More birthdays, more fun, less daylight in the evenings

Trying to keep up here!  Yesterday Dick and I were trying to remember the details of something in 2018.  I said, "Well, I'll just check my blog."  And sure enough, I had written all the details we were trying to recall.  I said, "So the crazy amount of time I take to write my weekly blog posts really are important!"  And time consuming!

First off, two beautiful "nature" pictures I took this week.  

And now, not so beautiful, haha!!  I will be having a consultation for cataract surgery next week, and I have been told that contacts change the contour of the eye and I should avoid wearing contacts for two weeks prior to the consultation.  I have worn contacts daily since 1985!!  I am extremely near-sighted, so the lenses of my glasses are thick even with the thinning they do these days.  I could not believe I would need to wear glasses in public!  Thankfully I updated my glasses in 2017, or I would really have been in an embarrassing pickle!  Here I am in the glasses I've been wearing this past week (the bigger picture) and some of my previous glasses, hahaha!!

Last Wednesday evening Austin had his turn for a sleepover.  On Thursday I took him to the movies!  Neither of us had been in a theater since COVID!  There were just two other people watching the movie "Thor: Love and Thunder."  It was fun to relax and eat popcorn and peanut M&M's.  Austin was really attentive during the action scenes of the movie, but bored whenever there were romantic scenes (my favorite parts, lol!)

Thursday was also Elizer's 2nd birthday.  When I posted a memory of the day he was born, Lisa said, "He has the same smile."  I made this collage of then and now, and yes he does!

In the evening we and Anthony and Lori and the boys went to Destiny and Alex's place for a little party.  I had made taco and burrito meat and spread that on a table on their back porch.  We ate outside, but too soon it was getting dark.  Ugh!!   So we cleaned up and came into the house for his cake and ice cream.  We had the cupcakes that were left over from the big party the previous weekend.  He had such a hard time keeping his hands off them until we were ready!

Destiny lit the candle and we sang "Happy Birthday."  Then he blew out the candle in one big huff and puff!  And we all cheered!

He hardly had the patience to eat a cupcake because he knew there were gifts on the stairway to be torn open!  After we cleaned up the cake and ice cream mess it was finally time for the gifts. Frank had given Destiny a gift card and she got him a little scooter that lights up and makes noises!  

I got a picture of Anthony and Lori and the boys before they left.

I took this picture on Friday morning from our bedroom.  Once in a while I take time to sit on the old swivel rocker at the window to drink my coffee.  I'm so blessed to have this view of the mountains.  

On Saturday Destiny had off work and we galavanted around together.  We had fun at Trader Joes.  She had never been there before and found a lot of things she liked.  We also went to Walmart to get a helmet for Elizer, also with the gift card from Frank.  Elizer wore it all through the store even with the big hard tag attached!

We had fun at our house the rest of the day.  Dick took him on another tractor ride through the neighborhood.  We decided to have our dessert in the camper. It's still sitting in our driveway as I slowly work on altering curtains for it. 

After we were finished with our Sunday morning service at GBRV, we decided to visit Faith Church in Bellefonte, very near to Destiny and Alex's place.  They have a 10:45 second service.  Alex was interested in going with us, but he watched the live stream instead.  We took Elizer with us.  Destiny was at work.  Unfortunately her schedule has changed and she will now be working every Sunday.  Boohoo!!!! But she did watch the service that evening with Alex. 

Dick and I LOVED it!  The music was great, and Pastor Andy Morgan's message on grace was so good.  Elizer loved being in the nursery. At one point I went to check on him and took a picture through the window on the door.  

That afternoon we took Elizer to Discovery Space.  It was really raining when we got there, and Elizer had fallen asleep on the way, so we just sat in the car for a while to give him a chance to nap.  When he woke up after about 30 or 45 minutes, the rain had almost stopped.  He had put Dick's orange hunting hat on his head before we left and he kept it on the entire time we were there! How adorable is he in that hat???  We had a lot of fun there, and by the time we left, the sun was bright and hot and he was fussing about that, so I gave him a pair of sunglasses, haha!

That evening we had dinner at Destiny and Alex's.  She had gotten a kit at Trader Joes for making Birria Tacos. We worked together on making them.  They got messier than she wanted, but they were absolutely scrumptious!!!  The dipping sauce was just to die for!!  

After dinner we played outside for a while.  Dick was helping Elizer to work on his scootering skills.  And of course he always wants to be kicking or throwing a ball.

