Fun week with Elizer and others

 Last time I posted it was all about our week with our daughter Miki.  This post will be all about our week with Elizer.  Things seem to go by weeks in this season of our lives. 

As I said at the end of the last post, we had met Alex on Sunday, October 16 to bring Elizer back to Destiny for the week.  It was so precious to see Destiny and Elizer cuddling on the couch that evening after the Fall Festival we had gone to.  Then they went home to their house for the night. 

On Mondays Destiny works 2:30 - 11:00, so after Miki and Kicki had left for Manheim, I met Destiny and Elizer at Cracker Barrel for lunch.  I took him home with me then, and the first thing he wanted to do was go for a walk.  It was cold, but sunny, so we did.  Later when Dick got home we bundled him up for a tractor ride around the neighborhood.  

On Tuesday it was even colder, but we took our walk anyway and played at the playground all bundled up.  

Could he possibly be any cuter than he was that day in this outfit??  Alex had taken him for a bit of a haircut - so cute!

Wednesday was one of those days when it was cloudy and raining one minute and sun shining the next. Look at this view of a rainbow from my kitchen window!  I'm sure that pot of gold was over there in the mountain somewhere, haha!

I took food over to Anthony and Lori later and the autumn views were stunning!

More sweet pics of this precious boy.  I got him a pair of sunglasses because he really hates when the sun shines on him in the car.  He kept them on the whole way home from Walmart.  

The sun shining through the front door made a rainbow on our carpet Friday morning, which fascinated him.  We also had lots of fun with masks.  In the lower left picture he was "fixing" his tractor.  

Destiny usually has off on Fridays and Saturdays, but last week she was asked to work four hours on Friday.  Time-and-half pay is nice.

  In the evening we went to our church's chicken and waffle fundraiser dinner.  Destiny was expecting fried chicken, haha!  Nope.  The traditional chicken and waffles around here looks like this.  And it was delicious!  

When we came home we got started on the Halloween crafts she had gotten to do with Elizer.  

It was adorable to watch them decorate the cake pops together. 

The end result: his hand print (not finished yet), decorated pretzel sticks, cake pops, and picture frames.  

Saturday was a fabulously sunny day!!  I went up to the church to pick up our Honey Baked Ham sandwich meals, another fund raiser.  The ladies were having toooo much fun!

I had a bunch of other errands after that - blood work before my upcoming physical, grocery store, the bank, the bird seed store, and the music store.  I saw so many people wearing white, and realized that the white-out homecoming Penn State football game was that evening.  I was thinking, "Oh these diehard football fans!"  After I got home I realized I had been wearing my white coat, hahaha!  Fitting in without even trying!  

No coats needed when Elizer and I went for a walk that afternoon!  I put his sunglasses on him, and he kept them on the whole time we walked around the block.  What a cool little dude! 

What's the best thing about walking?  Shuffling through the leaves!!  You gotta put your volume up when you watch this video.

Snacking with Mamma.

Dance par -tay!!

Elizer got into our Lego box and saw the instruction booklets (they're all torn apart after all these years and kids).  He said,  "Make a tractor, Mamma."  So she did!!  It's so fun that she can now play with the Legos again without needing to worry that he would put small pieces into his mouth.  

On Sunday morning after our church service, we had an Open House/Open Field event out on the hill where the new church building will be built.  The weather was SPECTACULAR!!!  What a view every way we turned!  So much beauty and anticipation!  Ground breaking will likely be in the spring. 

We had another special event to go to that day!  A "Frogmore" dinner in Manheim, hosted by Dick's brother Fred and his wife Deb.  Another term for that meal is "Low Country Boil."  When we used to all camp together at Camp Hebron, this was traditionally our last meal of the weekend.  But we haven't camped together since 2019, so they decided to invite us to their place for it.  However, because rain was a possibility, they made a last-minute decision to relocate it to a nearby church pavilion.  That was a great decision! 

Destiny had asked off work for that day, because she always loved that meal and being with the Stauffers.  Along the way we stopped in Duncannon to pick up Sammy and Bianca.  I cracked up when I saw on the picture that my shoe laces matched Sam's shirt, hahaha!!  

The weather was nice when we arrived and the kids had so much fun on the ball field playing kick ball.  A lot more kids arrived after I had already taken these pictures.  Of course, Elizer thought he was one of the big kids too!  

And here are the pics of our meal!!  Two long tables, and lot of people, and a lot of shrimp, sausages, potatoes, and corn with butter and cocktail sauce.  Dick's brother Bob and his wife from Minnesota were there!  Grandma Arlene was there too.  And of course Miki and Kicki and Hope from Sweden.  

I had a good time connecting with some family members, but not nearly enough!!  It had started to rain and the temp had gotten a lot cooler, but the kids insisted on playing outside anyway.  I knew that Elizer had a good heavy coat and hood on, but Sammy and Bianca did not have anything on their heads.  I stood out there for quite a while with my umbrella and took some pictures, but they were getting so wet.  

