Day 7 – Up and at it early to get to church! We dragged our tired selves out of bed and
got ready to go and we weren’t too
terribly late…
After church we relaxed and visited. Katie and Greg took us to an open grassy area
called the Commons. Greg opened his
birthday presents and we snacked and the kids played.
Dinner, more visiting, and bed. Hooray for not being at a hotel!
Day 8 – We were greeted today by a whole lot of Pennslyvania
rain. They’ve got to keep all those
trees and all that grass green somehow!
Katie took us to Hershey, Pennslyvania where we took a “tour” of the
factory. Really it’s a little ride that
shows how chocolate is made. We rode
three times in a row.
The next challenge was finding something to do indoors that
wouldn’t cost us an arm and a leg. All
the free stuff was closed on Mondays and all the open stuff was quite expensive. Then Katie had the great idea to take the
kids bowling. We signed up for Kids Bowl
Free and then went off to the bowling alley.
Actually, first we went home for a rest and the kids watched a movie
while Katie and I prepped dinner and Jeremiah got some work done. It was a good break.
Then we went
bowling. The kids had a great time
bowling, and the grownups had a great time watching (and helping).
Day 9 – Just to give the kids a break from touristy stuff,
today we took them to Monkey Joe’s.
Monkey Joe’s is a big bounce-house place. There were all sorts of bouncy slides and
obstacles. The kids had SO MUCH
FUN. (Jeremiah decided to stay home and
work.)
Katie and I opted to buy lunch instead of subjecting
everyone to more sandwiches. It took
more than an hour for the pizza to come and then it didn’t have the half
pepperoni that we had ordered. So they
refunded my money for the pizza. But the
really great part was how patient the kids were. They’d come sit and wait for the food and
then go off and play, then come check back because they were hungry, but they
didn’t complain and I was really proud of them.
After Monkey Joe’s we went back to Katie’s place to get
Jeremiah because we had planned on hiking on part of the Appalachian
Trail. But Katie was tired, and Nyah
wanted to stay home and play with Meg and Kieran didn’t want to go, so we made
a new plan. Nyah “babysat” Meg so that
Katie could take a nap. Kieran picked a
book and sat down to read. Cole and
Aiden came to walk the trail with Jeremiah and I, and so everyone was happy.
Cole was a real treat to have along and we enjoyed his company
very, very much. As it turned out, the
crutches were hard to manage on the trail and my foot was too tired to walk it,
so I went back to the car and Jeremiah and the boys went on. I did some homework and took a little nap
while the birds sang and the clouds threatened to sprinkle…it was quite
pleasant. The Appalachian Mountains are
not tall and craggy and dramatic like the Utah mountains I love so much, but
they have a rich, green beauty all their own.
I really enjoyed seeing a part of the Appalachians.
When the boys got back to the car, muddy and happy, they
told me all about the wildlife they had seen.
A turtle, a frog, and a snake skin were the highlights.
We came home for dinner and then I got to go with Katie to
her cake decorating class. We learned
how to make some different flowers and then practiced on some cupcakes. It was fun to do something creative, but
mostly it was nice to hang out with Katie.
That’s been my favorite part about visiting Katie and Greg and their
sweet children – we’ve seen some fun things but the best part has been sitting
up way later than either of us should, laughing and crying with Katie.
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