Mom and Dad Easton Part 2

On Wednesday we decided to go to the outdoor Wolf sanctuary.  We planned to get lunch in the nearby town of Battle Ground, IN. We knew it was a small town, but we thought surely they would have a few restaurants to choose from. There were exactly two restaurants in this one stop sign town: a pizza place open only for dinner and "The Eye Opener Cafe."

I bet they get quite a bit of business being the only place to eat during lunch.

 It was traditional diner food and we were pleasantly surprised to find it tasted pretty good.

We went on to the Wolf Park.

The staff had just finished eating some pizzas, and I guess they usually throw remaining crusts and pizza boxes into the wolf pen for them to eat. One wolf got to the two boxes before all the others did. He peed on one box and then ran off with the other.

 

 He did NOT want to share his pizza.

 They took us on a little tour of the place and described what they do with the wolves, research, etc.

It was possibly the hottest day of the year, so we were really sweaty and exhausted. As we walked around the huge wolf enclosure, they kept throwing big blocks of ice into the wolf pen so the wolves could have a cool treat. They never once offered me a cool beverage...

We couldn't take the heat much longer, so we decided swimming was next on the itinerary. The pool is 1/2 a mile from our house, so Mckay took the boys over in the bike trailer.

 Dallin was so excited.

Connor was hesitant in the water at first, but as long as I held him close (instead of trying to make him sit alone in the water), he was just fine.

Eventually, he was comfortable enough to play by himself on the little sprinkler/splash pad.

 

And Dallin was in heaven the whole time.

Back home for dinner that night, Connor was making the funniest faces at us. He kept squinting his eyes, smiling and laughing. 

Thursday we went up north to the Sand Dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan. Along the way, we stopped at Albanese Candy Factory.

I now fully understand the expression: "like a kid in a candy store." Dallin's eyes got so big when we walked in. He was running around wanting to touch everything, and he doesn't even like candy. It was the excitement of lots of brightly colored small items in containers, all at his eye level.

He grabbed a shopping basket and began to fill it.

We just let him do his thing because it made him so happy and he filled the entire basket. When he walked away from it for one second, Mckay ran off with the basket and put all the candy back. 

At the Sand Dunes, we got the kids all strapped in and ready for a short hike.

The sand dunes are blown about 4 feet inland every year, and these tall trees are gradually being buried.

We hiked to the top of Mt. Baldy, the largest sand dune, and then back down to the beach.

Dallin loved playing in the sand.

But he still was not a big fan of the waves and water.

Connor loved eating the sand.

He wasn't as scared of the waves as he was in California, but he still got nervous when the water reached him.

I loved his crawl on hands and toes so his knees didn't touch the sand.

Dallin tried to imitate it.

Mckay and his Dad had a rock skipping competition.

We got back to Lafayette and stopped for dinner at Steak and Shake.

Mckay's mom LOVES Steak and Shake. She ate there for the first time when they came to St. Louis for our wedding, and now she has to eat there every time she visits us.

They just built one in Colorado though, so I hope that doesn't mean they'll visit us less often now. We really loved having them stay with us.