Our Trip to Pennsylvania

Our flight on the way out was a little rough. It was a long flight to Atlanta and by the time we boarded the plane to Baltimore we had two crying kids, but we survived the 15-hour travel day and arrived safely.

It took Kate a few days to get used to the dogs, but in the end she loved Jackson (Java) and Cocoa. We enjoyed visiting with family, all but 3 were there, which meant 23 people and one shower! The purpose of the trip was to help celebrate Grandma Rock's 90th birthday.

We were also able to take a few side trips to: Hershey where we had a great time at Hershey Park, a huge amusement park, I didn't get any pictures because our digital camera broke =-(, Gettysburg, and Palmyra, NY. All in all I think the kids would have taken just playing with their cousins at grandma's house over anything else. All 12 of them had a great time together.

Our kids enjoyed driving the country roads that felt like roller coasters. And they got to taste some Pennsylvania Dutch favorites such as fried chicken, ham balls, and homemade macaroni and cheese. And then there were the Chambersburg/Wenger traditional foods like grapenut ice cream, Utz potato chips, Martins potato rolls, and pretzels. We made an almost daily outing for handmade ice cream.

Rick's mom and her two dogs Cocoa and Java, or Jackson as Kate called him.Kate getting a pedicure from her two cousins Didi and Rian. Thanks girls!Some of the cousins posing under the train during the 90th birthday celebration.Cousins playing in the stream at Caladonia State Park where we later found water snakes!The two kids and I climbed 119 steps to the top of this observation tower in Gettysburg, for a beautiful view of the battlefield and countryside. It was a little scary with those two up there by myself and I later regretted it since I could barely walk for the next two days!On the way to NY, Rick and the boys loved stopping in Williamsport, PA to see the Little League Museam.It took Kate a while, but pretty soon she warmed up and wanted her picture with ALL of the dancers at the Hill Cumorah Pageant.It was great for the kids to see the Book of Mormon come to life during the show. We even visited with friends from Kent there, the Call and Jensen (now live in NYC) families!
'Bees were humming, sweet birds singing, and music ringing' literally as we walked through the Sacred Grove, where Joseph Smith had the First Vision.
We made a stop on the way home for me, to see the house my Dad grew up in, in Sayre PA. We even had a Double Cheese Whammie at his favorite restaurant, a real dive I might add!

Luckily our travels back home went much more smoothly. I think the kids were just exhausted. Kate had a sweet lady to sit next to on our long flight to SLC and then all three kids slept from take-off to landing on our flight to Seattle, ahhh. Home sweet Home.