Fourth of July in Pennsylvania

I had a great time in Pennsylvania this week visiting family and celebrating.

I received a warm welcome when I arrived Tuesday. We had a big party. I got to see my second cousin Luke and his mom, my first cousin once removed, Katie. Luke is two months younger than me, and I'm looking forward to lots of good times with him. My great-grandparents were there too, Pop and Mom-Mom and Great-Grandma B. Mom-Mom read me a fun story, which Katie's mom, Aunt Jane gave me. Aunt Cindy and Uncle Steve, Seth, Mike and Lana were there, and of course Aunt Lauren, Uncle Daniel, and his girlfriend Vanessa. Mom's friend Heather came too. It was fun to be welcomed by such a great crowd! I showed everyone how good I am at crawling and when they first arrived I finally figured out how to go from crawling to sitting, which I've been working on for a week or two. It was pretty exciting.

There were many neat things about my visit to Pennsylvania. Grandma and Grandpa gave me some spiffy new clothes, so I looked like a slick dude all week. There were loads of cool toys for me to play with, and Uncle Daniel showed me how to work a jack-in-the-box. There are also cats everywhere, whom I liked to chase when I could get away from Mom long enough to do it.

The weather was sunny but much cooler , so we spent lots of time outside on a nice swing. We also took a wagon ride and sat in the lawn, where I had a good time pulling out clumps of grass and watching them fall from my hand. Some crazy birds live there. They built a nest for their babies under the garage. Whenever Uncle Daniel goes near it, they attack him by swooping down at his head. It was funny at first, but when we had to go out to the garage to get my the wagon, they attacked us too!

Almost every night we were there, I spent some quality time with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Lauren while Dad and Mom went out on the town. I don't know what they were doing, but I bet I had more fun than they did! I got to stay up and sleep in later than usual and try some new foods, which was fun. Dad and Mom say that's what grandparents are for!

Thursday we visited Pop and Mom-Mom for lunch. I hopped on Pop, just like in my book, and Mom-Mom gave me Tupperware and a wooden spoon to play with. I liked it so much, Mom says she's never buying me real toys again, and when we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, Grandma found some more tupperware and spoons for me to play with there.

Friday was my first 4th of July. It was rainy so we didn't do much for that, and the best part of the day was meeting my Aunt Jen and Uncle Ben, who live in Florida. I had a great time playing with them, and am glad I finally got to meet them.

I'm getting around even more than ever. Mom and Dad say there's a real difference between when we got to Pennsylvania and when we left. They also noticed that the more I get around, the more I get bumped around. They know it's part of it all, but it's still a little scary for them.

The piece de resistance of the trip was my birthday party on Saturday night. My friend Elan lent me his decorations, and Grandma put them up for me (Mom says I will see the decorations again next week). Grandma also made me a delicious banana cake. Everyone else had little cheesecakes, and Grandpa suggested everyone have their own candles so we could all blow them out at the same time. It was cool! Aunt Jen and Uncle Ben gave me some fun animal and shape puzzles that make lots of sounds and Uncle Daniel gave me a See 'n Say, which was his favorite toy when he was little. I also got lots of nice cards, which are like mini-books!

Our flight home was pretty smooth sailing. Everything was on time and Dad and I made friends with the flight attendants on the way home. I played with my See 'n Say and ate more of my yummy cake, so I was pretty happy the whole way back to Austin.

While we were visiting PA, everyone said nice things about my blog. Thank you all for reading it! I've posted some pictures of my fun week.