Jane Hardisty Day

Last year, as an award for doing such an outstanding job of public service, our State Conservationist, Jane Hardisty, awarded us a day of leave.  Her only requirement was that we tell her what we did with our special day.  Jane, this blog is for you.

Our family took a staycation to Lafayette. You know how you never take advantage of the sites and sounds that are close to home? Well we took advantage of some of the local recreation opportunities and we had such a good time.

Thursday we did a little shopping on the way to Buccaneer Bay, an indoor water park.  We were the only ones there and Tuck loved having the run of the place.  Kora was ok with it but all of the areas that were shallow enough for her were also the places with water splashing from up above and she did not appreciate getting splashed quite so much. We spent a lot of time just sitting in the water. Tuck loved all of the water cannons and one slide in particular. He was all over the place and even wanted to go back after dinner.  He was one sleepy little guy by the end of the day. SPLASH!!! Kora went down the slide a couple of times with Daddy.  She wasn’t too sure about it though. We had dinner at Olive Garden.  Tuck behaved himself remarkably well and we all shared the most decadent chocolate mouse    pie dessert.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast. Again, Tuck did really well.  He speaks to everyone that walks by.  There was a man in a wheelchair at a table across from us.  When he went by, Tuck gasped and pointed but it was not at his chair it was at his eyepatch.  He called him a pirate and made the man laugh.  I so hope Tuck continues to take people’s differences in stride.

We then headed north up the interstate.  Here are some pictures of the new windmill farms going in to White County.  There are so many of them, these pictures do not do them justice.  For some reason the majority of them were not running. Then we made it to Fair Oaks Farm.  It is a 30,000 cow dairy with an education/ recreation center incorporated into it. Tuck is all about cows and horses these days so this was right up his alley.  He got to hook up the milking machine on a fiberglass cow, see a calf being born (mommy had to excuse herself; the cow was struggling and the calf had to be pulled and the experience was still just a little too raw to witness).    Kora enjoyed cruising around and seeing Tuck climb and run.Then we went on a bus tour of the milking facilities.  We got to drive through the free style barns, see the piles of silage and other feedstuffs,

   see other baby calves just born in the barns and see the 72 cow milking carousel.  These cows step on the carousel and are milked in the time it takes them to make a round then they back off of the carousel.  They do this 3 times a day.  This hits a little close to home as well. This is the bouncing pillow.  Tuck liked it but didn’t like sharing it with the other kids.  He only bounced when there were few others on it. Mommy liked the bouncing pillow.

Here is the cheese maze.  The ropes were too high to inhibit Tuck’s progress to the big block of cheese.  It only took him about 30 seconds to TJ’s 5 minutes and many detours.

And here is our little farmer.  He loved the little tractors.  He would drive them for a while then park them both in the barn, load them with some “hay” (lawn clippings) and then take them out again to repeat the process.

  And Kora was content to sit and eat the lush grass.  She fit right in with the cow theme. She was a little fussy most of the time.  We stopped at an urgent care center in Lafayette on the way home and they confirmed my suspicion: another ear infection.  But now she is on another antibiotic and hopefully on her way to recovery or on the way to the ear-nose-and-throat doctor for tubes; we will find out on Tuesday when we go for her 9 month checkup.  So thank you Jane for my free day.  We had such a good time and it was so good to spend some quality time together.  I hope you know how much we appreciate your support.