Our short, fun visit from the Stauffer-Villani family

As I mentioned in my previous post, after our weekend at Refreshing Mountain Retreat, Jeremy and Mike's family stayed overnight at their friend Daryl's and then went to Hershey Park on Monday.  I got some necessary things done on Monday - grocery shopping, cooking for Anthony and Lori's family, music prep for Sunday, etc.  

The Portland crew arrived around 10 pm.  They were TIRED!!!  Tuesday morning Brennan slept until 10!  Unheard of!  I made French toast and bacon for breakfast and we ate around my tiny kitchen table.  It was so wonderful to have them here.  

For lunch we went to Starbucks in the Penn State library and ate with Destiny during her lunch break.  That was a lot of fun.  What a beautiful place to work!

Sporting her new shirt and visor!  We're so proud of her!

From there we went to see Grandpa at work.  That was fun!  Then we went to Berkey Creamery for our mid-afternoon dessert.  Jeremy snapped the picture of Brennan and me walking together.  I love how our shirts coordinated!

I took Mike and the kids to our house for some down time, and Jeremy and I went to get some groceries at Wegmans.  

When we got home we got busy prepping food for our cookout at Anthony's.  I made Tandy Cake - Jeremy's request, a favorite from his childhood.  But I never did take a picture of it!  Tasha, Jeremy, and Mike were working on a Mexican Corn Salad.   When we got to Anthony's he was grilling the hamburgers.

We had a really wonderful evening together.

Later in the evening we went to the barn and the boys had fun with the drum set.  I somehow missed getting a picture of Brennan at the drums.  Elizer was also fascinated with Anthony's guitar.

As usual, we were able to see a beautiful sunset while we were there.

On Wednesday morning I made eggs and bacon for breakfast.  While the guys were working on organizing everything for the next leg of their journey, I was showing Brennan how to do the lacing cards, each of them a dinosaur.  He thought it was a lot of fun, so I sent them with him.  

It felt really sad to see them leave, and I felt tired and sad the whole day.  

They went to Pittsburgh to spend time with Mike's dad and stepmother.  They had a great couple of days there, then went to DC for the weekend to be with all their wonderful friends there.  I've been looking at their pictures and wishing we were in DC with them.  We had so many good times with their friends during the years they lived there.  

They'll spend Monday with their friend Tom in Richmond, VA and then fly home to Portland on Tuesday.  What a wonderful vacation they have been having, reconnecting with so many and introducing the kids to such important people and places from their past.  I just really miss them. 

I’m going to end with this fun picture. Last Friday after they landed in Baltimore they drove to Manheim before coming to Refreshing Mountain Retreat. Jeremy showed them the big farmhouse we owned most of his childhood until he left home as a young adult. Then they went to see the covered bridge that had been near Dick’s home place (it has since been moved to a location near the high school.)  When Dick and I were dating we would take walks, and when we got inside the covered bridge we would kiss. I called it our kissing bridge!   I love this picture so much!!

Now it's Sunday evening and we just had a fun, full weekend.  Somehow I would like to find the time to write about it and show you the pictures.  I'll try!  We have VBS this week and some very special visitors from Florida arriving on Thursday!!

Refreshing Mountain 2022

A week ago I was looking forward to our Witmer Family weekend at Refreshing Mountain Retreat, and now I'm trying to find time to write about it!   But first, of course, a collage of some of my flowers.  They bring me such joy!

Last Friday we and Alex, Destiny, and Elizer left around 2:30 and traveled together.  Our first stop was in Duncannon (about 1 1/2 hours from here)  to pick up Sammy and Bianca.  After picking them up we stopped at Ziederelli's nearby to get some pizza and subs.  

It took us another hour-and-a-half to get to camp.  Refreshing Mountain Retreat is in Lancaster County near Ephrata.  This was our fourth time there as a Witmer Family.  But as I said in my previous post, we had skipped our bi-annual gathering in 2020 due to COVID restrictions, so it had been four years since we had been there.  It was so exciting to arrive and find other family members.  The really exciting thing for us was that Jeremy, Mike, and the kids had flown from Portland to Baltimore and drove from there to the camp.  

We enjoyed the circle of swings, a new feature this time.  

We had a big gathering room where we hung out.  The kids got a bit rowdy!

Of course there were way too many snacks that we had all brought to share!  The young adults (Destiny, my sister Rose's Olivia, and my sister Betty's Isaiah and Merida) got right to playing Life.  These kids have grown up together at these Witmer gatherings and it was so fun to see them bond right away like no time had passed.  

