Spectacular fall scenes, lots going on this week!

Yes, I know it's only Wednesday, but we have some special days ahead, so I need to get this done earlier in the week than usual.

My first picture is one I took this morning from my side porch.  It was a perfectly gorgeous day!! 

Later I took this picture from my bathroom window.  As you can see, there are lots of trees on the mountain that are still green, so more beauty to come!

On Sunday afternoon Austin and Hunter were here.  While Hunter napped, I half napped and half played Scrabble on my phone with Austin.  Can you believe I cannot beat that boy in Scrabble anymore???  That's disgusting!  

After Hunter woke up,  Austin got the idea to do a letter scavenger hunt.  We have a bag of letters.  They look like Scrabble tiles, but they have no numerical value on them.  Not sure where we ever got them.  Anyway,  they found the letters for their names and then had me hide those letters.  They had the most fun finding them in all the tricky places I had hidden them.  

Eventually they found them all.

Hunter cooked us some dinner!

Austin tried to teach him how to play soccer!

Monday was a happening day.  I had a 6-month checkup at the doctor at 11:30, but I left home in time to get groceries and also go to Planet Fitness before the appointment.  (I got a membership a few months ago and try to get there two or three times a week.)   After my doctor appointment I went to Anthony and Lori's to get Hunter.  His daycare was closed for inservice that day.  

I took this picture on the way to Anthony and Lori's place.

And these were taken from their driveway, looking up to the trees and the blue sky above.

I took a video of Hunter reading the book " Fraidy Cats" before his nap.  There were some big new words in this book, and because I was trying to hold my phone above his shoulder, I missed helping him with some of them. He certainly doesn't need help with most of the words though!

While he took his nap, and I was prepping burrito casseroles for their dinner and ours, I had two other things going on.  A paving crew was prepping our driveway, and the cable guy was here to fix some problems we've been having.  

By 4:30 Hunter and I were on our way to the YMCA for his swim lesson.  Lori met me there after his lesson, and I handed her the boy and the food, then I went to my piano student's house for a lesson.  After I came home I still needed to choose the songs for next Sunday morning's service at GBRV so I could finish up the bulletin and send it on to the secretary.  

A lot of those things are normal for a Monday, but with the addition of the doctor appointment, keeping Hunter, and the workers that were here.  

On Tuesday morning I had a hair appointment.  Later I went to Planet Fitness and then Boalsburg Farmers Market.  It was really raining, but I had an umbrella.  Later I went through a big stack of mail that's been accumulating for far too long.  I throw lots of stuff out immediately, but this was a bunch of stuff that needed to be organized and filed.  And I did get it done.  Big sigh of relief!

Today was another happening day around here.  While I was making sweet and sour pork and fried rice for Anthony and Lori, I had my curtains wide open as I watched the paving crew do our driveway.  We've been here nine years and put up with the stones and sometimes the mud and the difficulty of shoveling and plowing snow.  We finally decided to spend the bucks to get it paved.  Hopefully in the end it will increase the value of our house.  

Our neighbor across the street said we could park at her place till we're allowed to be on it.  We're going away this weekend, so we probably won't park on it until we get back.  

Here's another picture I took today from inside the house.  Autumn is truly a spectacularly beautiful  time of year!

I left home around 4:15 to pick up Hunter and take him to his swim lesson.  He's very slowly learning to relax more, but he still hates to get his face wet.  Lori got goggles for him and that helps some. 

He is the easiest child in the world to drive around with.  He is either reading or singing all the time.  I keep a stack of books in my car.  Today I propped my phone up and took a few videos of him singing.  Here's "The Noble Duke of York."

We have a really special weekend coming up.  Last week Jeremy was at the Highpoint Market in North Carolina.  Yesterday he flew from there to DC and Mike flew in from Portland. They'll be there with their former neighborhood friends for the rest of the week.  When he called a few weeks ago to ask if Dick and I would like to come down to DC to see them while they're there, we did not have to think twice about it!  We're leaving Friday morning.  I can hardly wait!!

Have a good rest of the week!

Beautiful Fall, lovely skies, Josh's wedding, bathroom humor, Fall Fest

What a beautiful Fall we are having here!  I'm going to start this post with a couple of pictures taken in State College this week.  I took the first one and Dick the second one.

And how I have been enjoying the sunrises!  These two pictures were taken maybe ten minutes apart last Saturday morning. 

Same with these two pictures one morning this week.  You snooze, you lose!

How appropriate for a Sunday morning!  I thought of the old Sunday School song, "Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory!"

Even the cloudy mornings were beautiful in a different way.

