Summer in Pennsylvania

Last week the kids and I took a trip to Pennsylvania to visit family and get out of the city (yes, I consider the suburbs to be the city). We had fun seeing cousins and old friends and basically just hanging out in the country. We even blasted Kenny Chesney's "Back Where I Come From" with the windows rolled down. Yeah, love being in the country...mostly love being in MY country (translate: Perry County). 

Caroline loved Grammie's touch-lamp.

Elsa enjoyed some paper dolls.

We had a birthday picnic with cousins at a nearby park, so the kids enjoyed the playground while we were there.

All of the Smith cousins, together at last!

Birthday girl!

Sweet baby girl!

 I can't believe I captured this moment with the camera. J had just asked Aunt K if Baby E was born with 4 fingers or 5 because she thought that babies were born with 4 and grew their thumb later. You can see the surprise on Aunt K's face!

Aunt K brought Luke's deer skull
that Uncle Dan had mounted for him.
It's hanging on the wall in his room now.

Grammie with the littlest Smith girl

Just love her!

Baby girl cousins 

 We also went swimming at an old friend's pool, and the kids enjoyed hanging out with her kids. Fun to see our kids becoming friends...

Something's just not right here...

This one kept me very busy!

My non-swimmers braved the deep end in their inner-tubes.

He's a little heavier than the others; maybe that's
why he needed two tubes?

Caroline liked the bead necklaces that Grammie keeps for dress-up play and wore them around a lot. She also carried a spoon everywhere she went. 

The big kids enjoyed (mostly) a game of Uncle Wiggily that we used to play when I was young. 

Later that afternoon we made a trip to the barber. On the way home, we stopped at the bank where Grammie works to deposit some of Luke's hard-earned cash (from lawn-mowing). As soon as we walked in, Grammie informed us that there was a tornado warning and one had been spotted a few miles away. AAAHHHHHH!

We beat it to the car and sped home (just a short drive) to hang out in the basement while the storm passed. For the record, I have never seen a storm like that. We never saw a twister, but as I watched the clouds (yes, I snuck upstairs to peek), I saw definite rotation with winds moving one way on the north side and another way on the south side over the ridge just behind the house. It was later confirmed that there had been an EF-1 tornado a few miles away.

The rain came hard and heavy with some areas getting nearly 6" in a short time. We had a little less than 3". And here is the result in the fields in front of my parents' house. We watched the water come up and go down again in the space of an hour or two.

The neighbors' farm which used to be my grandparents' farm

And the water went down again...

I wasn't sure how long we'd stay when we left on our trip; it rather depended on how well Miss Caroline slept. But she did quite well, and we ended up spending most of the week there. But then home beckoned, and we drove south again. 

Bath-time for Caroline using Elsa's new
Turbie from Grammie

Elsa loves her Turbie; she got some
spa treatment from Grammie while
visiting. Hope she doesn't expect
that at home now!!

We had a fun trip, though Caroline would hardly leave my side. Maybe by next time, she'll be a bit more friendly with the locals! She better get used to it, because Perry County is one of my most favorite places to be!!