Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Road Trip: PA (PART 2)

After missing last year's annual visit due to my year in Kansas City for schooling, it was great to be able to make it out to PA/NY this year for a long overdue visit with our families.  It was especially good for me to be able to pitch-in helping with various things around my family's property in PA.  One of the first things we did after arriving in my hometown was to help Dad and Keith rebuild one of the bridges along 'Pete's Path'.  The path has been one of my dad's many projects for the past several years and he has single-handedly built five or so bridges at some of the creek crossings along the winding trail through the family's farm land and woods.  During last year's flood one of the larger bridges unfortunately washed away so my dad and Keith cut up a bunch of logs to build a newer, stronger one.  With the seven of us (myself, Dad, Keith, Andrew, Elijah, Lavella & Jonah) it only took us a morning to get the entire thing set, nailed, and completely finished!  I think it's one of the strongest along the entire trail.


Building a bridge with Poppy
Many of my family's vacations over the years were spent camping and hiking in some of Pennsylvania's most beautiful State Parks.  I think we'd all agree our favorite was Rickett's Glen State Park, which is about 50-miles West of Scranton, in the heart of the PA Appalachian Mountains.  What makes Rickett's Glen special is the over 20 waterfalls flowing along Kitchen Creek, which is part of the larger Fishing Creek watershed, a drainage basin of the Susquehanna River.  There are over 10-miles of trails following the creek, including a shorter nature trail beginning at the base of the lower-most falls, Kitchen Falls.  On this trip we chose to hang out at Kitchen Falls because there's a large swimming/wading pool at the bottom, plus the trail there follows an easy, meandering loop through some of the most scenic flora in the park.  Also because of the ease of access we were able to bring Keith along in his wheelchair so we could all be together as a family.  I suppose some may not consider the path easily wheelchair accessible, but we've never been easily deterred by 30 or so stone steps, bridge crossings, and muddy/rutty trails.  All in a day's work I suppose, since we've included Keith in many, much more rustic adventures over the years.

Hike at Ricketts Glen


Hike at Ricketts Glen


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After walking the 1-mile Evergreen Trail, highlighting some stunningly beautiful old-growth PA forest we spent the rest of the afternoon walking the creek, swimming, skipping stones, building little rock dams, and eating along the creekside.  On the way home we stopped at one of the many NE PA farm stands for some blackberries and sweet corn (which we grilled up later that evening).

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

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Overall it was a very peaceful trip and it was great to revisit fond memories of family vacations past in some of the most beautiful nature/recreation areas.  It's always great to be back in the fresh mountain air!

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Road trip: my beautiful sisters (and Instagram wrap-up)

We are so relieved to be out of the car and back in our own house here in Texas, and we missed our friends here so terribly.  Looking back through all of the pics from our trip though, I can't help feeling a little homesick.  Anytime that I go back to my parents' house to visit, there are often various flare-ups between all of the various strong personalities in my family (and yes, I am definitely a big part of that!), but this trip was absolutely the most peaceful, productive and loving that I have experienced...probably since I got married.  It was amazing.

My entire family...wow

One of the coolest parts of going back to visit is getting to know the people my younger siblings are becoming.  When I left the house, my youngest 5 siblings were approximately 1, 4, 6, 8 & 10.  It's amazing to get the chance to get to know each of them a little better every year, watching them change and grow up, and finally being able to relate to each of them as friends (...rather than someone I just babysat for all the time).  Pretty much there's no way around it: my brothers and sisters are turning into -- have already turned into -- some of the coolest people ever.  Also, I feel like I've grown a lot as a person in the past year or so, which made it so much more possible for me to really appreciate them.

This trip I especially focused on spending time with my mom and my 4 sisters -- we even all managed to all meet up for lunch one day for our collective favorite sandwich (bagels and lox) (!!!!!!!), gave ourselves fun manicures (RACHEL!!! My quirky fashion/fun twin!), had a few super-late-night "sisters only" parties (can't wait till Rachel is old enough for those!), and I felt more connected to them than ever.