There really wasn't anything for the kids to do in the pavilion, so we decided to say our goodbyes to everyone and be on our way.  Of course, we had a lot more driving to do than any of the others.  

First of all we met Alex to give him Elizer for the week.  They were both happy to see each other.  

I decided to sit in the back seat between Sammy and Bianca on the way from Manheim to Duncannon.  We had a BLAST!!

The rest of the trip home was pretty much uneventful until we had already crossed Seven Mountains and suddenly Destiny said, "Oh my GOD!!!"  She had just realized that she had left her entire key ring in Elizer's diaper bag!!!  We couldn't believe it!!  We knew we would need a wire hanger or some such thing to unlock her kitchen window, but who even has them anymore??  

As we continued driving we passed a Dollar General Store and turned around to see what we could find.  Dick and Destiny went inside and eventually came out with a sturdy wire for a plant hanger.  She did know she had a spare car key in the house, but she had to get into the house!  We got to her place and got out of our van, none of us looking forward to the prospect of trying to pry her kitchen window open with that wire.  

And THEN Destiny discovered that there was a key under her front door mat!!!  It was an extra one she had loaned to her neighbor one time so she could feed Pixi, her chameleon.  She didn't even know that the neighbor had returned it there, but something just told her to look under the mat.  I cannot tell you how RELIEVED we all were!!!!  Let me tell you, on Monday I took her house key and got some extra ones made for Dick and me!!  

It was a late night after a long day, and we were glad Dick had already made arrangements at work for a half day off on Monday morning.   

We saw this beautiful blue jay at the feeder that morning.  

Later in the day, when I was taking Destiny's key back to her place I took this picture of the verbena we had planted in her front flower bed.  They did not bloom well all summer long, but now they are!  I guess they have liked the rain we got and cooler temps.  

This is the glorious view when driving away from her place.   Oh, Autumn, please take your sweet time!!!  

And that's a wrap for this time!

Our wonderful week with the Swedes!

I'm really struggling here!  Finding time to write about and post pictures of all we're doing seems impossible sometimes.  But I'm determined to do it no matter how belated, because it's the only way I remember things.  I've had this family diary going now for 17 years, and I can't quit now! 

I need to go back to last Monday when our daughter Miki, her service dog Hope,  and her friend Kicki arrived.  They are visiting from Sweden for the month of October.  Of course, being in Manheim near Miki's son Bjorn and his family takes priority, but they came here for a whole week! 

On Monday after they arrived we did lots of talking and catching up.  I made skillet shepherd's pie for dinner while we talked, and in the evening we had fun watching the Voice and eating popcorn and crackers, chips, and hummus. 

Tuesday was my second cataract surgery.  I was to arrive at 11:30.  Miki and Kicki took me there.  Once again, even though they say I was awake during the short procedure, I remember nothing of it!  My eye felt a bit scratchy the rest of the day.  Here's a picture I took Wednesday morning as I was fully amazed at being able to see everything without contact lenses or glasses.  (The insert was taken on Tuesday, haha!  You don't want to see that any bigger!)

On Tuesday evening we watched the Voice again.  Destiny came and joined us after she got off work.   Kicki sat on the loveseat crocheting and snapped the lovely picture of us other girls, including Miki's precious little Hope.  She is the sweetest dog I have ever met.

On Wednesday the weather was lovely, and we were ready for a field trip!  First of all, I had a follow-up  visit at Nittany Eye Care, then we had fun browsing all over Ollie's.  They had never been to an Ollie's before.  Then we went to Starbucks in the Penn State library, where Destiny works, for our lunch.  It was BUSY!!  I circled Destiny's head on the picture.  We got sandwiches and drinks and sat at a table in the news and magazine section of the library adjacent to Starbucks.  There were many, many students there working at tables and in lounge chairs, a really nice, relaxing atmosphere.  I wish I had taken a picture of it. 

We had parked at the Nittany deck and had to go all the way to the top floor.  It was beautiful to look out at that part of the campus and the mountains in the distance.

We also got a selfie up there too.  Then we went to the Penn State Arboretum, where we got some more pictures of ourselves.  

As always, strolling through the arboretum was one beautiful sight after another. 

After we were home I took some pictures here.  

On Thursday we stayed home.  Miki was having fun.  First she added some bling to one pair of my sunglasses.  I was given a pair after each surgery and told her she may have one of them.  Then a package she had ordered online arrived and she was like a kid in a candy store.  As we talked, she was drawing and painting with her new pens. 

I made air fried chicken, baked corn, and baked potatoes for dinner.  Lynn joined us, and we had a really fun evening.  Destiny came after work too.  I didn't get any pictures of Kicki that day.  She was probably crocheting.  She and Lynn had a very special connection as they shared their cancer journeys with each other.  I wish I had gotten a picture of them together. 

