Amish Country Shop Hop 2008

Every year (excluding right after Syd's birth) for the last 5 or 6 years, I (Jamie) have been able to go on a great girls-only trip. It is a trip to the BEAUTIFUL Ohio Amish country to go to 12 quilt shops. Pastoral scenery, awesome shops, and even BETTER company (my mom and my mother-in-law) always make it a great time.

Its always so great to get out with us 3 girls...and a baby!? Yep, this year it wasn't a girl's only trip...Riker joined us. I was thrilled that they didn't mind a baby coming (of course they are his grandmas after all!) because it meant I could come!



How the trip works is we drive to Ohio Amish Country and you get a "passport" to have stamped at the 12 stores (then it is entered in a raffle when complete -- we are hoping Riker gave all of our passports good luck!).

Then we visit all the shops- you can get a quilt block kit at each store, and every store finishes the yearly theme quilt differently (also on the passport is a vote for your favorite quilt) it is always amazing to see what beautiful variations these talented quilters come up with!

You can buy the pattern/kit to duplicate your favorite quilt and this year all three of us agreed is was Vacshak's quilt! This is a little shop in with a vaccum store in a strip mall. THe first year we stopped there we thought "We won't lose much money here..." it looks so unassuming. But we were wrong! They have a great selection and really nice staff. They even do a little babysitting... Riker, as you can guess, was getting lots of attention and even helped stamp and hand out passports a bit (with a smile of course!).






Special thanks to Riker's buddy and everyone at Vacshak for a fun visit and a little break for mommy's arms!

We made it through 7 shops the first day. We were all pretty tired from all the shopping and laughing. Even Riker was tired from all that smiling and being cute!




The next day we got right back to it...but it seemed that all this time in Amish Country was rubbing off on Riker...doesn't he look like a little Amish boy in that hat!



Riker and I had fun finding interesting things to look at while the Grandmas paid for their treasures! Riker was in the baby carrier most of the time -- what a lifesaver! Definitely better than carrying him the whole time!



All in all the trip went great, Riker was an angel, and we can't wait to go next year! But sorry Riker -- next time -- no boys allowed!