A few fun days with the Haags!

 Like I said in my previous post, when I got home from my sister weekend last Monday evening, it was GO TIME!!  With all that there was to do, I still had to visit my flowers, of course.  Here are some pictures I took.

Dick had power washed the side porch, and on Wednesday I gave it a really quick coat of paint with a broom!  That porch needs to be done right some year, but no time for that this year! 

On Thursday I cleaned the whole house and got two guest beds ready - the queen bed in the guest room and the air mattress in the office.  

Lisa, George, and Sophie had flown Southwest from Tampa to Baltimore, then drove here from Baltimore.  I think they got here around 1:30.  They had had a VERY early start!

I was making the Ginger Sweet Potato Lentil Stew that Sophie had requested, so they sat in the kitchen and we talked as I cooked.  Good grief!!  I do not usually talk and cook at the same time, hahaha!  I'm really surprised it turned out ok!

Later I snapped this cute picture of Sophie and Lisa.  We were entertained by a very active blue bird all weekend.  

Actually, there were lots of birds at the feeder.  And we spotted a humming bird a few times too!  Sophie took this spectacular picture of it!!

After a while Dick got home from work.

And eventually Anthony and the boys arrived.  Lori had work in Harrisburg that day, so she wasn't able to get back in time to be with us for dinner.  We had a GREAT evening together!!  So much catching up to do!

And games to play!!  I played a round of Blokus with the kids.

Then a game of Scrabble.  Austin sat there playing a game on his phone the entire time, stopping when it was his turn in Scrabble.   The rest of us sat there looking where we could go next and still weren't ready to go when it was our turn.  But guess who won????  Austin.  Ugh.  Sophie and I couldn't believe it.  I think Hunter was second highest.  What are we going to do with those boys??

On Friday everyone slept in. (Except me.)  Dick took a vacation day.  Later in the morning Dick took George and Sophie to the track at our local high school so she could practice.  

Apparently George worked out too.  Dick got these pictures of him, lol!

The weather was fabulous - warm, but not humid.  We decided to go to the Penn State Arboretum.  They had never been there!  I could hardly believe that.  They are both Penn State alums, but the arboretum was not here back in the 90's.  George graduated in '96, Lisa in '97.  They met here in the summer of '95, a really cute story I probably told before.  

Photo bomber!

When we left the arboretum we went downtown to do some walking and shopping.  However, when we had parked in a parking garage, Dick realized he didn't have his phone.  I checked on my phone, and it showed me that his phone was still at the arboretum.  So Dick and I went there to search for it.  The "find my phone" app took us to it.  

Then we went back downtown.  By that time they had found the souvenirs they wanted and were ready to go home.  I was kind of disappointed because I love to walk on campus, which we had planned to do. But my feet were telling me I had probably walked enough.  

We relaxed at home for a while then went over to Anthony and Lori's for a cookout.  Again we had a fabulous time!!  The weather was so perfect! 

 

As Lori, Lisa, and I sat talking, I picked up my phone to take a picture of Lisa.  She noticed and said, "Mom!"  I said, "You look so beautiful!"  Lori agreed with me, so I took it.  

We had a great view of the sunset.

Sophie was running on their treadmill, and Hunter was monitoring her speed, etc.  He went to get Lisa and told her she had to watch Sophie because she is FAST!!  As she got faster and faster he told her to hang on so she doesn't fly off.  At one point he exclaimed, "Ohhhhh my GOSH!!!"  He was clearly impressed.  It was so, so cute!

Sophie and I enjoyed hearing a song that Austin has been working on.  I can't remember the title.  I guess he's been playing two months now.  His long fingers!!  How I would love to have fingers like that!  And what a memory!

I snapped this picture before we left for home.  These two used to be our little ones.  Time just flies by way too fast.  

This was us back in August 1979.

On Saturday Lisa helped me to cut some of my flowers and arrange them in vases.  She inherited Dick's mother's artistic flare.  

Later we went over to Anthony and Lori's.   I took sloppy joe meat and all the fixin's for our lunch.  That was another request of Sophie's.  

