East Coast Tour - Part 2 Nana's House!

Once we said good-bye to Daddy, who headed back to TX for work, we headed south to Unionville, PA to see Nana and Grandpa. Within moments of walking through the door, Matthew had already convinced Grampa to "play trains" with him. They have a set of brio trains that are as old as...well, me. After trying to talk me into the train museum several times, Grandpa asked the two year old boy in the room if he wanted to go. You should have seen Matthew's face light up....TRAIN!??!? MUSEUM!?!?!?! And then you should should have seen Grandpa's face light up, once he realized he finally had a partner in his enthusiasm for old trains. And old keys, and old locks, and old...well, anything. At one point these two disappeared into the barn and came back with a ring of skeleton keys and some old glass frog eyes. Matthew was thrilled!


The train museum was a big hit. There were model trains. Real, BIG, trains...


A train bell, just waiting to be rung...
And then we got to go on a ride, on a real, old, working, steam engine train, through the Amish countryside.



Corn and farms...

And corn and farms...

And a little living on the wild side.

After Nana's explanation to the kids about who the Amish are, about the farms they run, about why there are no power lines, about how the kids help out with the animals, and the gardens....Ellie declares, "I wish my mommy and daddy were farmers so I could help with the cows.". Ellie, you might like it for the weekend, but I don't think the Amish would think too highly of your princess dresses, or your ipad, or your neon pick nail polish. It's always nice to visit though....
And then there's always art to do at Nana's house. A never ending supply of paints, and clay and paper, and scissors, and glue, and pastels, and colored pencils...While Matthew was off with Grandpa finding old stuff, Ellie and Nana were painting in the garden. Two matches made in heaven!

East Coast Tour - Part 1 Grandma's House!

This summer we headed back east for our little Nephew, Shane's, baptism. I thought I might take my chances and see if I could continue on with the kids, after Tony needed to get back to work, to see some more people, since we had already come so far. So, our two week vacation had three parts. Grandma and Pop Pop's in Oneonta, NY. Nana and Grandpa's in Unionville, PA, and Aunt Jill and Uncle Nabil's (and Sesame Place!) in Princeton, NJ. We are back now, and I survived traveling on my own with two toddlers...phew! They were actually, very, very good. As we got off our last plane after landing in Dallas, I had a uniformed US Army soldier come up to me and say, "Ma'am, I just wanted to say what a great job you are doin' raisin' those kids, they were great." That was some nice icing on the cake.

Since I have two weeks, and three locations, of pictures to share, I'll do it in three posts. Here is part 1 - Grandma and Pop Pop's house....

We had a full and exciting and crazy week in Oneonta. All three of Tony's sisters and families were able to make the trip, so that made five grandchildren under five, and too many grown-ups to count! We ate, we played, we ate, we swam, we went berry picking, we ate berries, we ate pizza, we had camp fires, we ate s'mores, and we ate some more. Between Grandma's famous meatballs, and all the NY pizza and bagels we could stand, I am sure we all gained a few pounds!


Best Friends!!! While technically Ava and Matthew are the same age, it was Ava and Ellie who hit it off the best. "I'm going to miss Ava", Ellie said as we pulled down the driveway. Awww...we'll see her soon when she comes to TX in September!
This was our Little House on the Prairie moment. Grandma has a huge hill in the front of the house, and the girls, Ava in pigtails, with their denim dresses (and Matthew), found such joy running down the hill, breeze blowing and hair flying. I could almost hear the theme song to Little House on the Prairie playing in the background.


Sweet girl :)


These two pictures were taken while on a hike in the woods. They were taken with my iphone, and no photography skill, yet they have something about them that makes them look like an old photo the kids will find on someone's piano thirty years from now, and they'll say, "I remember that...we were..." What sweet kids!!


Face painting at the fourth of July party down at the local park.

And LOTS of ice cream eating. (the kids always picked what kind based on the color, not the flavor)

Phew! That seems like a lot, yet, we continued on. Part 2 and 3 to come....