Pennsylvania 2012

Last Friday the boys and I flew to PA with my parents to visit family.  Jason unfortunately had to stay home and work.  We flew from Sacramento to San Diego, then San Diego to Baltimore where we rented a car and drove the 3 hours to PA.  It was a long trip.  Ollie did great, but Max was a little difficult.  He only slept 30 mins the whole day, and being 18 months old, he is just so busy.  But we made it to my aunts house and quickly went to bed.  We were so beat from the day.

Ollie watched Kung Fu Panda on the plane.  

Saturday morning I participated in my aunts Stamp It Up party, then we headed over to my grandma's house.  We hung out there most of the day with lots of family stopping in to visit.  My mom has 8 brothers and sisters, so I am lucky to have tons of aunt, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, you get the gist.  Saturday night we had dinner at my Uncle Rick and Aunt Linda's house.  It was delicious and it was fun to catch up with their family.  My kids were very difficult that evening.  I don't want to make excuses but I think they were still really tired and overwhelmed by meeting lots of new people.

Max tried on my cousin Isaacs shoes.

Grandma got out the play dough and cookie cutters and my kids loved it.

Sunday I skipped church, the thought of wrestling with my kids during church did not appeal to me.  That afternoon the entire family (or at least everyone in town) came to my uncle Jack's house for lunch.  My kids did much better and Max even took a nearly 4 hour nap.  It was awesome.

Uncle Jimmy likes to antagonize the vegetarians in the family.

Grandma Bea with her three great grand babies all born on the same day.  Eli and Ian are twins and Connor decided he wanted to share their birthday so he came six weeks early.

My uncle Jack helping Ollie shoot a nerf dart gun.  Ollie LOVED it.  All week he wanted to go back to the house with the dart guns. 

My cousin Leah and me.  I have so many wonderful memories with this lady and love her dearly.

The babies again.  They were the main attraction.

Jackson and Ollie playing foosball.

Me and aunt Jill.  We stayed with her most of the week and she was SO good to us.  She had all kinds of toys and treats for the boys.  She really took good care of us.

Mom, Grandma and me.

Eric, Leah and Lydia came to town from Baltimore.  It was so fun catching up with them.  Eric and Leah visited us over the summer, and we are hoping to get to see Lydia in CA soon :)

Aaron, Ashlee and Connor surprised everyone by coming to town from Virginia.  Because Connor was so early it took a while for them to be cleared to travel.  I'm so glad they did.  It was fun to see them and so fun to see them surprise the family.

After his 4 hour nap Max was pretty hungry. 

 Monday morning we headed to State College, home of Penn State.  A lot of my family is Penn State alumni, so it is a pretty special place for everyone.  I love visiting State College.  It is such a cute college town.

We visited the Joe Paterno (or JoePa as he is called) statue.  I  guess after his death this whole area was covered with flowers etc from his legions of fans.  The whole Sandusky situation has not affected Joe Paterno's reputation at all in PA.  He is pretty much a legend there.

We met more of the family at a cute diner called Baby's.  I love diners, but Jason can attest that most of the diners we try aren't very good, but this place was.  I loved it.

He isn't called Ollie "Stink face" for nothing :)

Sometimes he is just silly.

I think Max ate 3/4 of my milkshake.

We all got teeny weenies (little tiny ice cream sundaes).  My cousin Josh (or was it Joe) was disappointed that it wasn't a tiny hot dog.  

A guy that worked there gave all the kids hats.

Us with our teeny weenies.

In front of the restaurant.  The pic where everyone is looking cut some people off.

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Aunt Jill has the magic touch.  Max slept on her like that for at least 45 minutes.

After State College we headed to my uncle Jimmy's house.  His in-laws have cows and so we took the kids to see them.  Then we went to my aunt Paula's sister Cindy's house and saw their organic farm, chickens, a horse and donkeys.  It was a lot of fun for the kids.

Tuesday we did a little shopping and then just hung out at my grandmas.  That evening my aunt Claud and her new husband Dick had the whole family over for dinner.  The food was delicious and it was fun to see everyone.  

We didn't get to see my cousin Jeff and his family on Sunday so I was glad we got to see them that night.  I really wish we lived closer to these guys, I think we would have a lot of fun.

Wednesday we did a little more shopping.  And spent the rest of the day relaxing at grandmas.  That evening we had dinner with the Palmers.  Again, the food was delicious and it was fun to get to spend time with their family.

Ollie was having a lot of fun.  He had a sword and he took his arm out of his sleeve and used it as a holster for his sword.  So silly.

The Palmers.

Thursday morning Max woke up before me and had some fun with grandma and bubbles.  We spent most the day doing laundry and packing.  We did find time to feed the chickens at my uncle Doug's house.

Feeding the chickens.  I guess we did this on Wednesday, not Thursday.

Me and my boys on grandma's swing.  I have many pictures on this swing.  Including one of Jason and I when I brought him back east while we were dating.

Us and grandma.

Thursday night we had dinner at the Hershey's.  I love having dinner at other peoples houses, it is always so good.  After dinner everyone came over for dessert.  We said goodbye and left to start the drive to Baltimore.  We stayed the night at a hotel there so we could fly out the next morning.

My boys were pretty tired Thursday night.  They have both been catching up on sleep since we got home.  

Look how tired Max is, poor baby.

The kids slept most of the drive.  When we got to the hotel they were suppose to have a crib in the room, but they didn't so little Max rested on grandma until they got his crib up to our room.  The flight home was rough just because it was 5 1/2 hours with a busy toddler on my lap.  But we made it.  I'm really grateful for my parents helping me out.  I could not have made the trip with out them.