I finally got to relax on their screened-in porch for the first time this summer.  One of my favorite places.  I think I napped a bit. 

Lori has a container garden on their deck.  And how about that hydrangea?  I think it has three different colors of blooms.

Lisa and Anthony are into walking backwards.  Apparently it has good benefits.  So they walked backwards up Anthony's hill SIX times in a row!!  

Sophie and Hunter were having fun on the swing.  He loves to be dramatic and act like he's scared, haha!  And he likes to make his shoes fly off too.

Eventually everyone got showered and dressed for dinner.  We went to Axemann Brewery and decided to eat outdoors.  We had a really good time.

Sophie wanted to recreate this picture from two years ago - the last time these three cousins were together.  

And here they are two years later!  I think the boys grew just a tad, haha!

Grandpa and Grandma who started it all!

We all came to our house afterward for ice cream and just a bit more time together.  

And that was it.  Anthony and Lori and the boys said their goodbyes.  Austin even hugged Sophie, something he is not prone to do.  

The next morning Dick and I left for church, and Lisa's family left for the Baltimore airport.  My heart felt so full.  And my body so tired.  

I spent the rest of the day working ahead on choosing music for the next month.  I will be in Portland two Sundays,  but I still choose the music for my sub.  

And that's all for this time! I think we'll be having Elizer here this weekend, so hopefully I'll have time to blog before we leave for Portland next week. 

Witmer Sister Weekend 2024

My weekends have been filled with wonderful family times, and the days between have been a race to keep up with everything else - except this blog, I guess. 

On Friday, July 12 I left around noon for my much-looked-forward-to SISTER WEEKEND!!   I took this picture of my first tiger lily before I left. 

 

I went to my sister Mary Ellen's house in East Petersburg (near Lancaster) first.  Rose (from S. Carolina) and Barb (from Idaho) were already there.  We packed a lot of stuff into my van.  Doris soon arrived and we headed in our two minivans to the Airbnb near Lititz - the same wonderful one that we stayed in last July. 

 The first typical Witmer Sister thing happened as soon as we arrived.  I opened the hatch to start unloading my van, and immediately a bag with sodas and a bottle of wine fell out.  The glass wine bottle broke and the root beer bottle cracked, causing a steady stream of root beer to hiss out of the bottle.  We just stood and laughed for a while, then we looked for the things we needed to clean up the mess.  

When that was done I went around the house taking pictures of each room before we would mess them up too badly.   

These are the first floor rooms.

And the second floor rooms.  Such a LOVELY, comfortable place to spend a weekend with my very best friends. 

It did not take us long to settle down on that lovely back porch.  At some point Doris and Mary Ellen prepped a Ranch chicken salad and baked sweet potatoes.

While we were still sitting out there, quite a few hours later, Betty arrived from New Hampshire.  She had driven.  Thankfully she enjoys driving!  

At some point we decided to move indoors to the living room.  And there we continued talking and talking and laughing for a few more hours.  Some may have dozed off a few times.  

On Saturday morning we made "Grandpa's Breakfast."  My dad had a method of making an egg dish with potatoes and milk that became a favorite, even of many of the older grandchildren.  

Again we sat and talked for hours and hours.   Eventually we took turns getting showered and dressed.   Thankfully there were two bathrooms.  

Then we piled into Doris's minivan.  

You may or may not remember that last year we visited our dad's brother John and his wife at Fairmount Home near Ephrata.   We headed there again, because John and Evelyn's entire family was together (from many different places and states) for the weekend.  What a great opportunity to get together with cousins we mostly just see on Facebook!  Again we were amazed at the beautiful view from the hill where their apartment is. 

There was a very nice pavilion in which they were having their gathering.  This is a picture of John (our dad's brother) and his wife Evelyn (who happens to be Grandma Arlene's sister - Dick's stepmother) and one of their grandsons.  

John and Evelyn had three daughters and a son.  Their son Dennis lost his battle to cancer a few years ago.  Our family had seven daughters and a son.  Our oldest sister Janet died in her sleep in 2004 from an aortic aneurism.  Our brother lost his fight against COVID in 2021.   So between our two families we now have NINE Witmer women, and here we are!!

