Life in Lancaster

is good.
It’s very good!
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We’ve had a great week hanging out with our kids and since they have been doing that “work” thing, we’ve been left on our own during the day to nap, read, and visit with local friends. It’s been a wonderful combo! So, in no particular order, here are some highlights of our life in Lancaster.
Shoe Shopping
(You didn’t know this would be quite so exciting, did you?)
So while shoe shopping for me was a bust (Abigail managed to snag two cute pairs), we did manage to be at the outlets when the fire trucks came barrelling in on what seemed to be (judging by the 8 fire trucks that arrived on the scene in short order) a major conflagration. We saw no fire or smoke or even smelled any smoke, but just about every fire company in the area was there. And we were (literally) first on the scene.
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No news at 11~
Out with friends
We love when we can connect with friends during our travels! We have a couple of SOWER friends that live in the Lancaster area, so we were blessed to be able to see Ann and her son Brad for dinner one night.
Stiefs and Us
We hadn’t seen them in over two years, so it was a real treat!
Plus we were able to get together with our Alaska buddies, Jay and Naomi. We were able to combine lunch with a stop at the local “market” where we picked up some yummy stuffed pork chops for dinner and then another stop at a local produce stand where we picked up the best sweet corn I’ve had this season. It was a delightful day!
The Girls
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Gia
Gia – age 1 1/2
Libby
Libby (short for Liberty) – age 7 months
and
Macho
Macho -found as a kitten where Josiah works, and named before they realized she was a girl.

Although the dogs live happily in their crates during the day while their folks are at work, we enjoyed having them down with us on occasion. And with the nice fenced in yard, it was easy to just let them out to do their business. Of course, the trick is to let them out, but keep Macho in. She got out once, made a beeline for the only hole in the fence and disappeared from view. I was able to lure her back, but the next day as I was being extra careful to close the door behind the dogs, I managed to lock myself out. Of course, Gary had just left to get the tires rotated, so I busied myself with a nice walk, some weeding and some general backyard clean-up. So while I was reasonably productive, I mostly was glad I had gotten dressed before I let the dogs out in the first place!
The pets were great – but we were reminded how glad we are that we have chosen to do our lifestyle pet free. It’s much more fun to just borrow the mayhem!
Around the House
We thought there would be a nice long list of chores for us to do while we were here, but it turns out that the house is cosmetically in pretty good shape and most the changes that the kids have in mind were of the nature that requires planning and a budget (and maybe a larger crew). Pretty much we’ve been doing little odds and ends (like the afore mentioned weeding) but mostly we’ve been collecting ideas of little projects. So last night we had a night on the town –
Lowes – (for a modest housewarming shopping spree.)
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(and the tub was NOT in the budget!)
Hot Diggity Dog for dinner
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A drive through downtown Lancaster
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and our final stop –
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What Else!?
Tonight we head out to a Barnstormers baseball game, and then tomorrow we wrap up our house chores (Josiah will be learning how to pull and re-install a toilet. A good skill for any homeowner!), enjoy a quick visit from Toby and Tammy and the other girls on their way to the shore, and then get ready for our next destination – a couple of days with my sister and hubby up in Perry County. We have a couple of light switches to change out, and a faucet to install, but I think we (and I use the term loosely) can pull it off!
Yes, tis true,
Lancaster sunset
Life in Lancaster is good.
It’s very good indeed!

Pennsylvania Welcomes You

After two years away, I think I’d forgotten some of the things that I really love about Pennsylvania.
Like the beautiful rolling hills, in all of their green splendor –
PA Hills
Or the majestic barns that dot the countryside.
PA Barn
But as much as we were looking forward to seeing good ol’ Pennsylvania terraine, it is really the friends and family that we were going to be able to see as we crossed the state that had us excited!
Like my college roommate!
Deb and Me
Forty-one years ago we were put together as roommates because her last name started with DR and mine started with DW. Our lives have taken different paths, but still the bond that was formed back in 1969 remains. We had a delightful visit with her and her hubby – Thanks, Deb for sticking with me all these years!
And then there was a sweet visit with my nephew Mike, his beautiful wife and their kiddos!
M&R Fitz
We were delighted to spend a couple of days with them, parked in front of their home. I confess it helped with our Ellie-Hayley-Maddie withdrawal symptoms to be able to play with the little ones. We should be getting to seem them a little more regularly in the future since Mike (well, the practice he works with) has consented to be our family doctor. We both got a clean bill of health (ok, so Gary still has that subdural thingymabob, but with no symptoms there really isn’t anything to do!), so we seem to be good to go for another year or so. It was lovely to see Mike and Robyn – we hadn’t even met their littlest one!
And right now we are in New Freedom, PA where we’ve been able to visit with two of our close SOWER friends. As an extra bonus, two other SOWER couples joined us for a pot-luck last night. What a fun and wonderful evening!
Eshbaugh party
I’ve got to tell you, these are some of my very favorite peeps!

Tomorrow early we will be heading a bit north to Lancaster, PA where we’ll be spending a week with our son Josiah and his wife Abigail. We’re so looking forward to seeing them, their “new” (100 year old) house, and their puppy dogs! We’re totally ignoring the “3 Day Rule” (fish and company begin to smell after three days), but I think they might find something for us to do during our time there. I mean after all, Gary is coming with his tools!

