We are becoming quite the travelers this summer! I think we must be making up for last summer when I was huge and miserable and waiting on Chloe's arrival. This past week my Dad and I drove the kids up to PA and back. We had an amazing time!!
We left a week ago Sunday after church. We picnic lunch'ed in the car and had Taco Bell for dinner. We drove to Roanoke and stayed at a Hampton with an indoor pool. Thanks to rain, rain, and a little more rain, we arrived around 9pm. But of course we'd already promised the pool and thus a week of late nights began. Ryan was sooo excited about staying in a hotel and the pool was a huge hit. It was great and very warm. Chloe and I didn't swim Sunday night since it was a quick swim, but we did get up and all swim Monday morning before we left. Chloe liked the warm water, and Ryan and Abby are becoming quite the little fishies. We had a continental breakfast before heading out. Among other things, Ryan had a sausage biscuit and asked if we could come back to this hotel again so Daddy could get one too :)
After a longer then expected day of driving, we arrived late to Aunt Kathryn's farm in Troxelville. I love that place!! Oh, and on the way we passed my Dad's Grandmother's old apartment which was really neat. It was a little rainy at the Kathryn's, but we still had a blast. Kathryn is doing great! I think we decided she is 93 and she lives by herself. Her daughter Glenda comes to visit a lot and her grandson Brian runs the farm. The kids did well with her, especially Chloe. She's not always great with strangers, but she would literally reach and try to roll/jump out of my arms to Kathryn, I've never seen her do anything quite like that. [Abby sure, R&C no.]. I think Kathryn liked it too! Grandpa and I took the kids to see the four cows. They weren't overly sure about being that close to the cows. Aunt Barb met us at the farm, and we played in the corn crib and the hayloft. I remember playing in the corn with my cousin Matt as a kid. Funny though, the corncrib was not nearly as big as I thought it was! The hayloft was great fun too. We climbed up as high as we could and Ryan jumped once or twice [not to the bottom or anything, just off a stack about three haybales high]. Since we were late arriving, we went out to dinner with Aunt Kathryn. Oh and Dad's cousin Ken and Jane were there too, what a nice surprise! And Glenda went to dinner too, we had a nice little crowd going. The restaurant in Troxelville was closed on Mondays, so we went to the next town over. It was a great little place with delicious food. I loved my view out the window of a beautiful old white house set against a hill in the rain. Chloe sat in a highchair between Kathryn and I and she kept reaching for her and messing with her sweater. After dinner, we headed back to the farm. The kids sat on tractors, and we climbed the hayloft one more time before dark. We then went inside and visited with Aunt Kathryn and the cousins until close to 10:00. They popped real popcorn and we chatted and the kids played. Chloe hung out with Kathryn a good bit. Did I mention I love Aunt Kathryn's? It was so peaceful being in the middle of nowhere. And the atmosphere and all the family gathered around was great. I am so glad the kids made it up there to meet Kathryn and experience the farm!
We made it to Aunt Barb's late Monday night and woke up there Tuesday morning. We slept in a little and then headed to the Amish store. Among other things, I bought several things of dried fruit since the kids seemed so excited about that. So even now, they still call it "the dried up store." We also bought sprinkles of course. It was still drizzling Tuesday. We got subs from a country store along the road and I had a birch beer [tasted a lot like root beer]. We picnic'd under a pavilion at Whipple's. It was an awesome lake in the middle of the mountains. [I had no cell service this day :)]. Fortunately the rain let up a little and we walked around the lake and Ryan scootered a bit. Ryan and Grandpa also went down towards the damn to check it out. They stepped across the rocks and Ryan even took a quick swim if you know what I mean! Pennsylvania is soo pretty. We then went down to the beach area and waded in the water. That pretty quickly turned into the kids taking their shirts off [I keep extra underwear in the car but not tops!] and all but swimming. They loved it. The water was crazy cold, but it was alright as long as I only got my feet wet. The afternoon was spent back in State College, looking for camera batteries for me. My battery died at Aunt Kathryn's and if you know me, you know how upset I was! I ended up buying a flash drive and taking Aunt Barb and then cousin Teri's photos. When we got back from Wal-Mart, Katelyn and Julie, cousin Matt's kids, were at the house. Katelyn's softball game was rained out that night, so after a really really yummy dinner of chicken pan pie, we headed to Spring Creek. The kids scootered and we hung out by an old wooden bridge. Ryan then waded in the water with Katelyn and Julie. The girls are 12 and 8 and they were sooo good with my kids. They all played great and Ryan and Abby loved the big girls. Abby eventually got in the water too. They looked so cute holding hands and wading up and down that river. Although in Ryan's opinion, the best part was scootering in the parking lot right before we left. There was a huge puddle that apparently was awesome for riding through. Back to Aunt Barb's for baths and bed.
