Steed's Dairy Farm

Donut the pregnant cow :D

On Saturday we went to a Dairy Farm - but not just any dairy farm, Steed's Dairy Farm. (You can check out there page there.) One that had a huge PVC pipe slide, sand hills and a playground, large wooden boats and tractors for kids to play on, a gigantic rubber jumping pit and a petting zoo! Not to mention the pumpkin patch and horse drawn rides. It was fun. The cow was crazy! It was literally acting like a dog - craving attention of it's owner and wanting to be petted and loved. Funny.

 

Adalynn had so much fun looking at all the animals! She was uncertain of the huge cow, especially when the cow kept trying to lick her :).  We took Adalynn through it all. It is so much fun to watch her experience new things. What's funny though, with all they had there to do, she wanted to sit in the pumkin patch the whole time. That seemed to be her favorite spot. Hehe... she loves those pumpkins! It was fun going out as a family!

Saturday in Aiken

We had to check out Aiken, SC while living here in Augusta (since it's like 30 minutes away). Very cute town. Extremely similar to downtown Holland, MI - but smaller. It had cute shops and food places and the closest brewery around.

Amanda - doing her part!

There was a blood drive that Saturday too :). So, being the incredible woman that she is, Amanda decided to save some lives on her vacation. Plus she got a free hotdog! They tried to get us to buy the hotdogs too. They tried to get us the buy the hotdogs numerous times... I started to get annoyed actually. They were a wee bit to chipper about selling those hotdogs. :P

We went out to Betsy's Diner instead

Adalynn was hamming it up too. She did not want to sit the normal way, she wanted to straddle that highchair and eat that highchair. hehe

So, we didn't take a ton of pictures, but we got a lot in the restaurant. It was good too. We then proceeded to take Amanda to the army base and drive around and show her a few of the places. Nothing incredible, but she found some great things to buy for her three sons.

It was fun to just explore new places and show Amanda around our new town! Cannot express how much fun it was to have her there with us!

Columbia Country

We were so blessed to have my sister-in-law come and visit us! It was so uplifting to have family come and stay and be able to just chat and visit places around Augusta. It was also incredible to just get renewed energy with Adalynn and watch as Amanda (Sis-in-law) played new games with Addie. (Ones we still play today!)

Anyhoo, we tried to visit lots of places. One of which is the Columbia Country library and park behind. Amazing place!  

Oh, it is this beautiful!

In the library!

So, Addie is quite active. Never likes to sit still. She proved this when we entered the library and I took her out of the stroller. HAH, she was crawling everywhere! She was having so much fun! There were big windows she could pull herself up on, and toys and books and even little cubbie holes she could crawl in! It was so cute to watch.

Reading with her Auntie!

Yes, she is crawling up on things now

We even found out about a storytime they offer! YAY! Amanda was great with reading books to her as well! This library also has an incredible cafe area. It's like the perfect place for Adalynn and me! Coffee, books, activities... ahhh... :)

We lost her hat :P 

Swinging!

It was an incredible day! So much fun and Adalynn was so pooped out she zonked out! (Which is always nice. :D)

Literally... gorgeous! 

Ezekiel House

Built in 1797

Augusta was quite the town back in the 1800's. Located on the Savannah River was a huge part of that. It's sad that the town is falling apart now. So much history here. During the Civil War there was a gun powder manufacturer here in town.  The chimney from that place is still here!
We thought it was haunted (rumors of it being haunted), but when we asked the tour guide she explained how they had mistaken this house for another house and that it isn't. It was still cool and we learned a lot about the time period and tobacco farming - VERY labor intensive. WOW!

The house built over 100 years ago!

Sitting on the back porch

What was neat was that the stairs to the upstairs bedrooms were outside because Mr. Harris brought merchants down and had them stay at his house for free. There was two rooms set aside for them!

Crib...

So, who knew that they babies stayed in their crib until they were 3 or 4. Woa! Sad at the same time because the life expectancy was so short and they lost so many kids. :(  So they kept the babies close until they were older.

Love this mirror!

Loved this mirror. Has 13 knobs on it for the 13 colonies and has an Eagle on top to represent the united states. What's crazy, is I visited a furniture consignment later that day and found a mirror JUST like this painted blue. HAH! I kinda wanted to get it too :D

Addie enjoyed the tour as well.

It was cute cause she was jibber jabbering away while the tour guide was talking. The house is supported by the history museum here in town and the lady who gave the tour was so knowledgeable!

The Pallor

The Kitchen

It was fun! So interesting how old houses always have such an 'old' smell to them :P
Note the picture above the fireplace - a little child - a BOY. Dressed in a little white dress with a blue sash. Evidently this was very British and so some American's did this as well. They know it's a boy because the child's hair was cut short, there is a drum in the picture and he is wearing a blue sash.  :D Another interesting tidbit!

Loved the house though and loved the tour! AND when I had to use the restroom, I had to go out to the building that use to be the old kitchen. HAH! :) 

Southern History.... 

Pendleton King Park

We went out on Saturday morning to walk another park.
This one is suppose to be haunted too, which only adds to the fun for the Linderman family! :D
Plus it had a fairly decent disc golf course. 

Our lovely CitiMini GT Jogging Stroller!

It was a huge park, but disappointingly not well taken care of. It felt like it was slowly falling apart. Which is sad. The tennis courts were in need of weeding and the little pond was all mucked up with stagnant water.

