kaiser had bathed and gotten into bed he was calm, and we agreed that tomorrow would be a better day.

Later, once both of the Braly boys were down, Brett and I kicked back and rounded out our night with an episode of Mad Men (our newest television venture). I'm not really sure what we expected our holiday to look like, but it was nice to have our hubby and daddy home and enjoy the day together as a family of four. And now, we set our sights toward a different kind of "Labor Day"...