All of the ladies of my family (please notice how quickly it all deteriorates.....):
All the women of my family
Joy, Rachel, Grace, my mom, me, Allison (Jonathan's wife), Hannah

All the women of my family

All the women of my family

All the women of my family


As I was hugging my sister Grace goodbye at the very end of the two-week visit, we were both crying and I told her that this had been the very best visit ever.  She said "Yes, this has been!  I think it's probably because we've grown up so much, and you've stopped being such a bitch!"  We both started laughing WHILE crying, because it's even more fun to do those two things at the same time...and because it's pretty much the perfect quote, encapsulating the most important part of this trip for me, emotionally.  They've grown up, and I'm not such a bitch anymore.  Have I said how much I adore Grace??

What I would really love to do at this juncture is share with all of you a hysterical video of Grace dancing to the Beatles.  But I promised I wouldn't (I'm watching it again right now though all by myself, and I'm laughing so hard I'm crying!).  So instead, here's the rest of my Instagram pics from our trip that I haven't shared yet, and a few extras....

My littlest sister Rachel (....who is actually about 4 inches taller than me.  Oh well.)
Oldest and youngest: my littlest sister Rachel

On the road...
flower love

Car knitting
Knitting on the road (Knotty Gloves)

(Knotty Gloves project details here)
Knotty Gloves: cuffs

Sunflower field at a rest-stop
On the road: sunflower field

On the road: sunflower field

A Rachel/Faith manicure and a cup of french-press on my parents' front porch
Coffee on my parents' front porch

Sisters night in....cherries, white wine and martinis
Sisters night in

Junk Food and Trashy TV Party with my sisters:
Sisters night in

Greg, Hannah and me, drinking red wine out of metal canteens, telling stories and being way too loud outside our motel rooms (the night before Jom's wedding)
Drinking wine out of canteens outside our motel

The first picture we've ever gotten of the five of us sisters together (unless there's one of us much younger?? I'd love to find that!)
All five sisters
Lined up in order of age (!!): Rachel, Joy, Grace, Hannah, me.

All five sisters

All five sisters


And finally....back home to Texas.
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My heart is full, and overflowing.

(All pics of our trip together in one place here in the Flickr collection)

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Road trip: Independence Day Potluck

On the 4th of July we got together both sides of the family.  There have been several new additions to our family over the past year, so it was especially exciting to get everyone all together in one place!

Everyone

Independence Day picnic in PA

Independence Day picnic in PA

My two youngest brothers, Christopher and Joel (19 & 17).  I wanted to say they're my two littlest brothers, but.....actually I'm pretty sure we must have been standing on uneven ground.  Because in real life, I'm pretty sure I don't clear Joel's shoulder.
Independence Day picnic in PA

Grace & Nick
Independence Day picnic in PA

Independence Day picnic in PA

(That's my mom diving off the dock)
Independence Day picnic in PA

Jonathan & Allison.....VERY SERIOUS
Independence Day picnic in PA

Joy's face is killing me here (I feel like this could be a Norman Rockwell painting)
Independence Day picnic in PA

There goes trouble....literally
Independence Day picnic in PA

Independence Day picnic in PA

And of course, we had our own personal fireworks show:
Independence Day picnic in PA

Independence Day picnic in PA

Independence Day picnic in PA

Independence Day picnic in PA

For all pics of this day, here's the Flickr set.

Road Trip: PA

The 2nd week of our road trip was spent at my in-laws house.  The children had a million different adventures planned for pond/farm/fishing/tractors/campfires/swimming/etc., so as soon as we pulled into their driveway they pretty much spilled out of the van at a dead run.

Building a bridge:
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Construx!
Building with construx

Fishing with Poppy

Fishing with Poppy

Andrew kayaking

Hanging out at the pond

Learning how to drive....
learning to drive

...into the pond.
Tractor-in-the-pond incident

Checking out Keith's workshop:
Checking out Keith's workshop

And a hike at Rickett's Glen:
Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

Hike at Ricketts Glen

As always, there's even more photos in the Flickr set here.

Next up: 4th of July potluck with the entire combined family!