2014 Road Trip Part 2 - Pennsylvania

When we got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Pennsylvania, we were very glad we skipped the museum and got there in time for dinner. Grandma welcomed us with pizza and subs from one of Mom’s favorite restaurants,Rocco’s, and several kid pools full of water to play in. We had a really relaxing dinner outside. Mom and Dad were happy to catch up with everybody and not get in super late too. The weather was perfect, the birds were chirping - it was a great way to kick off our visit.

The first morning we were there, we all went to the farmers’ market in York with Aunt Lauren and Mianna. It was great to see them again.

While we were in PA, we took a couple of big side trips. We went to the Crayola Experience in Easton, PA, with Grandma, Aunt Lauren and Mianna. It was so fun! We got to do all kinds of drawing, coloring and painting. We got to mold melted crayons into fun shapes and make designs on a plate with spinning melted crayons. We made puzzles out of pictures we drew, designed our own custom magic markers and crayons, and did all kinds of other fun things. Our favorite thing was probably Art Alive, where we got to draw pictures on computers and then see them projected on giant wall, moving, spinning, and bouncing around. We liked running up to the wall and touching the things that we drew.

We finished up that awesome day with a stop for dinner at the Tropical Treat on the way back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

Hazel was in Heaven at the Crayola Experience

On the Fourth of July, we went to New Freedom, Pennsylvania, to Steam into History. We rode a steam train and learned about Civil War history with Grandma and Grandpa. Mom and Dad liked the history and the relaxing ride. Hazel, Turner and I were super excited to be on a train! Turner fell asleep on Grandpa on the train. Still it definitely made an impression on him - when he got back to the house, he made a train out of chairs and his stuffed animals.

We finished the holiday watching fireworks in York with Aunt Lauren, Uncle Ryan, Grandma, Uncle Daniel and Uncle Ryan’s dad, Jim. It was a blast! (Did you get the joke there?)

All Aboard!!!

Dad and Mom each got to enjoy some grownup time while we were in Pennsylvania. Mom was happy to spend lots of time with Aunt Lauren, with and without us kids around. One afternoon, Mom got to run errands with Aunt Lauren by herself. Even though they just ran errands, Mom was happy to have time just with Aunt Lauren. One evening, Dad went to watch the World Cup with Uncle Ryan and some of his friends. He had fun having a boys’ night.

We also had the chance to spend some time with Mom Mom and Pop, my great-grandparents, while we were there. We had lunch with them at Cross Keys Diner one day before we went to see Grandpa at his office. Another day, had lunch with them at the Famous Hot Weiner, one of our favorites. It was really good to see them. Hopefully next time we can visit their ghost JJ too!

We went to Gigi’s house one day while we were there. We had a nice time swimming, and while it was sad for Mom, being there brought a lot of memories back for Mom, who was thinking about all the fun she had there when she was a kid.

Kayaking with Grandpa in Maryland

The most fun we had at Grandma and Grandpa’s was just hanging out and seeing everyone. We were super happy to see Mianna, and spent a ton of time outside laughing with Uncle Daniel and Bruiser. It was nice being able to have lots of picnics without being super hot or being attacked by millions of bugs, like at home. Grandpa and Grandma read to and snuggled us, and we spent the last day of our visit swimming with them at their boat, where I had the chance to kayak with Grandpa! At the end of the day we went back to the house to watch the movie Aristocats, which really made us laugh!

It was great visiting and sad to leave our Pennsylvania family. But we knew we had more adventure in store on the rest of our trip.