Wednesday morning we woke up leisurely again. My cousin Teri arrived around 10am with her sons, Brandon and Noah. It took the kids a little while to warm up to each other since all the boys are shy :) Katelyn and Julie came back too, and pretty soon all the kids were playing well. They loved this huge beach ball that Katelyn had brought over. They would throw it from the ground level up to the deck and back down again. Over and over. They also played a little soccer. Wednesday afternoon we hiked Mount Nittany. It was a nice trail and a perfect day. We made it to the first outlook with awesome views of State College. On the way back down, Ryan took a little tumble and got himself one nice looking boo-boo on his forehead. It's already almost better though. Ryan had a great time hiking and he really took to the big boys. Abby did pretty well too, although she did manage to talk cousin Teri into a piggyback ride on the way down! After our hike we stopped at the Sheetz gas station for ice cream treats. Ryan and Abby had their first ever slushy and loved them. In fact, yesterday Ryan told me that the slushy was his favorite part of the trip. Silly kid! We went back to Spring Creek again to cool off in the river. It was a bit more crowded and didn't have any more puddles for scootering, but we still had fun :). I pushed Abs on a swing for a long time. We went back to Aunt Barb's for baths [poison ivy rinsing-off after our hike. paranoid mommy.]. My cousin Matt and his wife Krista [Katelyn and Julie's parents] joined us for a wonderful dinner of meatball subs and plenty of yummy sides and desserts. We then went to the ball fields where Katelyn was finishing up her softball practice. We all enjoyed an evening of picture taking [THANK YOU cousin Teri!!!] and baseball. It was fun to watch my dad hit, it's been a long time since I've seen him play. When we got back to Aunt Barb's, the girls went to bed, but I let Ryan stay up. Hey, we were on vacation! He had such a great time playing with the big kids. I know they played never have I ever and duck duck goose. It was right about 11:00 when he went to bed! But it's not everyday we get to see these guys and I knew we'd be spending the whole next day in the car, so it's not like he needed to be rested up!
Thursday morning we hit the road about 7am. We stopped in Mechanicsburg to see Grandpa's cousin Paul and his wife Judy. We were pleasantly surprised to meet two of their grandkids as well. Megan is going into 10th grade and is in marching band. Erin is going into 6th grade. They were both super sweet girls and Erin Loved my kids, thus I liked her! Erin took right to Chloe, picking her up, coo'ing right back at her, making faces, picking up stuff that Chloe would throw, she even put the girls in their carseats and knew how to buckle them. I wish we had teenagers around at home! Erin was great. We all ate breakfast together at Perkins. I went out of my comfort zone and had some really yummy chicken and gravy biscuits. I'll give you one guess what my kiddos ate. Yup, chocolate chip pancakes. The drive home took forever. Lots more rain and potty breaks. A dinner stop at Chick-fil-a in Christiansburg. We dropped Grandpa off at about 12:30am and we were home a minute or two before 1am. But it was worth it! All 1800 miles of it!
Thanks so much to Aunt Barb for hosting all of us. Especially Wednesday night when all the cousins were there! If I counted right, there were eleven of us under her roof that night! Sorry for the chaos and mess :) We had such a wonderful trip and we really appreciate all the amazing meals and good times and beds. Thanks to Dad/Grandpa for sharing the driving with us and for the gas and food and hotel. We couldn't [and wouldn't] have done it without you! And thanks to both Aunt Barb and cousin Teri for taking pictures for me. I still can't believe I forgot my battery charger! What a great trip. Pictures to come eventually, but I wanted to try to get down as many details as I could while it's all fresh in my mind.
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