Thursday morning got off to a slow start for the adults in the house. Notice I said the adults? Children not so much, haha!
I made scrambled eggs and bacon for everyone. When Hunter needed to be sung to sleep Dick finished up the bacon for me.
Austin easily contented himself with games on his iPad, but by later in the day it had to be put away because of his neck pain. He had used it a lot the day before while we were flying, and even though he tried to remember to prop it up so his neck wouldn't have to bend forward, it was too easy to forget. I gave him some neck massages and applied my IcyHot.
Anthony took Lori to her conference at the convention center, then hit some of his favorite guitar stores in Austin.
We took the boys to Gatti Pizza. The main attraction for Austin was the arcade. He is obsessed with claw machines and beating the ones that are "rigged." Would you believe that his first three tries were successful?? He got three HUGE balls!!
He needed to have a picture taken next to the machine, haha!! His huge regret later was that we had not gotten a video of him getting those balls. He thought we should go back. Apparently on YouTube there are lots of videos of people getting things from claw machines. Who knew???
Of course, we had to order food to have access to the games. Hunter fell asleep in my arms as soon as we arrived at the place.
Eventually he woke up. He gladly eats anything, but our food was all gone, so thankfully I had some baby food along.
He loved those big balls Austin had won.
By the way, they did make it back to PA with us. Anthony bought a needle at Walmart to release the air out of them.
We met Anthony and Lori back at the house, then we all piled into the minivan to go for a little tour of downtown Austin and to the Whole Foods headquarters, where we ate our dinner.
What a place! There was a parking garage under the store, seven restaurants inside the store, and a playground on the roof!
The sunset from the rooftop.
Austin and I were always back seat buddies. On the way home we played the alphabet game. Q was a stinker to find!! After we finally found a Q we were almost back at the house and still had not found Y and Z. Bummer.
We needed a few things from the nearby grocery store (things we did not want to pay Whole Foods prices for, haha!), so after we got back to the house, Austin and I went with Anthony. As Austin and I were walking out to the street where Anthony had the Jeep parked, Austin suddenly exclaimed, "Y and Z!!!" There on the pavement were the painted words, "Tow Away Zone" What a perfect ending to our alphabet game!!
I had every intention of blogging via my phone while we were on our trip. I even started this one on the very first day. But alas, I never even finished the first post. So now I will need to be a blogging machine in order to catch up the next few days. I know that most of you have already seen all my pics on FB, but I still like to write more details here because it's easier to look back and find what I'm looking for here on the blog than on FB. So here's what I wrote last Wednesday, April 5:
We're on our way, currently flying over the hills of Kentucky as I begin to write. Dick enjoys watching on his handheld GPS as we fly. Anthony and Lori and the boys are somewhere further back in the plane.
We left the little airport in State College around 3:30 this afternoon and flew to Philly first. Once again I enjoyed watching out the window and seeing places I recognized from the air.
In Philly we had just a little over an hour before we took off for Austin. They were saying the flight was overbooked and were offering a $500 voucher and an overnight hotel to 3 people. Hmmm. It was tempting. But I just wasn't in the mood for another "story." I could just imagine something like weather messing up the flight they were promising in the morning. But I admit I keep thinking about those $500 vouchers we could have used the next time we go to Florida.
Everyone looks happy but Grandma as we hurried through that airport, haha!
The flight to Austin was long and there were lots of other children. Lori said she was sure a lot of people on our flight were going to the same conference she was. Many were working on their laptops. I could easily see the screen of the woman across the aisle as she worked on research about how memory is developed in children's brains. It was interesting.
About halfway through the flight Anthony brought Hunter up to say hi to us. Of course, we wanted to keep him. He played with Grandpa for quite a while.
Then I sang him to sleep. He took a long nap until after we landed.
The sun was setting as we approached the airport.
The couple behind us had the most adorably talkative four-year-old. When we landed in Austin she looked out the window and exclaimed, "We landed! Right where we left from!" I guess all airports look the same to a child.
Baggage pickup took quite a while and car rental even longer. We rented a minivan that would carry all of us, but Anthony also rented a Jeep to use for the business-related driving he would be doing.
Luckily the time change meant we were an hour earlier than at home. Even so, till we got everything carried into the airbnb house we would be staying in and Anthony and I made a grocery run and we made yummy sandwiches for our hungry bellies after we returned, it was really, really, really late to bed.
But such a nice bed. They gave the master suite to the old people.
Here are a few more pics I took of the house before I went to bed.
I'm getting an early start on my Tuesday update, because I've got things to do and places to go! Sunshine and temps in the 80's sounds really good!