Last Saturday morning we got dressed up and left home around 9 AM, heading once again for Lancaster County, this time for a wedding.  No traffic tie-ups this time, thankfully.  But it was quite cloudy and gray at first.  There's one place that I always love to see, but it's hard to take a picture of it because it's on the driver's side when we're heading that direction.  I decided to go back to the passenger seat before we got to that spot.  Even on a cloudy morning it was a beautiful sight.  Hopefully we'll have a reason to go that way again when the leaves are in full color.  

The wedding was not until 3:30 PM, so we had plenty of time.  We stopped at Cracker Barrel near Harrisburg for brunch.  I really had to pee when we got there, so I went straight for the rest rooms.  I noticed that the ladies' and men's rooms were on opposite sides compared to our State College Cracker Barrel. I was thinking, "It's good I checked.  I hope Dick does."  WELL!!  Imagine my surprise when I came out of my stall and saw Dick at the sink washing his hands!!  I said, "DICK!!  You're in the ladies' room!"  He looked at me like he didn't know what I was talking about.  I said, "You gotta get out of here before anyone else comes in!"  We went out into the store to await the call of our names, and I absolutely could not stop giggling.  After a while he said, "You can stop now." I said, "No, I can't!"  

Of course I had to put the story on FB, so the poor guy got teased about it for the rest of the day.  But he's a good sport.  Later at the wedding we attended, the Stauffers were told to exit out a front door for pictures after the ceremony.  Dick said, "I was going to go back and look for the ladies' room."  Hahahahaha!!


We made another stop on our trip to the wedding - Richland Christian Home in Lebanon County.   We hadn't seen Grandma Mary in months!  We had a great time catching up.  Dick took this picture of us.  I love her so very much and always have so much fun with her.

Halfway through our visit Dick fell asleep on her recliner and started snoring!  So he decided to go out to the van where he could sleep without bothering us.  Since we had a long day ahead and he does almost all the driving, it was good for him to get a chance to nap anyway.

The wedding was in Lancaster at Harvest Bible Church.  Dick's brother Jim's son Josh was getting married to Jill.  Josh and Jill.  Their names are as cute as they are.  I was not a good picture taker that day, however.   I got one during the ceremony in which you can see Josh's brother Greg better than you can see Josh.  And the other one outside when they were not aware I was taking one.  

 
This is a picture of Jim and Carolyn's five children plus Jill.  Again, not everyone was aware I was taking a picture.  My timing was so off!

I got these three pictures before I got sidetracked.  Dick and I, Steve and Faye, and their son Joe and his wife Kim.  

  

Here are a few others I took.  Dick's parents were there for the whole thing!  That's a big day for a 94-year-old man, but he really wanted to be there.  Josh and Jill are buying his house, and that has given him so much peace about moving to a retirement home.  The top right photo is Greg's wife Kendra and their adorable Eden.  The bottom left photo is of Josh's beautiful sisters Lindsey and Heather.  The bottom right is a picture of Josh's brother Mike's family.  I discovered afterward that little flower girl Kate had been pulling the elastic neckline of her dress all the way down to her belly button, hahaha!!  So I edited the picture the best I could!  Unfortunately the heart pretty much covered her brother Seth's sweet face.  And I cut Mike's head off in making this collage.

The reception was held in a big tent on the lawn of the church. 

It was late when we got home and Sunday morning was coming!

We went to our service at GBRV and then to the service at Calvary.  After the service they were holding their annual Fall Fest.  I knew that Sam and the kids were on their way, so I took these pictures to send to Sammy.  Food trucks and so many fun things to do both outside and inside!  The event was open to the community, and lots of people came.

What a GREAT afternoon we had!  The weather was just right.  Last year the weather was too hot and the year before that it was cool and rainy.  So it was time!

They were giving hayrides.  Calvary is built on a hill, and above it is the lodge that was originally on the property, now used as the church's offices.  The hayride took us up above the lodge and when we came down, the view was spectacular!

Another picture of the view.

Then we went home.  Austin came with us too.  The kids were busy, busy making things.  Austin worked with the Lincoln Logs first while Sammy and Bianca made things with paper, scissors, and markers. 

Then the Legos for a long, long time.  Look at that cruise ship that Sammy and Austin built!

Later Austin had to go home because he had school the next day, but Sam and the kids were staying overnight.  The kids had off school for Columbus Day and he had off work too.   

I didn't take many pictures on Monday.  Just one of the Lego birthday cake Bianca made for me and Bianca in the big tub!  We had a great day together.

When I picked up Hunter for his swim class later that day, his class was still outside playing.  He was so excited to show me a bush that had purple berries on it.  Anyone know what kind of bush it is?

