More Pennsylvania Fun!

Jessica and Abigail never seemed to tire of dressing up in crazy outfits.  You will see various photos throughout the post.

Here is one more photo of Abigail in Philadelphia in front of the Ben Franklin statue.

On Tuesday morning we dropped the kids off at school and drove north for a couple of hours to Harmony (used to be called that) to view the newly opened visitor's center commemorating the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood.  Here is a photo of the Isaac Hale home were Joseph & Emma stayed for awhile to get away from the persecution in NY and continue with the translation of the Book of Mormon. Below is a box the size of the one Joseph kept the plates in.  It was very heavy, about 60 lbs.  Amazingly Abigail was able to lift it.   I don't have any photos of the restored home where Joseph and Emma lived and where Joseph finished the translation except for this one inside in the kitchen.

This is the site on the Susquehanna River where Joseph and Oliver were baptized.  It is peaceful and beautiful there.  The church has done a top notch job in restoring this area and making it accessible to people.  The missionaries were very nice and eagerly awaiting the summer tourist season.

We were able to complete our excursions and be back in time for the kids to return from school.  Since it was Abigail's last night before they flew out on Wednesday, she and Jessica put on a performance for us.  They sang, danced and jumped and were assisted on occasion by Thomas.
It was delightful!

We surely enjoyed having Tiffany and Abigail around for a few more days to contribute to the fun.

Wednesday night we had the newly assigned missionaries to dinner.  They had been in town for only a day or two.  We had a lot of fun getting acquainted with these elders, one from Samoa and the other from Orderville, UT.  I think that they will do a great job.  After dinner we headed to the church for scouts, cub scouts and girl's activity days.  Jessica gave a presentation on her scripture hero as part of her Faith in God award requirements.  See photo below somewhere.

The following photos are not in order but give a snapshot of our activities throughout the week.
After Tiffany left, we filled our time during the day with various activities.  One day, we drove to Kurtztown which is the location of McKay and Tricia's stake center.  It is 20-30 minutes away.  We went there because I had located a donut shop that guarantees hot donuts.  We considered driving back to Philly to see the temple and get a donut at McKay's favorite donut shop.  Kurtztown was closer and we had never explored it. The shop is called the Frying Dutchman.  There are no racks filled with donuts to choose from.  You order your flavor from a big chalkboard menu and they fry up a cake donut fresh and cover it in your favorite toppings.  Yummy!  Because of my great posting skills, you will see Kurtztown photos scattered throughout.  The old down town section of town is a quaint little place.

Thursday night we took the kids to a local diner that we had driven past dozens of times.  No one from the family had ever eaten there.  We had a fun evening at the Parkland Diner and our waitress was delightful.  I guess we were having too much fun to take pictures.  The kids ate well and enjoyed every bite.
On Friday afternoon, we went to the fish hatchery just a few minutes from the house.  We ended up staying for several hours as the kids enjoyed scrounging to find dropped fish food pellets and throwing them in the water for the fish.  Steve splurged and bought some food for $1.  That entertained them for another hour or two.  Then they played kick ball on the grass for another hour.

Friday night we made our own personal pizzas.  That activity is almost always a hit.

Saturday, we went to the school district's arts fair.  Jessica and Cameron had art displayed in the gallery.  We listened to several groups performing musical numbers, including the chorale that Jessica had sung with during the entire school year.  It was a very nice event and only dampened a bit as it started to rain.  That was our que to leave and make a trip to Crystal Springs Farm for ice cream treats.

One thing we started at the beginning of the trip and continued every night was reading the Book of Mormon together and then listening as I read from the book "Pollyanna."  We really got into this book.  I was glad that Abigail had already read it since she wasn't able to finish it with us.  I ordered the 1960's version of the movie from Amazon as our goal became to finish the book and have a movie night of Saturday to watch the movie.  Mission accomplished--we loved both the book and the movie but the kids agreed that the book was better.

Here is a photo of Steve in Kurtztown before the donuts.

Jessica absolutely loves Grandma's home made macaroni and cheese.  She ate several helpings this large.

We had a great week together but the kids were so excited to drive to NJ on Sunday night to pick up their parents.  Happy reunion!

Monday for lunch, Tricia and McKay took us to their favorite place to get Philly cheesesteak sandwiches.  Home Depot.  There is a vendor set up in a small attached room who makes fabulous cheesesteak sandwiches.  We had been on a quest to find good cheesesteak sandwiches.  This place was definitely the best.  Yum!

Steve and I walked the nearby Trexler park trail with and without the kids.  We love it there.

Thomas had crazy hat day at school one day.  This is the hat he wore.

 The last time we visited, we left the bathroom window open and it rained and stained the wall.  We felt we needed to fix the damage and that meant painting the entire bathroom.  Fortunately they had a lot of light blue paint left from painting a single wall in Cameron's room.  It went well with the shower curtain so we took the chance and painted it blue.  We liked the results and hope they do too.  I couldn't find the photo of the finished work but trust me it looked better.

Cute little duplex in Kurtztown.  Here I am eating a delicious hot donut.