Meanwhile here in State College, PA we continue to have occasional warmish days mixed with cool, rainy ones. It always seems to take Spring such a long time to come and stay. We're delighted to have more and more flowers waking up. Yesterday our first hyacinth bloomed. I'm so eager for the tulips. Take a look at that rose bush. One of these times it's going to wake up and explode!
Last week our Florida girlie broke her wrist! She was doing backward racing in PE class. She said that as she was falling she was thinking, "I can't hurt my legs!" And she didn't! Thankfully she'll still be able to run! But she will have to learn how to do things left-handed.
On Saturday morning I drove to Lancaster to spend the afternoon with Destiny. I was eager to see the new house that she has moved to with her mom, her brother, and her mom's boyfriend. It was absolutely beautiful and in such a nice neighborhood. Destiny loves it there and is making friends in her new school. I'm feeling so happy for her. There she is!
Such an inviting living room! Destiny said she picked out the drapes. Good choice!
They live very near a children's museum, Hands-on House that Destiny remembered going to visit when she was in Pre-K and Kindergarten at Manheim Christian. She LOVED that place and talked of it so often over the years. We decided to stop in to see if they hire 16-year-olds.
Unfortunately they do not hire under age 18, but they do use 16-year-old volunteers for their summer camps. They allowed us to go in for free just to reminisce. It was so much fun!
This was her in the same dress-up room when she was in Pre-K!
We also checked out the hiring requirements across the parking lot at Landis Valley Museum and were told the same thing.
Next we went to Red Lobster and shared this delicious platter of seafood.
And this delicious drink.
When we left there we drove through Lancaster City, stopped to see one of her friends, then browsed at Salvation Army. She remembers when we would shop there when she was little and she'd play with the toys while I shopped for clothes for her. We found a few good deals.
Then we stopped in at my sister Mary Ellen's house in East Petersburg for a little while. She lives just ten minutes from Destiny now!
Then I took her back home and made my way back to State College. I was home by 9 pm. A very good day!
On Sunday morning we went to our 8:15 service at Fillmore. Finally Brenna, my flute player, Ross, my guitar player, and I were all three there - for the first time in about two months! We love playing together so much. The choir did a beautiful job on Chris Tomlin's At the Cross (Love Ran Red).
Then we went to Calvary. The current sermon series is The Art of Neighboring and it is so very convicting. This week's message was about hospitality. I confess that I feel like I'm a terrible neighbor and I'm not good at hospitality anymore. Dick and I have been discussing why that is. Most of our lives we were the personification of hospitality, of our home being everything the pastor is talking about in this series. I still love when family comes and fills this place up, but I struggle to have any desire to reach beyond that anymore. I still feel guilty that our next door neighbor died last year and we didn't even know it for two weeks! And I had never invited him over to eat when Dick was grilling like I had wanted to do. At Calvary they have handed out magnetic pads for us to write the names of our neighbors on. Dick and I know the names of the couple on the one side of us and the people across the street, but that's it. So I felt tickled this afternoon when I was loading things up to go over to Anthony and Lori's and the man on the other side of us was getting his mail. They are the ones who bought the house after the previous owner died. I made a point of asking him his name and his wife's name and where they work, etc. Before I drove off I got out my phone and immediately wrote their names in my phone before I would forget them. I was proud this evening to tell Dick their names, haha!
Yesterday afternoon we decided to go on another short hike in Anthony's woods again.
The boys were ready!
A very woodpeckered tree!
One of Anthony's big trees!
Dick was taking a close-up shot.
And this is what he got!
Anybody need a big vine for decorating?
Another big tree. Dick and Anthony measured the circumference and it was over 14 feet around!
This big rock is right outside the kitchen window, but we somehow never thought about it being a good place to take a family picture before!
After the hike we drove over the mountain to our favorite BBQ place, Doane's Bones. Austin had been asking when were we ever going to go there again.
They have their picnic area ready to go!
Hunter had fun playing with the straws until he got a little wild with them.
It looks like he was checking out the menu!
The food was absolutely scrumptious. I'm hungry right now just thinking about it.
On the way home we stopped at the lookout at the top of the mountain. That is State College in the distance. We were able to pick out Beaver Stadium, Bryce Jordan Center, and Mt. Nittany Hospital. Next time we should take binoculars along.
Today when I was at their house I noticed Austin's school picture envelope on a table. Nobody was there for me to ask which one I may have, but I took a picture of his picture. What a smile that boy has!
We all head to Austin, Texas on Wednesday until Sunday. Lots to do between now and then!