 

Friday was Destiny's day off work.  We went over to her place so Miki and Kicki could see where she lives.  Destiny was feeding Pixi, her chameleon, when we got there.  SO interesting!!  Pixi was so tiny when she got her.  I couldn't believe how big she's gotten.  

We went to Brothers Pizza in Bellefonte for lunch.  The food was SO delicious, and we had a lot of fun together. 

I took this video of Pixi.  She eats crickets.  I had no idea she had such a LONG tongue!!

In the evening we went over to Anthony and Lori's for a cookout.  Such a beautiful place to be, and Miki was so happy for the chance to reconnect with them.  We had a really wonderful evening together. 

On Saturday morning we had our driveway resealed, so we had to be creative with our parking for the rest of the day.  Thankfully we have lawn on each side of the house, and it was a beautiful, dry day. 

Dick went over to Anthony and Lori's at the crack of dawn to make another try for a deer with his bow and arrow.  

The rest of us went to Way Fruit Farm for their harvest festival.  We got lunch in their cafe.  

Then Anthony and Lori and the boys arrived and we got in line for the wagon ride to the pumpkin patch.  It was fun and absolutely beautiful!

We found some pumpkins to take home.  Austin found a really heavy, light green one.  They had agreed that he had to carry whatever he picked.  And he did!  We were glad we didn't have to carry our pumpkins all the way back!

There were rabbits that could be held.  Destiny and the boys had a wonderful time with them.  15-20 minutes was to be the limit, but they didn't want to leave them.  

We came home for an hour or two, then drove to beautiful Colyer Lake, about twenty minutes from here.  Dick was with us for this part of our day. 

We went on a hike that half scared me to death!  The path was narrow and there was a hill that went up on the one side of the path and down on the other side.  I felt like I could easily lose my footing and slide down the hill.  I got no pictures of that part of the hike, because I was hanging onto my walking stick!  I was glad when we got to the easier part of the hike, which took us across a nice bridge and then to a place where we could sit and watch the sun slowly slide behind the mountain.  

There was one short cut on the way back where you could walk across some stones.  Destiny got this video of Dick.  I think he hammed it up a bit, imagine that!  I did not use that short cut!

Instead of going back the way we came on that narrow path, we climbed the side of the dam.  It was actually pretty steep, but we walked diagonally instead of straight up the side. 

We were a tired bunch when we got back to our cars.  But it was a GOOD tired!  Of course everyone was hungry by the time we got back home, and thankfully I had a hamburger helper box of stroganoff, which hit the spot for everyone and didn't take too much work.  

On Sunday morning Miki and I sang a duet at church - her song choice, her heart-felt testimony. "Who Am I?"  I LOVE singing with her!!

Anthony and Lori and the boys came to our house for lunch.  Dick grilled chicken breasts and sausages. We had things left from our cookout on Friday evening too.  The guys were watching part of Lord of the Rings on TV.  

Then they said their goodbyes to the Swedes.  We were so glad they had gotten to spend so much time together over the weekend.  

Dick and I left around 3:30 to go meet Alex halfway and get Elizer back for the week.  Destiny was at work, of course.  Again, the leaves were just glorious.  And so was the sunset as we neared State College on our way back.

State College Assemblies of God was having a Fall Festival and Trunk or Treat that day.  Destiny really wanted Elizer to go to it, even if it was only for a short time.  We went home and got him into his adorable kangaroo costume, then we went to the church and walked by all the fun stands where they were handing out candy and other fun things.  There were free hot dogs, and we were hungry by that time, so they tasted good.  Best of all, there were tractor and wagon rides!!  Dick took Elizer on the wagon.  Definitely the highlight of the evening!

Destiny came there right after work as quickly as she could, but they were soon closing.  She came to our house then so she could say her goodbyes to Miki and Kicki and Hope.  They had enjoyed some down time while we were away.

On Monday morning I made eggs and bacon for the girls after Dick left for work.  Miki came out to the kitchen and said, "Mom, your toilet is smoking!"  I knew this had to be one of her famous pranks, but I CRACKED UP when I saw this!!  She is toooo funny!

We sat at the kitchen table in our pj's and ate and talked and laughed, as always.  Of course, sweet Hope sat with us.  I just love the way she gazes into Miki's eyes.  It is just the sweetest thing ever!   I don't think I ever properly introduced this sweet, very intelligent dog.  She is Miki's emotional support dog, and she is 100% in tune with Miki and her anxiety, even her blood sugar.  Truly amazing!!

Around 9:30 am they were ready to hit the road back to Manheim.  We'll be seeing them again on Sunday at a Stauffer family gathering at Dick's brother Fred's place. 

Bless you if you made it the whole way through this!  I can't even believe I'm getting this finished up!