Pennsylvania Adventures

Cam, Jess & Thomas gave their Mom a big hug goodbye as we dropped her off at the airport.  We stopped by a store for me to get pajama bottoms and off we went to Firehouse Park.  We had this fun playground all to ourselves for the next two hours.  I was grateful for the cloudy skies or we wouldn't have lasted that long.

The kids loved it.  They had been there once before but it wasn't in their normal travel path so they hadn't been back.  My visit called for special adventures.  Hooray!  After lunch, we decided to go berry picking.  The blueberries were just coming on and they were big, juicy and easy to pick.  The strawberries and raspberries were ending and were pretty picked over.  It was hard work to get a few berries.  This was the perfect opportunity to talk about "gleaning" the fields and tell them the Bible story of Ruth and Naomi.  Later that night, we read the story from the Book of Ruth for family home evening.  The photo below was from another day.  These are their "cherry cheeks".  They loved playing chipmunk with the cherries I brought.

The next day we started out with a summer movie complete with popcorn and sprite.  That was a treat for them.
On the way home we stopped at the local library.  Cameron and Jessica were very happy to read and could have spent a lot of time doing that.  Thomas lasted a few minutes and then he was ready for more energetic activities.

To keep him from driving the readers nuts, my diversion was to make jam from the berries.  Thomas and I combined the blueberries, strawberries and raspberries for a tasty 3-berry jam.  Thomas was very diligent.  We also made crockpot macaroni and cheese since it rained most of the afternoon and he was stuck indoors.

It cleared up enough for us to take a walk/bike ride throughout the neighborhood.

Thursday morning we went swimming.  The pool wasn't heated so they got cold after about 30 minutes.  They were in and out of the pool after that but had no desire to leave until the time period was up so we spent close to two hours at the pool.  In the afternoon, we had to make a trip to the Christmas Tree Shop so I could look for patriotic bargains for my flag day breakfast.

Thomas was proud of his jam.  He did a great job mashing those berries and mixing the ingredients together.  He was a conscientious helper.

The kids did their clean up chores every day and then some days we did a little homework, some writing and some practicing.  They read books every chance they got and played in the yard when the weather and schedule permitted.

We frequented several playgrounds and several grocery stores.  I love to check out the local markets.

We made ourselves some yummy treats with our berries too.

On Friday, we packed our picnic lunch and set out for the day to explore a town in the mountains named after the famous athlete Jim Thorpe.  The town actually brought him back to here to be buried and memorialized. The town previously named Mauk Chunk, is now named Jim Thorpe.  He was a native American born in Oklahoma but was persuaded to leave home in his early teens to get an education  in Pennyslvania where he became a football star and went on to win the gold medal in several olympics for the pentathlon.  Some say he was the greatest athlete to ever live.

Jim Thorpe is a quaint, touristy town created by mining and the railroad.  Here the kids are sitting on a huge black diamond in the town square.

It was a fun town to see.  We wanted to check out the visitor's center so we could pick the best lake in the region to have our picnic and swim.  We picked Beltzville State Park.  When we arrived, we had our picnic lunch and then headed to the beach only to find out that the park service was not allowing swimming that day.  We were disappointed but decided to make the best of it by skipping rocks, wading and building sand castles nearby.  Before the afternoon was over, we got rained on a bit and then they lifted the ban on swimming so the kids did that for an hour too.

It was an awesome adventure day!
I had planned to go another direction on Saturday to a living historical farm about an hour northeast.  Once again we packed our picnic lunch and cleaned the house.  ( We had two showings scheduled for the house that day.  Tricia and McKay are moving the next week so their landlord is trying to sell the house. Isn't it ironic that as a realtor, I had to keep the house ready to show whenever we left?)

We had a great time at the living history farm.  They had costumed family members who expanded our understanding of the farm life in the 1700-1800's.  We got to pet and feed the animals, jump into the hay in the barn, ride the wagon, see the kitchen demonstrations and bread baking, visit the school house, watch puppet shows, pick and husk wheat and play instruments with the musicians who were there playing for the "old time music" event.

Sunday, we busied ourselves with reading, puppet shows, baking cookies,  art projects, church and music.  We stayed after church for the baptism of a friend who is also one of Tricia's primary students. It was a heartwarming experience. The kids were getting excited for their parents' return which was scheduled for late afternoon.

Here they give their Mom a super bear hug at the airport.

The next morning we got to review photos of Tricia and McKay's trip to London.  Wow!  That was awesome!

I had to take a family photo in front of the home that they have rented for the past four years.  Next time I visit they will be in their new home.

 These berry picking photos were taken the first day on my phone.  I forgot to send them to my computer so I almost missed them.  Sorry I don't know how to correct the order of photos.  The kids and I had a great time together.  PA is a beautiful state with lots of places to explore.