There was a circle of 'totems' designed by an elementary school class. Kinda cool! There were different ones all in a circle.

Hey, we're an army family - we love tanks! hehe...little random that there was a tank in the middle of the park, but that's ok. It was fun to climb on!

A stage!

Actually there was great acoustics here too. No need for a microphone on this stage. As you can see though, it was extremely dusty and dirty. I wonder if it even gets used anymore. Poor neglected stage... I will come and hang my silk on you! :) 

Pretty flowers growing in the cracks

The haunted cemetery

So, we wanted to find the cemetery cause, well, you know. :D
We looked around and found a park map. Then saw on the map where this cemetery was, but still couldn't find it. It was hidden with the brick wall, and the entrance was facing away from the walking paths. We off roaded to get to it. Very anti-climatic too... not much of a cemetery. Though there was a gravestone from the 17--'s! OLD!

So that was our walk on Saturday.

A Southern Stroll Through Magonias

Are We Lost?

This morning we wanted to venture out ... so we did! South Carolina here we come! (Honestly, it's only 20 minutes away).  I found a plantation nearby and since we both love history we went, plus we don't have plantations up north. If you want to learn more about where we went HERE is a link to the website. It is called Redcliffe Plantation.

Now, to get there our GPS said we would be taking unpaved roads, which is fine (adds to the adventure really). We didn't realize that we'd be traveling a long ways on them with no signs about the plantation. The picture above is the road we took to get there, it was fun!

"Um, Nadj - some hillbilly is gonna come at us with a gun"

Donkeys!

Yes, we passed by several homes along this dirt road and one had goats and donkey's! Being the city girl that I am, I made Stephen stop in the middle of the road and I got a picture. I had to hurry though because a huge dog across the road started barking at me and did not seem so happy.

Let's Do This!

We arrived right as the "park" opened at 9am. So the weather was still slightly cool, which was nice because the sun was hot. We were able to walk around the grounds, which were so quiet. We walked through the slave quarters and the stables. The big house didn't open until 1pm for tours, so we weren't able to go there this time, but below is me on the steps!

I want a porch someday!

This porch was amazing! We almost went and got a blanket to set down for Addie to play and Stephen and I could sit down on the rockers that were provided :P.  It was just us; it was fun!

Adalynn had so much fun!

Honestly, this little girl was having such a good time. Looking at everything and laughing and kicking her legs. She was just a contained bundle of energy! It made looking around the house and land more entertaining!

The Mansion

Stray Dogs

Alright - story here... (oh, and I so wanted to adopt the little guy, I named him Charles...)
On with the story. So we were almost done looking around when a park worker came walking up, she was going to open up the "gift shop" (just a few books), so we talked with her. Very sweet lady, lives walking distance away! We were asking her questions about the house and, of course, Stephen asked about ghosts. There are none by the way.
Anyhoo - these two black puppies came walking around soon after she arrived and she started telling us about them. They just showed up one day and she has tried to adopt them out, with not luck. She cannot seem to get one of them to come near her right now. What is interesting is that the last owners of the mansion back in the '60's owned 2 black dogs. Literally, identical to the ones that showed up now. What's more interesting is that the owner in the '60's found his dogs when they came wondering around the house after a rainstorm. Hmm... she brought us into her office and showed us pictures of the dogs from before. So strange!
I befriended one of the dogs, so sweet. She said she'd even let us take him, but that would be way to much for us now and I wouldn't want to separate the two puppies.

Over 100 year old magnolia trees.

These trees were planted by slaves back in the 1860's I believe. They were beautiful! It's so crazy when you hear the story about something you can see. To know that over 100 years ago slaves were planting the very trees I was looking at. Wow.

She zonked out minutes after getting in the car.

Sleepy baby! She did so well, loved all the traveling and even laughed at the dogs! hehe.
We're going back to look through the mansion too, not sure when, but we will!

Taking a Walk - Through a Church!

Father Moment - All geared up :)

So, we decided to go visit the Sacred Heart Cultural Center this morning. I really wanted to go do something before the hot weather hit and this was Stephen's last day off. We both love old churches and thought this would be wonderful!

Let's Go!

We're Ready!

It is over 100 years old and used to be a Catholic Church. It was actually abandoned for 10 years and was vandalized and had pigeons living in it. It took a lot to clear out the wildlife and restore the church. It's beautiful, the stained glass everything.

Love the brick walls!

Stephen was smart in using the snugli for Adalynn. She enjoyed it too! She was so enthralled with the stained glass, which lined both walls in the main hall. All the stained glass windows were shipped to Wisconsin to get restored. (We found out a lot of the history through a very sweet old lady who worked there.) Actually this lady was so sweet and we found out her that she grew up in Augusta, her father had been a veterinarian in Augusta for 50 years, her nephew is struggling with an alcohol problem and was a Marine and that she was slightly racist. It was interesting how much these southern ladies share with you! HAH!

It was fun to go out as a family. We even went down the road a bit and stopped by another church that was 200 years old and still active. It was absolutely breathtaking, we didn't get any pictures because they were getting ready for Mass, but it was amazing! Adalynn fell asleep by the end, she was pooped :D

Needless to say - with the hot weather it's hard to take a walk outside (though we Addie and I still take a morning walk together), but we are trying to find fun places inside to walk around!