It was even more made-to-order because of the good times we had with family. I took so many pictures and shared them at the end of each day on Facebook. But I will need to try to pick out just the best ones for this blog post. That will be very difficult to do!!
On Saturday morning we headed over to Stauffer Acres for a brunch cook-out. Breakfast quesadillas, chocolate chip pancakes, and bacon were on the menu.
Sam, Jenn, and family (including Bella the dog) eventually joined us.
In the afternoon we came to our house for nap time, and Bjorn and Jess arrived. For dinner we once again went to Doane's Bones BBQ, the same place we enjoyed so much two weeks ago. The food was great and we had a lot of fun. Sammy was in his glory up there at the head of the table, acting like he was master of ceremonies, running a game show, hahaha!! He is so animated and so very funny!
There was a deck of cards on the table, and Austin was trying to figure out how to use them. Sam said, "Austin, you can play all kinds of games with them." Austin asked, "Can you play Uno?" We all laughed and agreed that that was one game you can't play with a regular deck of cards. But leave it to Austin. He immediately figured out how certain cards in this deck would be the equivalent of certain cards in an Uno deck, and he and I proceeded to play Uno!! I had no idea what I was doing, but he kept telling me what to do, and in his mind it all made perfect sense. Like I've said before, he has a computer for a brain!!
Outside was a picnic area that served as a place for some fun and pictures afterward.
Last week I had shared on FB the memory that popped up on my newsfeed from three years ago - the picture on the left of Sammy eating his yogurt. On Sunday morning Sammy was up bright and early and once again eating yogurt. I showed him the baby picture and tried to have him re-enact it. But he's not that innocent babe anymore. He's a comedian. I took so many pictures, and he was being silly on every one of them. This is the closest one, but you can still see that twinkle in his eyes!
Sammy could hardly wait to go to church with us. But maybe it's as much the food as the music? At Fillmore the few kids that are there sit on the front bench for Pastor Calvin's children's story, after which he lets the kids pick a treat out of a bag. When Sammy is with us, Dick usually sits on the front bench with him for the children's story. On Sunday morning Sammy kept saying that he can't wait to go to church and sit on that other bench with Grandpa and get some candy! At Houserville there are always coffee and pastries available before the service. On our way there Sammy said, "I can't wait to go to your other church for all the good food!"
But he does love the music. He likes to sit with me at my piano at home and sing "Jesus songs." We usually sing "Jesus Loves Me." I could hardly believe it when I saw that the "response to the message song" in Fillmore's bulletin was Jesus Loves Me! I had him sit with me at the piano and he played along on the high keys, but wasn't singing. Finally on the chorus after verse three he belted out, "Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!" They loved it.
This is a beautiful picture of the front door at Fillmore, taken on Sunday morning by our friend Norm Houser.
At Houserville he usually sits at the piano with me, but this time Bjorn and Jess were there and he preferred sitting with them most of the time. Besides, by that time he had had enough sugar to make it really hard for him to play lightly, hahaha!! He is totally a show-on-the-go!!
For lunch we were planning to grill hamburgers and hot dogs, only to discover that our propane gas tank was empty. So we had to cook in the kitchen instead. But it was still delicious and a good time. No pictures though, which I regret, because Bjorn and Jess left in the afternoon, and I do not have any more pictures of our time with them.
In the afternoon the ladies and children went to the pool. Anthony stayed home, Dick and Sam stayed home. These men! )-:
Bianca had never been to a pool before and she LOVED it!! We have such a great pool. There is a fun splash pool for the little ones that gradually goes into a big area of water that is only a foot deep. Besides that, the water is heated (not warm, but just right), so there's not that huge adjustment to cold water. We had so much fun just watching them have fun. I didn't get any pictures of Austin. He was off with his twin friends and his cousin Will. They can all swim, so no splash pool for them!
This is what fun in the sun does to little ones!
Sam and Jenn went out to dinner, and Dick and I took the children to Tudek Park. It actually had started drizzling just as we left home. I was wracking my brain for ideas of what to do with kids on a rainy Sunday evening. The mall was closed, Fun Unleashed was closed, we were too late for the kids' movies at the theater. We had planned to go to the nearby airport park, but I said, "Well, let's just head over to Tudek Park and see what the weather is doing by then." Would you believe, we spent over an hour there and maybe there was slight misting going on from time to time, but barely noticeable. We had so much fun!! We pretty much had the place to ourselves!