Monday was the last day before the start of school here.  So Hunter came to my house for the day.  So many fun things! That top left picture was Simba and Nala looking out over the kingdom!!  We tried real Scrabble for a while.  He loved it until he got bored and wanted to do something else.  He put together a puzzle and played in the toy corner for a long time. 

And of course Snapchat silliness is always a lot of fun!

Last of all we played school with the animals.  He divided them up into special classrooms.  He explained them in this video.  I love it!!

And then he brought up a Lion King clip on his iPad, and all the students were watching it!

On Tuesday morning I took time for a Lavender epsom salts and bubble bath in my jetted tub.  The bubble may have gotten a bit out of control!  I have a lump on my knee cap that I have been applying ice to and thought maybe soaking in warm epsom salts would be good too.  So far none of those things are making it go away.  It's not very painful, so I'm not doing anything else about it so far. 

 

Tuesday was also the first day of school for Sammy (5th) and Bianca (3rd), Austin (8th) and Hunter (1st).  I loved seeing these pictures their parents posted on Facebook.  

Meanwhile they're counting the days till this cute first grader in Portland starts back to school after Labor Day.  

Natasha will start trade school in October.  Destiny's younger sisters will start school on Monday.  Her brother J'von has already started at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster.  Sophie started her senior year at East Lake High School in Florida several weeks ago.  Did I get everybody?

Tuesday was also V'anni's 3rd birthday.  She's our youngest grandchild.  It's good we are starting to have great grandchildren since these kids just insist on growing up so fast!  V'anni is Destiny's sister, and Hunter is so fascinated with the fact that she is Elizer's aunt, hahaha!   

I picked up Austin from school yesterday.  He wanted to walk somewhere for fifteen minutes - something to do with Pokemon on his phone.  I had the time and I needed the exercise, so we went to Boalsburg, a quaint little town near his middle school, and we walked for fifteen minutes!  I could not possibly keep up with him, so he had to double back several times.  Besides, I was busy taking pictures of all the houses and flowers!  What a lovely little town!!  I usually just drive by it instead of through it.  

There he goes up ahead of me!

Then I took him home.  How fitting that on my way back home I got behind this quaint little bus/trolley!

Yesterday was also Alex's birthday!  Yes, our family does have SEVEN birthdays in August.  Destiny had to work until 7:30, so earlier in the day I went to Giant to buy the cookies and cream cake that she said was Alex's favorite.  A moist chocolate cake with a lite, creamy frosting on top and an oreo cookie!  Alex got all the candles blown out in one big puff.  

After we were finished eating we sat on the back porch for a while with Elizer.  It was already dark, but he just loves to be outside.  Dick started to play "The Wheels on the Bus" on his phone.  When it got to the baby going waa, waa, waa, Elizer wanted to go inside to get his baby.  I helped him to find it in his bedroom, then Dick played the song again as Elizer danced with his baby.  So precious!!

George and Lisa experienced the death of his dad this week.  George, senior had been in declining health for the past year-and-a-half.  When we were down with Lisa and George last May, his sister was in Pennsylvania where their dad lived to help figure out the next step.  He had been in the hospital at that time.  Soon after we went back home to PA, George's sister brought their dad to Florida.  He has lived there ever since, but we have not been down at all during this last year, so we never got to see him again.  He was 85. George, his two sisters, and his mother were all with him when he passed.  

The top picture was taken in March 2013 at Sophie's Grandparents Day.  That's the last time I saw him.  

The bottom picture was taken just this spring after one of Sophie's track meets!  What a treasure!!! 

Here's the tribute Lisa wrote on Facebook this morning. 

On Tuesday Morning my father-on-law traded in his tired broken earthy body for a brand new one & took his last breaths  surrounded by his three children George Haag, Wendy Haag Bernhard, & Elizabeth Dawn Haag and their mother, his wife of many years,  Sharyn Benek. 

 

The four of them worked tirelessly the last year and a half to care for him & help him live out his life with quality, dignity and meaning.  They did all of this while maintaining their own jobs and lives. It was truly special to 

watch.

He was an extremely brilliant MIT educated engineer that designed parts for NASA, but those new fangled iPhones got the best of him at times.  We spent many FaceTime calls looking at his ear!

He was loving and witty and had the most beautiful sparking blue eyes that lead straight to his soul. He could be the life of the party but could also sit to the side and take it all in. 

