Moo Fest

Saturday was National Moo Fest day at the Mayfield Dairy in Athens, TN. If you are not from the south, then you are not familiar with Mayfield milk or ice cream. They operate out of TN and distribute to the surrounding states. After taking the tour, we realized that it is the only dairy using the technology to remove the funny taste and smell from milk that comes from the cow's diet. No wonder I love their milk and ice cream so much and it is so expensive!

The dairy was nice but the festival was a little 'salt of the earth'. There was a milk chugging contest, a moo contest, and a milking contest, none of which we participate in while we were there. I did allow the boys to get their hair painted. Tyler decided to go with blue since it matched his baseball uniform. (He is on the Dodgers.) Ethan went with red and orange stripes and I teased him that he looked like orphan Annie.

We ended the trip with a huge scoop of ice ice cream. While we were there we met families from Lousiana and another family RVing their way to Alaska! What a small world. I'm still not sure why they stopped in Athens, TN.
Yes, that is Ethan eating an ice cream cone. He is allergic to dairy. He was born with this allergy and spent a night in the hospital as an infant because we were not aware of it. When he was a toddler, I fed him some pasta that I didn't know had cheese in it and he broke out in hives and his eyes swelled shut. After a mad rush to the emergency room and a lot of Benedryl, he recovered. The doctor said he may grow out of it, and praise the Lord, he almost has overcome it. After finishing the entire cone, he did complain of a tightness in his chest and difficulty breathing, but no hives or physical swelling. I monitored him closely and after about an hour he was fine. We are still not ready to dive into a glass of milk or have him eat it without one of his parents there, but this is a huge step for him.