We left the park at dusk and decided to go to the nearby McDonald's for ice cream cones. WELL. Who knew it could end up being an adventure?? We walked into McDonald's and were told they were cleaning their machines and had no ice cream. So we decided to go to Dairy Queen, which we had already passed and had noticed the LONG line of cars for take-out. We soon found out why. The dining room had closed at 8:30 and only the take-out window was open. There was no way we were going to do take-out ice cream cones! So we drove to the south end of town to where there is another McDonalds as well as Meyers Dairy. Since we had already had bad luck at the other McDonald's, we opted for Meyers. Oh my goodness!! Their parking lot was FULL and there was a long line of people out the door!! So it was McDonalds, and we hoped they weren't cleaning their machines! Actually, they were, but they still had some ice cream left. We even had a table with a kids' computer game!
Sam and Jenn got back from their date before we got home with the kids! We had one more thing to do - sparklers!!
We were all looking forward to a sleep-in morning when we hit the sack that night!
On Monday morning I made a big skillet of home fries, bacon, and eggs. Somehow we all gathered around my tiny kitchen table, maybe not quite all of us at one time. We ended up having story time - each of us telling a story or two from our childhood. Of course, it was Sammy that got us started!
We learned that Dick stepped on a nail when he was a kid and the doctor cleaned out the puncture wound with a little brush. (Now is that a story to tell when we're eating breakfast???) We also learned that Sam skipped elementary school sometimes because he was truly hungry and a friend offered him food. (That tugged on my heart.) Jenn loved to play in the woods when she was a kid, and one time when they moved something a whole bunch of mice came running out. I got to drive the tractor for my dad in the tomato field when I was four years old, because my older siblings were at school. And I was so proud when they came home and saw me!
Bella was desperate for some attention by that time. She picked up the frisbee wondering if anybody wanted to play.
She isn't very subtle with her suggestions, hahaha!! Play catch with me, please, Grandma!!
Unfortunately for her, we had plans to go to the arboretum, and they don't allow dogs there.
Two weeks ago when my sisters were here, we were not able to go do our regular visit to the arboretum because of cool weather and rain. Would you believe that it was almost too hot to be there yesterday?? Like we went straight from March to July in two weeks!!
We spent our time in the children's area and at the fountain. Sammy and Bianca were so excited about everything, you would have thought we took them to Disney!
These chimes sounded amazing!
This is my favorite picture of all. Melt my heart!!!! And I love seeing Sam and Jenn watching them.
The fountain was a welcome relief.
We were planning to go to Chickfila afterward, but as you can imagine on a holiday, it was packed. So we opted for Denny's down the street and had the dining room almost to ourselves and an awesome, big corner table. I wish I had a picture of it. I usually ask a waitress to take a picture for us, but for some reason did not think of it this time. We had so much fun, and were pretty loud, I'm afraid, but it was fun loud.
Sammy and Grandpa selfie.
Bianca wanted a selfie too!
Isn't this a GREAT picture of Jenn and Sam?? I love these two so much!
After going home to pack up their things and the dog, we were hoping to go to Anthony and Lori's to show them the barn and to give Bella a chance to run, but our meal at Denny's had taken pretty long, and they were planning to stop at her parents near Harrisburg on the way home, so instead we said our goodbyes and they hit the road.
I gotta finish with one last "duh" story about me. All weekend we were using the AC. I knew that Jenn and Sam keep their house a lot cooler than we do, but I just couldn't believe how low we had to set the thermostat to keep it cool in here. Last evening I told Dick that he absolutely must buy some new filters so he can change the filter. I said that the filter must be really bad because we are getting less and less cool air. At bed time we made a ridiculous discovery. Because our AC vents are used for AC only (we have electric baseboard heat), I always close all the AC vents over winter. On Friday when we turned the AC on for the first time, it never occurred to me to open the vents. Good grief!! That's almost as bad as the time I was running our electric fireplace heater and the AC at the same time at our Lititz house and wondering why it wasn't cool in the house when I got home from school.
Gotta go to work now. Have a great week!