He never missed an opportunity to express his pride in our everyday lives and jobs and he adored his only grandchild Sophie.  Even with his health failing he made it to several of her track meets last spring. 

He will be missed by all who knew him but especially his three children and my mother-in-law who now face the grieving process in the difficult way that only those who have been long term caretakers can understand. 

I know he is the life of a dance party up in heaven now and maybe looking for his next opportunity to sail .. hopefully in open waters with a sail that works  .. but that’s a story for another time.  

Grandchildren Week!

 This was indeed "Grandchildren Week."  And I'll warn you ahead of time - this will be a long post with tons of pictures!  But first, a collage of some sky scapes from this past week.

Last Tuesday evening I actually had time to sit on the side porch for a long time.  I have not done that very often this summer, partly because we've been doing more things, going more places, having more "company" than we've had for the past two summers, and partly because it was just too hot to sit outside very often.  It was a very pleasant, non-humid evening last Tuesday and I thoroughly enjoyed just sitting and enjoying.  

Hunter did not go to summer camp last week since they had been down in Hershey Monday and Tuesday, so he came to my house on Wednesday.  The first thing he wanted to do was have me sit next to him watching what he was doing on his iPad.  And what was he doing?  Extreme math equations that ended up in numbers I had never even heard of!!  My brain was tired after fifteen minutes!  He's such a cuddler, and he loves sitting right smack against me!  So I had set a timer, and he was fine when I had to get up to do some other things.  He played with lots of our toys too.  He's very, very easy to have around.

He wanted to stay overnight, and we needed to go get his toothbrush and pj's.  But he also really wanted to see Elizer and sit right next to him in the car, so we went and picked him up.  They had fun together, both in the car and at the park.  

Bedtime was easy.  He wanted to take a long bath in my big tub, but it was too late, so I promised him if he takes a quick bath before bed he could take a long one in the morning.   Guess what was the first thing he had on his mind when he woke up?  

So he played in the bubbles for a long time.  Later, when I wanted to go outside and work in the neglected flower beds, I opened up the camper windows and he hung out in there.  The breeze was glorious.  We even ate lunch in the camper!  Later in the afternoon we went to Tudek Park and he played for a long time with other kids until Lori met us there to pick him up.  

I took these pictures when I was working in the flower beds.  I hate that all my tomatoes are cracking before they're ripe.  Since that picture they have all ripened on the counter, and they were scrumptious!! I just cut out the cracks before eating them.

On Friday Austin came for the afternoon!  He's 13 and so interesting.  He worked on solving his Rubik's Cube, he made me an origami fidget toy, he showed me some card-throwing tricks and his YouTube channel.  I learned that there's an app on which you can video what you're doing on your phone screen.  I got the app but haven't tried it yet.  I'm hoping to have him here one more time before school starts next week. 

Friday ended with a shopping trip at Walmart with Destiny and Elizer.  His birthday party would be the next day and there were things to get before that.  Elizer eventually got tired of cooperating in his seat in the cart, so I rolled up Destiny's jacket for a pillow under his head and then covered him with a pair of shorts that she was buying.  For a while I actually thought he was going to go to sleep!  

On Saturday we hit the road for Lancaster where Elizer's party would be.  It was a beautiful, cloudless day.  We stopped in Duncannon to pick up Sammy and Bianca.  

At some point that day I made a "map" like this to inform Sammy and Bianca of our travels.  It's about an hour-and-a-half from State College to Duncannon and an hour from Duncannon to Lancaster.  

The party was held at a place called Bounce Kraze.  Destiny had reserved a three-hour spot, two hours for playing and an hour for the food and gift-opening.   

Elizer's first interest was a car game.  He doesn't need any money put in the slot, he just likes to steer like a wild man.  He did want to press the throttle though, and since he was too short, he just got down there and pushed it with his hand, hahaha! 

Sammy and Bianca got right to bouncing and sliding.

After a while Frank got there with Jada, Alaya, and V'anni.

There were so many games to play and things to win with tokens.  

I didn't get any picture of Bianca playing games, but this is what she was doing most of the time - catching little ducks in a claw machine! Fourteen of them!

Then it was party time!  There was a nice, big party room for us.

It was a really fun day for Elizer!  All the people at the party were so familiar to him.  Here are the pictures of everyone.  

First of all the birthday boy with his mom and dad.  Look at those cute shirts!

