Oh What Fun We Had

We are back from the beautiful state of Pennsylvania where we visited Scott's oldest brother, Mark and his fam. We were looking forward to this trip for months and it took forever to get here, and of course, the trip went by WAY too fast!

Ada did pretty well traveling. It was tiring for us because she would not sleep on the plane so we had to keep her entertained. Check out her face. She knows she is a tantrum waiting to happen. Amish Country
I really wanted to go there. We spent the morning eating a big breakfast then headed out. Of course, I got sick with a nasty cold the night we got to PA so I was not feeling super great, but we still had a great time. Of course we had to visit a popular chocolate factory and grab some Wilbur Buds and fudge. There is nothing that chocolate won't fix. Maxim and Kate are the sweetest kids. They helped us keep Ada entertained. They did not know what they were in for during the car rides, though. Had they known that she can throw some pretty nasty fits in the car, they probably would not have begged to sit by her. The kids held up pretty well though.


Can't go to Amish Country without visiting Intercourse. Scott had the great idea to point to the sign above and have one of us point to Ada. Inappropriate if you ask me :)

You can see the tired, glossy look in Ada's eyes. She was going on less sleep and no nap two days in a row. You can only imagine what that will do to a toddler



I loved driving around and seeing horses and buggies. We were headed up to this beautiful Amish home to buy some home made root beer. Ada loved seeing the horses and kept yelling out "Neigh, Neigh"

It really is gorgeous out there. I loved seeing all of the open land and hills. In fact, they looked more like mountains after all this time we have spent in Florida
.

If you look behind me, you will see the horses. That is where Ada's attention was.

Oh yeah, we joined the Amish faith while there.

Ada would make a cute little Amish girl.

The kids with their little hats. Scott refused to put one on for the picture!

Dinner time turned into meltdowns for Ada. We ordered our Philly Cheese steak Sandwiches and waited, and waited, and waited. Turns out, they were short handed and hadn't forgotten about us (which was what I thought). The owner, Captain Gus, kept the kids entertained with some magic tricks while we waited. Ada would not have it, though. She was hungry and wanted to eat. What was even more aggravating was she cried every time she bit into her grilled cheese. Can't please a tired baby. We headed home after that and put her right to bed. She slept until 10 the next morning!

Filling our hungry bellies!

Sunday, we met my brother's soon-to-be boss at church and had fun visiting with him.
I was so excited to be able to scope things out for him a little. They are very excited to have him join their department. After church, we drove around Annville, saw where Jeff would be teaching then headed home for lunch. After Ada's nap, we went to a Benny Goodman Band Concert. I was shocked at how well Ada paid attention. She did not budge.

The cute cousins entertaining Ada while I got ready

Can't go to Pennsylvania and not go to Hershey Chocolate World. Such a cool place. Had I been feeling better, a lot of money would have been dropped on a lot of the fun chocolate flavors!

Ada LOVED her uncle Mark. She would walk up to him and say, "I Hold," which means, "Hold me."

Ada is obsessed with hats, just not wearing them. The kids got to "work" in a factory and box up some Hershey kisses.

They have a cute little ride which takes you through the production of chocolate. Ada loved seeing the singing cows and kept yelling, "Moo, moo."








Who in their right mind would consume this whole thing?

Okay, I would!


Bedtime Glee

Settlers: Cities and Knights.

A ruthless, cutthroat game that we spent many, many hours playing. So fun and very competitive

Sandwiches and Games. I forgot to mention (or maybe did not need to) we ate a lot on this trip. Food was always on the mind. We stuffed our faces with delicious sandwiches this day then headed out to a local creamery for ice cream.

Yes, we gave Ada her very own ice cream (honestly, she would not have had in any other way!) Did she make a mess? Yes. Did she love every moment of it? YES


Mmmm...

Notice how clean I am? Just wanted to point that out. And the ice cream was scrumptious!

I think the creamery was owned by either an Amish family or Mennonite (can't remember). They lived on beautiful land and owned goats that we could feed. Ada was not quite sure what to think of this. She loved Scout (the Foley's dog) but struggled having these loud, aggressive creatures eating out of her hand. She would act all brave when she was far away, but would cower when too close.



Ada with her cousins.
She was most likely saying, "Pet." She learned that word while we were there and now talks about petting everything and everyone.




Stacy saved her kids toys and pulled them out for Ada. She loved them and learned a new word while in Annville. "Toys." If only you could hear how she actually says it. Hilarious

We brought our portable DVD player so we could entertain Ada on the plane. It came to good use during some game time. Ada and I were both feeling a little sick so I put on some Yo Gabba Gabba and she actually cuddled with me to watch.


Kate and Maxim are in Tae Kwon Do. Our last night we went and saw them get their fight on. Kate can kick her leg higher than just about anyone and Maxim can be very fierce with his punches. I loved watching them and so did Ada.
Ada was putting on quite the show at one point, but I will have to write about it later. That is almost a whole separate post of its own!


After Tae Kwon Do, we headed home for dinner. Mark and Stacy cooked us a really good Portuguese dinner. After we stuffed our faces, we got the game out. Pretty much the only game we played the whole time. Settlers. I really wanted to win! I was going for it, but it never happened. Kate and Scott were on a team at one point this last night and destroyed everyone. Kate was so proud, I was mad at Scott :). Okay, not really, but my blood heated up for a bit during different parts of the game. We took a game break halfway through (around 11ish) and ate some toll house pie and ice cream! Scott and Maxim decided to call it quits the last game so they could play Zelda. I am not a night owl, but fought through the sleepy eyes to play 1/2 of one more game. By 1:00AM, I called it quits and had Scott finish my game. From what Scott told me is that Stacy won again, within minutes after I went to bed.