Friday was one of those totally perfect fall days - sunshine, blue skies, puffy clouds, and gorgeous colorful leaves!

I've been at home today catching up on things.  I got in the mood for a slight furniture rearrangement in the living room.   You probably can't even tell the difference.  I shifted the sofa and loveseat at a slightly different angle than before and it gives more space for the toys in the back corner of the room.  Just not as big an opening between the sofa and Dick's recliner.   

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Gorgeous weather, fun at Discovery Space, sibling dinner, good times with Hunter

Well, here it is, Friday evening again!  We have had a spectacularly beautiful week!  Here is a picture I took this evening at Anthony and Lori's.  He was getting ready to build a fire, but I didn't have time to stay, unfortunately.

Last Saturday morning I captured this view of the sunrise between two of the arborvitae.

Ray and RJ were here overnight last Friday night.  Saturday was the first day of archery season, and Ray was eager to try out his bow.  Ashley had to work on Saturday, so RJ came along up here.  Ray went over to Anthony's in the wee hours of the morning.  Later when I went over to their place to pick up Austin and Hunter, Ray came into the house to warm up.  We had temperatures near freezing that morning!!  What a shock!  It had been in the 80's most of the week!

Dick was over there hunting too in the afternoon after he got off work at noon.  They both saw deer, but didn't have success in getting any.

I took the three boys to Discovery Space.  They had the greatest time there.  I just love that place!

There was a place where they could build their own rig and then let it go down a ramp.  Some made it down, others went sideways.  So they kept readjusting things until they went all the way down.

Another thing that Austin worked at for a long time was a marble track.  Here's a video of one of his tracks that worked.

After spending a couple of fun hours there we went to McDonalds for a late lunch.  

On Sunday Dick and I went to our service at GBRV, then we hit the road for Lancaster County.  What a trip!  There had been a homecoming Penn State football game on Saturday and so many people were leaving town that morning!  There's a ten-mile stretch out of town that is just two lanes, and it was really backed up!  When we finally got beyond that we had pouring rain and then construction traffic.  Whew!!  

Eventually we got to Duncannon where we stopped to have a really fun lunch at Sheetz with Sam and the kids. 

Silly kids!

And then we headed toward Manheim.  Our reason for going to Lancaster County this time was that my sister Barb and her husband John were in town from Idaho.  We were having a sibling dinner at Dick and Nancy's house.  

What a FUN evening we had!!  I honestly think we enjoy being together more the older we get!  Of course we missed our sisters Betty and Rose.  Mary Ellen's housemate Susan joined us for dinner too.  She's a lot of fun

Top row: John and Barb, Dick and Nancy.  Bottom row:  Dick and I, Doris and Dale with daughter Ellen, Mary Ellen.

The five siblings that were there that evening.

The ladies.  

Dick and I had to leave by 8:00 because we of course had a long drive ahead.  We were home before 11:00 and were ready for our bed!

On Tuesday evening I was grocery shopping at Sam's Club and Walmart, and when I came outside I just had to take pictures.  

On Thursday when I got home from Bible study at Calvary I sat on the front porch for a while.  The weather was absolutely PERFECT.  And it seemed there was perfect silence in our neighborhood as I sat there.  I took this picture of a tree top against the absolutely cloudless sky.

Lori had a work trip this week for a few days, and Hunter slept here a couple of nights.  He is the most delightful child.  He always says the cutest things, and he entertains himself so well.  

One morning we played the alphabet game on the way to school.  We were still looking for a Q when we arrived.  So we decided we would look for the rest of the letters inside.  Imagine his excitement when he saw the word QUIET!! When we got to the letter X, he went running back the hall in the direction we had come from.  Why?  Because he knew there was an exit sign there!  When we got to his classroom we still needed a Z.  So he looked all around the room.  There on a shelf was a stack of tablets, and on one of them was the name Nicole Z.  How he cheered!!  

He's taking swim lessons at the Y, and it is not something that comes naturally to him.  He really hates to get his face wet.  There are three kids in his class and things that seem to be so easy for the others are really a challenge to him.  On Wednesday they were supposed to push off backward from the edge of the pool.  The instructor was right there ready to put her arms under them as they practiced floating on their backs.  It took a long time for Hunter to have the courage to do it. When he finally did I took a picture of him and you can see the fear on his face.  I can so relate!!  I have never learned to swim, and I really regret it.  

Dick and I ate dinner with Anthony and the boys on Wednesday evening.  After dinner I got this cute pic of Anthony and Hunter - strumming lessons!

Well, I'm falling asleep here.  Tomorrow's another trip to Lancaster County.  Our nephew Josh Stauffer will be getting married. 

Have a good weekend, everyone!