There was a gym right next door to our gathering room that we were allowed to use if no other group was using it.  Turns out there never was another group using it, so the kids had so much fun running around, playing with the basketballs, the huge frisbees Mary Ellen had brought, and the table hockey game.  Of course Elizer had no idea he was younger than the others.  He was just beyond cute and adorable the way he ran with the basketballs and tried to make baskets, hahaha!!  

It was so heartwarming to see the way Tasha fit right in and had good times with Destiny and Olivia.  Hunter and Brennan became best buds that very first evening.  This was the first cousin experience Tasha and Brennan had ever had, and it was really, really special.  

I got this really cool picture when I drove from our gathering room to the lodge where we slept.  I didn't even get any pictures of the lodge this time.  Some of us slept there, some had very nice cabins, some had bedrooms above the office.  We weren't able to get bedrooms and a gathering room all in the lodge like other years.  

After breakfast in the dining hall on Saturday morning, the pedal cars were the first activity.  What fun!  Top row: Destiny, Sammy and Bianca, Brennan and Bianca.  Bottom row: Hunter and Austin, Tasha, Jeremy.

Alex played with Elizer at the playground and also took him to the outdoor basketball court.  

After the pedal cars was the zip line.  I got little videos of Brennan, Sammy, and Destiny.

And then the ropes courses.  On top row are Brennan and Hunter.  Bottom row Bianca and Destiny.  

Top row Jeremy and Sammy.  Bottom row Destiny and Austin.  

I think we had lunch after the ropes courses, then the pool was next.  Unfortunately the sun disappeared over that time and we were actually kind of chilly.  

The sun came out right after our pool time was up!  There's an ice cream shop at the pool, so we got cones and milk shakes.  That golf cart that we rented for the weekend was the perfect thing for those of us who stayed at the lodge, which was further away from everything.  Elizer was delighted every chance he had to ride on it.  

The climbing tower was really, really fun!!  We had 21 people from our group.   There was lots of cheering from those of us who weren't climbing!

Here are pictures of Austin and Hunter. 

On the left are Isaiah and Destiny.  On the right are Sammy and Brennan. 

Sammy and Bianca.

Random pictures here - Elizer playing peekaboo.  Tasha, Brennan, and Elizer on the golf cart.  Don't worry, there were only three adults in our group who were designated drivers of the golf cart.  

In the evening we watched a slide show of Grandma Mary in our gathering room,  and we hung out at the playground and in the gym.  Our last activity was a campfire and s'mores complete with brother-in-law Scott's guitar.  

Here are a few pictures I took at the dining hall.  They had a huge deck where some of our group ate.

Look who joined us on Sunday morning!!!  Bjorn, Jess, and baby Charlie!!!

Elizer was so fascinated by him, especially his tiny feet!

Jess just posted this picture today and I had to "steal" it to show you!!  Look at his red hair already!  Just like his daddy!  I love his precious little face!!

We had our worship service outdoors on Sunday morning.  We sang a lot of our favorite acapella hymns then spent a long time sharing meaningful and sometimes hilarious memories of our gatherings over the years.  

Then it was picture time.  Here we are with our grands and greats who were present!  

We tried to figure out the best way to get a group picture and Mike snapped these pictures as we were figuring it out, haha!

I think this is the official one that sister-in-law Nancy took.  

Unfortunately none of Rose's family is on the picture.  COVID raised its ugly head on Saturday in their family and they all left for home (Georgia and S. Carolina) early Sunday morning.  We were so very, very sad.  I counted and figured out that there were over 70 family members missing from this picture!! We are a really, really big family!!

After lunch in the dining hall we cleaned everything out of our gathering room and said our goodbyes.  Weekends like this always go by way, way too fast!!!  

On our way home we stopped for ice cream with Sammy and Bianca.  Destiny, Alex, and Elizer were spending the night at Alex's dad's house so they didn't travel with us.  Jeremy and Mike's family was spending the night with a friend and going to Hershey Park the next day, then coming to our place Monday night.  

After dropping off Sammy and Bianca with Sam and chatting for a while with him, we went home all by ourselves and got everything unpacked and some beach towels, etc washed.  Bed felt really, really good that night!

I'll hopefully be doing another post soon about Jeremy and Mike's family being here Monday night through Wednesday morning.  

Excited for the weekend!!

Just a quick update here.  We are busy getting ready for our Witmer weekend at Refreshing Mountain Retreat near Ephrata in Lancaster County.  We have been going there every two years, but we had to skip 2020 due to COVID, so it's been FOUR years!!  We're so excited.  All my sisters will be there as well as quite a few nieces and nephews and families.  Jeremy and Mike and the kids are flying from Portland tonight!!!!!  They'll be at camp this weekend and then here for a few days next week.  So I was cleaning this house all day long today!!  Anthony and Lori and the boys will be there as well as Destiny, Alex, and Elizer.  We're picking up Sammy and Bianca on the way there.  All our meals will be provided by the camp.  Woohoo!!

