Saturday, March 26, 2011

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!













































































































































































































































20 comments:

Lisa K said...

Yay for your trip and yay for being pregnant!!

OramHouse said...

Haha...I actually read the entire thing:) Congratulations! How is job hunting going?

Dr. Mark said...

Great post, Lindsay! We had such a great time with all of you. Only one picture of Catan? ;)

Boquinha said...

I LOVED reading this!! I can hardly wait to post our review, too!! Soon. I know I keep saying it, but loved, loved, LOVED having you guys. LOVED it. It was sooooooo comfortable and easy and fun!! We love you guys and are so grateful that you came to see us. We had a wonderful time and couldn't ask for better house mates!! Come again!! We miss you!!

Boquinha said...

P.S. Brownies are in the oven and homemade hot fudge on the stove and we're in the middle of another Settlers game. SO wish you were here!!

The Magic Violinist said...

Loved the post! We had so much fun having all of you here. I loved all the pictures of Ada. (Especially Ada on top of the table at Captain Gus). I'd also like to hear more about that show Ada was putting on . . . :)

Brandon and Katie said...

yay!!!!!!!! congrats!!! i had a feeling while reading this. exciting!

milkman0 said...

!!!!WOOTWOOT!!! I was a little suspicious with all the food talk :) Congrats!!

Chris said...

Once again congrats and sounds like you guys had fun!

Richard and Allison said...

Sorry that last comment was from me but it signed in with my brother in laws email.

Amy Lovell said...

My favorite thing about looking at this post was John's comment, "is Philadelphia in Pennsylvania?" Oh, that brother of yours. Glad you guys had fun. I love Amish Country, it's one of my favorite places!

The Asiedu Family said...

Congrats!! Congrats!! Congrats!!

J Fo said...

Oh I am so JEALOUS! Not of the prego sick phase, but of the awesome trip! ;) Looks like you had a FABULOUS trip, and I could totally go for all the tummy treats and games. Travelling with a toddler is always tricky, so I'm glad that Ada was a pretty good sport. Congrats again on the baby! You'll get to find out what you're having about the same time that I'm having #2. Such a fun stage in life!

Cynthia Lovell said...

Love the blog!!!!! Cute pictures!!!
Maxim & Kate are so Darling!!! LOVED it ALL!!!!

Shannon said...

What a fun trip to PA. I love that state, it's so beautiful. Hershey world is awesome! Don't you love it how you can smell chocolate everywhere? So fun! And CONGRATS!!!!! So exciting!!!!

Jaynan said...

sounds like a lot of good times! vacations with kids are always a lot of work, huh.
congratulations on #2! hope you get feeling better soon.

Emily said...

I have to admit, I'm sooo glad that there is another baby out there that hates the car. I always felt so bad putting Noah in the car and hearing him scream for HOURS. So yes, I know it's miserable, but just know that another person out there really DOES feel your pain about that! :)

I went to intercourse when I was about 12 with my mom and some of her friends and they kept making intercourse jokes and embarrassing me SO bad.

Your hair is getting so long, and so is Ada's! She is one cute kid. And Scott looks so handsome.

Your trip sounds SO AWESOME. It all looks like so much fun! So sorry you're not feeling well, but so excited for a new baby! Plus, your vouchers will really come in handy! Awesome.

JonandLo said...

Looks like such a fun trip...we loved Amish country too and definitely loved intercourse;) Saw you called and will call back soon. LUVS! Glad your secret is public now:)

Anonymous said...

ok, my turn for some of that Ada love!!

Jennifer Lovell said...

I thought Scott's idea of pointing to the sign and pointing to Ada was so funny, but your comment of it being totally inappropriate also made me laugh. Funny! I'm glad you had such a great time in our soon-to-be home town!