Dick and I with Sammy and Bianca, Destiny and Elizer.  He was pretty much finished cooperating by the time this picture was taken!

Frank with his girls and grandson!

Alex's dad with his crew.  His three kids - Alex, Odalys (far right), and Ozias (in front) and his two grandsons - Odalys' son Jiriya (far left) and Elizer.  

At the beginning of the party Destiny's other grandparents came for just a while, but I didn't get a picture of them, which I really regret.  We have known them since before Destiny was born and we feel a deep connection.  Here's a picture of them from last year's party.

Destiny's brother Shalimar (on her mom's side) came for a little while with his adorable son Shalimar, Jr.

  

Here are some adorable pictures of Elizer with his little boy cousins!

When everything was finished up at the party we hit the long road for home.  Sammy and Bianca were coming along with us for a couple of days.  Bianca was surprised when we were passing signs for Duncannon, so that's when I drew the "map" to show her where we had been and where we were going!

It was bedtime before too long when we arrived home and church in the morning.  After church they were begging to play Monopoly.  Another REALLy crazy game.  Let's just say there may have been some dishonesty and sleeziness going on, as in real life monopolies, haha!  

Around 3:00 we went over to Destiny's place and picked her and Elizer up for a trip to Talleyrand Park in Bellefonte.  Unfortunately it was starting to rain a bit, but not enough to ruin our fun.  Feeding the ducks is always so fun, walking in duck poop, not so much!

Even in rain, the park is so lovely!

We had our dinner backwards - dessert first.  We got blizzards and slushies and cones at Dairy Queen, then went to Destiny's place where she made absolutely scrumptious Tostada de Pollo.  Now I'm hungry just looking at that bottom right photo!

The kids had so much fun playing with Elizer!

He just loved being pushed in his little car.  Sammy had given him the little soccer ball and goal net for his birthday gift, and they had fun with that too.

When we got home that evening we started prepping for a campout, haha!  I was going to give up my comfy bed to sleep in the camper with the kids.  While I was fixing the beds it was POURING rain.  I thought, "Wow, am I going to be able to sleep? Will we stay dry??"  But I knew I had certainly slept in rain when we were camping over the years, so I didn't worry about it.  

The kids really wanted to play LIFE in the camper, so we did that for a while.  But the table was really too small and we were all feeling pretty sleepy, so we quit before the game was over.  Besides, they were feeling pretty silly.  They were each drinking Fresca from one of Elizer's sippy cups.  Crazy, fun kids!!

The rain stopped before we crawled into our beds - Sammy in the bed at one end and Bianca and I in the other.  I actually slept pretty well.  I had set my alarm for 6:15 as usual.  Bianca, the early bird, heard it and tried to go back to sleep, but she came into the house soon after I did.  Sammy, on the other hand, slept for a few more hours out there.  

It was a dreary overcast day.  So we stayed indoors.  We played another game of LIFE.  The only picture I got of that was the the paper on which I added up our wealth.  Bianca won with her $2,500,000!

Then we watched the old movie  "What About Bob?" and got lots of good laughs over that.  

Another thing Sammy did over the weekend was learn to play "Happy Birthday" on the piano.  Here's our piano duet!

Around 5:00 we went to pick up Dick from work and we went over to Anthony and Lori's place.  Dick took them up into his hunting shack for while and then they played on the swings.  Hunter came outside to join them for a while.  He was sad when we left. 

I took these pictures while they were up in the hunting shack.

Zooming in. 

We took them back home after that, stopping at Arby's along the way to eat. We met Jenn at the Newport Plaza, about 10 miles on this side of Duncannon.  The kids were talking her ear off as soon as they got out of our van! 

Yesterday I had Elizer for a while in the afternoon.  When I went to pick him up this is what I found!  How CUTE is he in this blanket robe??  He was being so silly and running and jumping around.  I said, "Elizer, stand still, I want to take your picture!"  So the photo on the right was his "standing still" pose.  What a little ham!

Last evening Dick grilled chicken breasts and we ate on the side porch for the first time all summer.  Dick loved the cool breezes.  I did too, but I needed a sweater!  It was really nice to be able to sit out there for dinner.  

Today is Jada's 10th birthday!  I made this collage of some of the fun times we had with her this summer.  We had such a good week with her when she was up here at Destiny's at the end of June.  

 

Tomorrow (18th) is the actual day of Elizer's birthday.  So we will be celebrating him again at Destiny and Alex's house.  

And that is finally the end of this post!