This was our crew in 2018.  Sadly, Grandma Mary and my brother Dick will be missing this year.  But we'll be looking at pictures of them.

Here's a picture I took yesterday - my favorite corner of the house.  I wish the lilies would last all summer!!  

Our first weekend of July

I always say that June is my favorite month because of the longest days and knowing that there are two more months of summer ahead.  But July is a favorite too.  The flowers are so amazing, especially the lilies!!

As I said in my last post, Destiny had picked up her sister Jada (almost 10) the weekend of our Stauffer gathering at Camp Hebron.  She spent a little over a week with them.  Destiny's brother Shalimar (on her mother's side) and his baby boy were also at Destiny's house for about a week.  And one of those days her aunt and cousin from NYC visited them as well.  It was a full and crazy week for them!

I had Jada and Elizer here for a couple of days last week.  We had a lot of fun.  Jada loved the marble roller. 

She also loved the piano.  I had a beginner piano book here that she used and made real progress.  How did I not ever get a video of her playing???  I really thought I had.

Some other fun things were building a robot from a kit and catching fireflies and eating ice cream, of course!

The robot worked!

On Friday evening Lori and the boys were here too.  It was crazy and fun to have them all here.  Austin made a marble train too and really wanted me to video it.  For some reason he wanted the marbles to roll onto the floor instead of into the box.  He promised he would pick them all up and he did.

On Saturday evening we all went to the pool.  

Elizer LOVES being in the water and gets almost dangerously brave.  That pretty much describes everything he does - dangerously brave, hahaha!

I got pics of everyone except Lori and me.  Top left is Shalimar and his son, also Shalimar.  Top right is Jada.  Bottom left is Hunter and his friends.  Bottom right is Austin with his cousin William (on Lori's side.)  I hadn't seen Will for a couple of years and I couldn't believe how tall and grown up he is.  He's already out of high school.   

Jada loved jumping off the climbing wall at the athletic pool. 

Elizer and Destiny had a fun pool noodle battle!  

On Sunday Dick and I went out for brunch with friends from church after our service.  We have so much fun whenever we do that, and I always think I'm going to remember to get a picture, but I always forget.  We had ten people this time.  

In the evening we had a fire here and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  It actually got cool that evening, so it was the perfect time for a fire.  We had a couple of big rabbits chasing around the yard and Elizer wanted to catch them so bad!   We also got to watch some really big sparklers that some neighbors were putting off.  

Yesterday, July 4th, Destiny was going to be taking Jada back home to Reading, a 2.5 hour drive one way.  I offered to go along so I could get to see Frank and Lauren's younger girls.  It was pretty nice to be able to just sit in the back seat with Elizer and be a passenger.  

Destiny likes to drive to loud, lively music and Elizer loves it!

Here are pictures of Alaya (6) with Elizer and Jada with V'anni (almost 3).  

Here are the four Collazo sisters!

Jada and Destiny were twinning!  

We stayed for a few hours and had some scrumptious grilled sausages and cheeseburgers before we hit the road.   Elizer was out before we even got to the gas station five minutes away!  Destiny and I chatted the whole way home.  We never run out of things to talk about!

Dick had done some mulching while I was away and I was so excited to take some pictures before I even went into the house!  My favorite lilies are blooming now (bottom left).

In the evening we went to see the State College fireworks.  We discovered a GREAT place to park on a hill near the Penn State beef and sheep barns that Destiny had visited with Elizer a few weeks ago.   We were early, so we walked over to see the sheep.

It was a fantastic show and we had such a great time!

But it was a late night!  

Destiny started a new job today!  Auntie Anne's has not been able to give her enough hours over summer due to less students in town.  They really wanted her to give them two more months, but she just couldn't.  A few weeks ago there was a hiring fair on a Saturday morning at Penn State.  She went there before work and was hired on the spot!  Today she started at a Starbucks in the library on campus. The job comes with a higher pay rate, full time, and very do-able shifts, mostly day time and off weekends.  I really hope it stays that way.   We are so thankful to God!!!

While she was working today Alex took Shalimar and his baby back to Lancaster, so Elizer was my boy.  I didn't even get any pictures until we were walking outside and the wind was blowing his hair away from his face.  I wanted a picture of his adorable shape-up.  This was the best I could do.  Last week when Destiny's aunt visited from NYC she gave him his first "haircut."  She's a professional barber.  He still has his long curls, but his hair is trimmed so nicely around his face.  

That's enough for this time!