We had a really nice trip and I am glad we went.  We miss our family back east so much and wish we could see everyone more often.  It was nice to get home though.  We came home on Friday to 72 degrees, it was beautiful. I missed Jason lots and was so happy to see him.  I definitely want Jason to come with me next time, hopefully sooner rather than later.  Since Jason had been out of town most of the week before we left I had my kids by myself for nearly two weeks.  Saturday Jason planned a day for me.  He took the kids all day and I went grocery shopping (which I love to do by myself), visited my grandparents, got a mani/pedi, went thrifting, and saw a movie (another thing I LOVE to do by myself).  That night Jason and I went out to dinner together.  It was the perfect day.  I love Jason for recognizing what I needed and making it happen.  

Nathan's 2nd Birthday/Rough Week

Last weekend we had my nephew Nathan's early 2nd birthday celebration at our house.  My sister and her family are moving back to North Carolina this week (I can't even start thinking about it), so we decided to have his bash before they left.  It was nice for the Whites to get to spend time with the family before they leave.  

My cousins adorable little girl Claira.  She can stand if she is propped up against the wall.

Owen already has an interest in technology, I couldn't keep him away from my laptop.

Carter isn't a fan of me (if you can't tell by his face), but he loves Maggie.

Chrissy, Ashley and Grant, Chris and Jason all mingling. 

Matt and Jack were involved in a riveting conversation all night.

Alicia, Steph and mom.

Dad, Nathan (the birthday boy) and Robert being anti-social.

Barbara and Chrissy.

 I added rough week into the title of this post because it has been a rough first week of work for Jason.  It is a very busy time for the bees.  Jason was stung 3 times in the wrist on his first day and it was swollen so big.  He traveled to Chico for a couple days last week to take care of the 600 or so hives that are there pollenating the almond orchards.  Then he got sick, and has stayed sick for a week or so.  But work must go on.  Then he got stung right below his eye.  Then he was too sick to take me to our ward Valentines day dance (so I went with my in-laws, no need for me to miss the party).  Yesterday he picked up his bee suit and it had one bee in it and it stung him in the finger...haha, poor guy.  Hopefully the stinging will decrease when he gets his fancy bee suit.  It is ordered, but they are made in England so it takes awhile to get here.  In the meantime he has been wearing a suit that isn't the best fit.  Despite everything, he is really liking it.  He enjoys being outside and he is learning so much.  I just hope he starts feeling better soon.

This was a picture of his eye after it was stung, the picture doesn't make it look as bad as it was.

I think I have mentioned before that I lack the crafty gene, but I thought these turned out pretty cute. They are Valentines I made for Ollie's preschool class.  I (along with everyone else this year) got the idea from Pinterest.  

The Zoo

Before I go into our trip to the zoo, I have to write about our disastrous trip down to the bay area.  Jason thought it would be fun for us to join him down there for his last week of work, and I agreed.  I had a huge list of people I wanted to visit.  Monday morning we hit up our favorite (and very ghetto) donut shop, drove by our old place, dropped Jason off at work and headed to my friend Brittany's house.  I left the boys and went to a Drs appt and then came back and hung out for awhile.  That afternoon we spent at our friends the Smiths (who were so kind and let us stay in their guest house).  That evening I stopped by my friend Marissa's and then we met Paul, Amy and Clara for dinner.  After that I dropped all my boys off and headed back to the Nash's to watch the bachelor.  In the middle of the night I had a sore throat but didn't think much of it.  I woke up the next morning with chills, and a fever.  I headed to another Drs appt (had a little bit of a scare, but everything is fine).  I left my kids with my friends Carolyn and Claire for craft day.  I picked them up and we headed back for what I hoped would be naps for all.  Not so much, I laid in bed and shook and shivered while my kids did not nap.  I suffered through the afternoon and then my friend Jen watched the boys so I could nap.  I felt better that evening and we ordered in sushi and watched Psych.  I thought for sure I was better, but the next morning I woke up worse.  I couldn't get out of bed.  This was Jason's last day of work at Apple.  He was able to go in late since he worked until 10:30pm the night before, but he ended up taking the boys back to Brittany's and she watched them all day while I stayed in bed.  It was horrible.  That night Jen had the girls (and their husbands) from our dinner club over for dinner.  I sat and tried to be sociable but I don't think I was successful.  We headed home Thrusday morning.  It took me at least 3 more days to completely recover.  Needless to say I will not skip my flu shot next year.  So instead of sharing pictures of my visits with friends I have one picture that we took on Monday with Brittany and her boys.  It was such a sad week.  I had such high hopes.  

Me and Brittany with our boys.

 This week my sisters and I took our boys to the Sacramento zoo.  Our weather has been so amazing for February I just want to be outside everyday.  

Flamingos are seriously so cool.

The boys looking at the ant eaters.  They were pretty cool too.

Always on the run.

We also loved the giraffes.

Ashley and Owen.

My dad was in Sacramento for some meetings and had a break so he met us there.  

Chrissy was really fond of the monkeys.

Victor Glen and Maxwell Glen.

On a totally unrelated note, Max is learning to feed himself.  He loves to do it and I love him to try, especially cause he sits there entertained for a long time.  But it is always quite a mess to clean up.

So Jason's time at Apple is officially over.  He LOVED Apple.  Now he is officially a beekeeper.  It is fun to hear all the things they are doing with the bees.  It is such an interesting life.  He got stung three times his first day and his wrist swelled up to like 3 times its normal size.  He hasn't been stung since.  I will try to write about our beekeeping adventures.