Our weekend

On Friday evening Dick and I traveled to Reading to pick up Destiny, then went to our Lititz house.  Saturday was a very laid back day with no planned activities.  Dick and Destiny played games while I went shopping for Austin's birthday gift, then they went to visit Dick's parents in the evening while I did Sunday morning prep for church and got the house cleaned up.  When Dick got home he wrapped the gifts.  Destiny would rather have played with them!

When we left the house for church Sunday morning (shortly after 8 AM) we had to have everything packed into the car and the house closed down, because we were leaving for State College immediately after church.

I led worship at church and it was a very, very special service.  There was no question that the presence of the Lord was in that place.  I just love it when He shows up like that. 

We drove to State College in driving rain, but at least it wasn't freezing.  We got here just before friends started arriving for Austin's birthday celebration.  Unfortunately, it was not one of Austin's better days, and he was not at all in the mood for a bunch of noisy people to be hanging out in his territory.  Amazingly Anthony managed to get some great pictures anyway, since his camera is so quick and he can actually get a picture of Austin smiling before his mood changes!

According to Anthony's picture, Austin loved his party hat.

 

But he really hated it, as my camera shows!

 

He acted completely disgusted with his cake, like he couldn't even stand to touch it.  But eventually he tasted the frosting and seemed to enjoy that for a very little bit.

He didn't have much interest in tearing paper off his gifts either, although Anthony's camera must have captured the one moment that he looked like he was into it!!

The funniest moment of the whole celebration was when he sat on top of this toy like he was going to ride it, and he immediately made his "engine sound" with his lips.  Oh how we laughed!

Destiny's gift to him was a little guitar that plays parts of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and London Bridges.

His first guitar lesson from a pro!!

We forgot to take a picture of his cake before parts of it were eaten, but here's the colorful leftovers!  Originally it was the colorful caterpillar that shows up at the beginning of every Baby Einstein video.  

Here's a picture of Destiny before she changed out of her "church clothes".  I thought she looked so pretty.

Today I was here with both Austin and Destiny while everyone else was at work.  Destiny slept in very late, and Austin took long naps, so it was a pretty easy day.  Here are some pictures of them playing on the floor.  He's getting to be a  real "rough houser".  (I think you have to be from Lancaster County to understand that one!)  

But he's pretty good at being affectionate too, hahahaha!

I discovered after lunch that in addition to being very sunny, the temp was up in the forties, so we decided to go for a walk for the first time in WEEKS!  Oh, it felt so wonderful!  Destiny used my cell phone to get these pictures.

These brisk walks are just the ticket for getting him ready for a good nap!

After Lori came home from work, Destiny and I packed up her things and left for Harrisburg to meet her dad.  I was delighted to notice as I drove that it was still not completely dark until nearly 6:00!!!!  That just made me so happy to realize that we're almost a month into the lengthening of days.  

We met Frank at the Unimart in Harrisburg where he works part time.  He took her home to her mom's  house in Reading. Just as I was getting home around 8 PM, he called to tell me that Destiny was back home too.  And I had peace.