Cheryl (Georgia), Mary Ellen, Barb (Idaho), me, Rose (S. Carolina), Betty (New Hampshire), Doris, Deb (Florida), and Judy.  If I didn't mention a state for some,  it means Pennsylvania.  

When we left there we went to Greenfield Park near Lancaster.  Our sister-in-law Nancy met us, and we ate dinner at Isaacs.  We had thought we would eat outdoors on their lovely patio, but it was HOT and HUMID!!  No one was eating outdoors.  

As we ate we started reminiscing funny memories of other times we ate at restaurants in the past.   One memory was of the time I was telling my story about being at Park City Mall and finding out I could not enter Boscov's.  I saw quite a crowd gathering, so I went as near as I could to see what was going on.  And just then they were ushering fitness guru Richard Simmons out of the store.  Apparently he had had an event there.   As I was telling that story all those years ago, Mary Ellen (who had not lived in Pennsylvania for quite a few years) said, "I don't know who that is. Is he one of your Pennsylvania senators or something?"  How we LAUGHED when she said that.   

So again we laughed as we reminisced that memory.  At some point during the meal Barb looked at her phone and said, "GIRLS!!  You are not going to believe what I just read!!  Richard Simmons died today!!"  Lord, have mercy on our irreverence.  We erupted in LOUD laughter!!  In fact, a couple at a nearby table got up and left.  Maybe they were finished, or maybe they couldn't take our noise any longer.  Or maybe they heard what Barb said and that we laughed uproariously about it and thought we were terrible.  

In addition to the laughter we did have a wonderful time listening to Nancy tell us about her recent amazing two-week bus trip to northwestern states.  

It was still really hot when we got back to the house that evening, so we spent the rest of the evening in the living room, never ever running out of things to talk about.  

On Sunday morning I didn't wake up until 9:41!!!  I was SHOCKED when I looked at my phone!  We had Mary Ellen's baked oatmeal and other things that I can't remember for breakfast.  We sat on the porch again for a long time, still talking.  

In the afternoon we went to visit our mother's only living brother, Earl Myers.  There were ten children in the family, and Earl is the last sibling still here on earth.  All the spouses have passed away as well.  He still lives in the lovely house near Ephrata that he and Irene lived in for years.  There's a beautiful pool in the back yard.  Irene passed away in her sleep about two years ago, just like my sister Janet did.  Everyone LOVED Irene, so full of humor and spunk.  

Earl's daughter Deb was there too.  She said she stops by each Sunday to water his indoor plants.   Earl was so much fun to talk with.  He was fully engaged and still has quite a sense of humor.  We had the greatest time!

Before we left we sang "In the Garden."  I didn't think of recording it until near the end of the song.  

I took a few pictures before we left.  I should have gone to the back to take a picture of the pool. 

From there we went to nearby Refreshing Mountain Camp where our family has spent some very fun weekends in the past ten years.  

Then we went to Oregon Dairy for some ice cream - very welcome on such a hot day!

I love this picture Doris took of our feet under the table!

Back at the house I started making peppers and onions and Sweet Italian sausages for hoagies.  

We spent another long, wonderful evening on the porch again.  This was our view of the sunset.  

On Monday morning I took this picture of our beloved porch.   We didn't have as long to sit that morning because check-out was 11 am.   We just ate leftovers for breakfast.  

We got everything packed up and cleaned up, then said goodbye to this place that holds so many precious memories.

We went to Mary Ellen's house first to unload stuff.  Then we went to sister-in-law Nancy's house for dinner.  We husked corn for our dinner!

Nancy had made some scrumptious baked slider sandwiches.  The best part was sitting at this table which holds so many fond memories of our brother.  In fact, the whole house is filled with memories of him.  How we miss him! 

From there we went back to Mary Ellen's house, and then I needed to head home.  I hated to be the first to leave.  

I did love to get home to Dick and to my lovely flowers, however.   I had just a few days till the next big event, and Dick had washed all the cupboards with Murphys Oil soap while I was away.  How nice was that???  

That's all till I can find time to tell you all about our wonderful visit from daughter Lisa and family.