meet our roomie!

Meet our new roommate, Lindsey. She is an awesome addition to our household- as of two weeks ago. She is in her last semester at UNI and then will head out to do student teaching. Until then, the Hoskinson basement is her home!

It wasn't too long ago, my cousin mentioned to me at a family gathering that "you guys sure don't like to do things normally do you?" Not exactly sure if I should take it as a compliment but I will ha ha. She was referring to the number of roommates Mark and I have had since being married. We had Liz (right after we got married- before she got married), my sister for a summer, we lived in the Hansen's basement for a few months, and also lived in the Kraayenbrink's basement for a few months. Now- Lindsey. All in six years(ish). At first, some may assume this means Mark and I don't want to be alone! That is definitely not the case. It just often seems like these opportunities have worked out well. We have either had the opportunity to open our home to someone who needed it for a certain period of time or someone has been generous enough to do the same for us. It seems to me that living in community really makes sense. It is where you often grow as the good, the bad, the ugly all comes out! Plus, we have space that isn't being used so that seems to make sense too. This is a different season (with two little kiddos) to share a living space so I'm sure we'll have some learning along the way. But we are excited to have our sweet new roomie.
*When I first wrote this post, I knew our list of roomies didn't seem complete. And my friend Kelsi reminded me of the semester she lived with us (up until the first week of when we had Addelyn!) Wow, the list is getting so long I can't even keep track anymore. Kelsi was another great Hoskinson roommate that we have lots of great memories with:)

hansens dairy tour

Our summer To Do List included doing a tour at Hansen's Dairy Farm in Hudson. It is run by a couple and their four sons (and families). We have been buying their milk for the past few years after being introduced to it by some of our friends. It is non-homogenized. Why does that matter? Read this link. Jace has had lots of dairy issues so I'm hoping this will be helpful for him as he starts drinking milk. And now that we live so close to the Outlet store, we also frequently buy ice cream cones from there this summer too! Oh and don't forget their homemade cookie ice cream sandwiches, yum. I mentioned the tour idea to Ilene and they decided to make a field trip out of it for the daycare so it was fun to all go together.

Addelyn and her buddy Jack

On the trolley on our way to the barn to see the cows and the process of how they make milk and other products. Addelyn was convinced she should wear her sequined dress to the tour on that ninety degree day. Oh my farm girl:)

They have wallabys at the farm, which are their mascot. The kids got to feed them and they thought that was pretty fun.

Here they are standing next to the silo- it was very tall!

Checking out all of the cows! Each one has it's own unique name.

The office where all of the cow's birth certificates are. Quite an interesting process- how they make cow babies and all that goes with it. I learned a lot at this tour!

Addelyn thought it was pretty cool seeing the calves bottles. Of course, she is infatuated with anything that has to do with bottles, babies, etc.

Our tour guide showed us how we could let the calves suck on our hands. Addelyn was nervous to do this so I had to show her it was okay! Now the farm girl in mom came out:)

All of the kiddos in front of the big ole' preggo cows. Poor things- it was hot and they were laying down, miserable looking. I could feel their pain!

Riding the trolley across the farm

Best part of the tour- the end, where you get the sample of Hansen's ice cream!

If you haven't done a tour, I would definitely suggest it! We had a great time!