Scott and I made a big breakfast our last morning and packed up the car when we finished.
We drove to the airport, said our goodbyes (yes I almost teared up) and headed out. We had such a good time and felt like just as I was feeling better, and just as we were getting in the groove of everything, we had to pack up.

Long post huh? You though you were finished reading. Well, there is just a little bit more. We had a layover in the Cincinnati Airport and while I was walking Ada around in her stroller while she slept, I get a text from Scott. Delta was looking for someone to bump their flight because they were overbooked. They would give us food vouchers, a free hotel stay and $400 travel voucher...each. We jumped on it. Granted, I had no clean clothes or PJ's for me and Ada (Scott brought everything in his carry on), but we decided we could tough it out. We went to dinner, kind of put Ada down for bed, and got to watch the BYU game. Ada would not sleep if we were awake, so we let her climb into bed with us and watch Yo Gabba Gabba while we watched the game. It was a long night for all of us. Ada slept, but she was in a loud crib so every movement I could hear. My congestion was pretty bad too so I did not get to enjoy the nice big bed.

We got home Friday afternoon and took a long nap. We had such a great time and wish our vacation could have lasted longer!

Oh...one last thing.

One of the reasons I was not feeling well is because I am prego!

Yup...even though I am almost in my second trimester (12.5 weeks), the nausea hits me off an on and was more on than off during our trip. The cold didn't help much with the situation either. I am going to have a birthday baby! Our baby is due on my birthday! So...if you made it to the end of the post, you will know that I am expecting.

Back to the trip. Thanks Mark, Stacy, Kate and Maxim for the great trip and for spoiling us! We had a great time!

Arranged Marriage?

I mean, they already get along so well!

(And no, I did not place them, Ada just climbed on Tristan's lap while they were watching a show)

A Good "Spin" on Things

Sorry for the lack of posts to my faithful readers. We have misplaced (or maybe the kiddos have misplaced) our camera charger. So, the camera has been dead for over a month, and I finally got around to ordering a new charger which should be here on time for our family trip to Pennsylvania. I will tell you what, the timing of this trip could have not been more perfect. We are wiped out and need a good vacation. Poor Scott. He heard from so many that the last year is great because you don't have as much work, you know how to study for exams and it's just laid back. Well, his professors have piled on the reading, close to what he had first year, so he does not get much of a break from that. On top of all his schooling, he started working as a clerk for a small Family Law Firm and on TOP of that, he is always online looking for work and applying for jobs. He is up long hours, has long days and on top of that, he is a husband and dad who never checks out on us either. He is always willing to set aside his work for his family which I am very grateful for (I don't try and deter him too much).

I am still watching Ada's best buddy, Tristan, during the week and they keep each other entertained, which makes me very happy. It does keep me busy and I find myself getting more and more excited for nap time each day so I can shut my eyes for a few minutes and I am pretty lucky that both kids are awesome nappers. I feel like I am a step behind in keeping my apartment clean. It usually always starts off in good shape in the morning and by lunch time, there are toys everywhere, food on the floor (from the kids tossing what they don't want) and just your everyday mess. I know it is what to be expected but I can't help but get frustrated a little bit because who doesn't want an imaculate house all day everyday? My running/exercising has pretty much gone down the drain. I am lucky if I can get 2 days of running/walking in a week. I find myself getting so preocupied with the future lately. We really are in major limbo right now with the job search and it worries me. I am not stressed, really, I am just always thinking about where, what and when! I want Scott to find work that makes him happy. I am just ready to stop thinking about all of it, though. To give my mind a well needed break.

On to Ada. I waited to write some incerpts on her until the end so you would have to read through our boring lives first (unless you do what I do sometimes and scroll to the good stuff. Just kidding). Ada, Ada, Ada. She is something, she really is. She started Nursery last Sunday and did not even blink an eye when we dropped her off. She went right to the toys and started playing. I was told that during singing time, she totally payed attention, was happy and played well with the other kids. Today was a different story. The first thing I heard when I walked in to pick her up was that she struggled today (She was totally fine when I dropped her off). She was put into time out for pushing a little boy off of his chair (he is about 6 months older than her, but she is bigger), there was hitting and yelling. Sigh...where did she get that from? Scott and I were both such good little kids (At least from what our parents told us). Ada has a temper, that is all there is to it. If she doesn't get what she wants, she will show you just how upset she is. I try not to give in too much to all of her demands, but it is hard not to some days. I think that she is discovering how to get taken out of Sacrament Meeting. She is realizing that if she is just REALLY loud, then we will give in and pull her out. Once out of the meeting, she will run for her life and scream with delight. This has to stop. I am considering just taking her into a room and holding her on my lap and teaching her that it is way worse out of Sacrament then inside. Any thoughts on that? Don't get me wrong, Ada is also one of the happiest, most fun loving babies, but I guess with that comes the hard stuff too.

Well, this post turned out to be really long and wordy. It felt good to just type it out, though. So much is going through my head that it was needed. Hope everyone is doing well out there in the Blogger world.