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.