Better get to bed – we want to be in Lancaster for worship with J&A!
Sweet dreams!

A couple of things….

before we move on.

The Garage Sale
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One of the first things we did at our son’s house was to help them with a garage sale. Since all proceeds were going into the Vacation Fund (read “gas money” if you’re Toby, “more treats” if you’re under eight), the girls wanted to help with a lemonade stand.
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I mean, really, who wouldn’t buy a little lemonade from these girls?
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And there was only a little bit of drinking the profits!
Maddie was also pretty interested in being the “cash register”.
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Gotta watch those little fingers!
The Sewing Project
I thought it would be fun to do some sewing with the girls since we were hanging out with them for several days before we went camping. The girls were quite fascinated with the whole sewing “thing”, and I had a hard time getting a turn!
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It was a little more of a project than I thought it would be (it had been years and years since I had done any real garment sewing and there were just a few interruptions along the way) but I did manage to get the outfits done. 🙂 Of course, I didn’t take an official picture of said outfits, but Ellie and Maddie wore theirs on the airport run to get Mom and Dad.
Airport
The Jumping Machine
So, what do you get when you take all the pillows off the living room sofas and make one big pile with them?
A Jumping Machine!
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They assured me Mom lets them do this all the time.
Honest.

OK, that might just be the last post of grandchildren for a little bit. Thanks for hangin’ in there while we were busy being Grams and Pops.
It was a pretty fun gig, don’t you think?

Camping

Now when I was a girl, “camping” meant tents and cots, sleeping bags and coolers. Most of the camping I did was with my cousins (and aunt and uncle, of course) on Lake George in upstate NY. We often were on an island, and the adventure was even greater since we had to get there by boat. By the time we arrived, the tents were set up, the “kitchen” was in place (under a good sized tarp), and the cousins had all ready scoped out the best rocks for jumping into the lake. Flashlights, rustic outhouses, campfires and some of the best food I ever ate. That was camping then.
This is camping now. Air conditioning, queen size beds, TVs, refrigerator/freezer and a bathroom that flushes right next to the bedroom. Oh, and throw in a couple of Barbie movies, and you have the perfect storm for Camping a la Grams and Pops. 🙂
So while it certainly wouldn’t be considered “camping” in the strictest sense of the word, it certainly was just what the doctor ordered for camping with our three little girls!
We were at the Lazy River Campground – a very family friendly campground less than an hour from Marysville. And although I had planned for a couple of crafts myself, the campground had plenty of options too! There were paper airplanes to decorate, make and then launch off the zip-line tower. There were fun paper hot air balloons to color and decorate. But the craft I think we enjoyed the most was the egg drop construction/competition. The object was to build a container to protect your egg from a drop from the zip-line tower. They supplied some “building” materials (and the egg), but you were welcome to bring anything you might have that would be useful. I had a fairly large stash of bubble wrap (he-he)so we were in pretty good shape. Each girl put together their own container (well, ok. Maddie did have a little help from Pops. I’m not sure the parachute was actually her idea. Or really anything past wrapping the egg in the purple tissue paper!) and then got to do the dropping themselves.
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All three eggs made it safely to the ground (even with one of them landing on the concrete). Bubble wrap ROCKS!
But I had come prepared with some crafty stuff of my own, so on Saturday they painted little wooden birdhouses-
Camping Crafts
(And no, we did not launch them off the Zip-line tower.)
There were games to play
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and a visit from the Bug Lady.
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(Yes, that is a live tarantula in the jar Hayley is holding. You will notice that Ellie is no longer on the bench!)
But the most asked question was – Can we go to the POOL now?
The Pool!!!!!
All the girls were thrilled with the pool. Ellie was a bit of a loner, busy working on her swimming technique, Hayley was busy with “watch me” “watch me” as she also practiced her underwater swimming and jumping into the pool skills. And Maddie – my goodness! She was our little fearless cannonball. Sometimes she wanted us to catch her, but most of the time she just wanted to jump in and then swim to us. (Mind you, she had plenty of floatation devices on her, but she was just incredible to watch!)
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Here’s my favorite shot – all three with a new pool friend:
JUMP!
JUUMMMMMPPPPPP!
There were other sweet memories on our camping trip –
Like the Sweet Dreams phone call from Mom and Dad –
Maddie saying goodnight
(while they all enjoyed their pre-bedtime popsicle!)
and then getting all three asleep in one bed –
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We had such a sweet time with them – I know it will be one of my most precious memories!
Camping Girls
And to make a lovely weekend even lovelier, the night that we returned from “camping” we went to the airport and picked up Mom and Dad.
Mom and Dad return
How blessed we are!

Girls just want to have fun

So, it’s been pretty darn hot here in Marysville, OH. And “hot” usually sends little kids out in search of water to play in! Fortunately for my little grandgirls, there’s a great splash park nearby where we were able to cool off –
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(That’s Pops behind Ellie, getting ready to terrorize her. Ah, the memories!)
Everyone had a really fun time-
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but long after the big girls had retreated to the blanket
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little Maddie was still going strong –
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“Hmmm, let’s see if that will happen again….”
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Yep!
Needless so say, it was a great way to cool off! (And the trip to the DQ after dinner didn’t hurt either!)


Mom and Dad have left us in charge for a couple of days, so this morning we are heading out for a 3 day camping adventure! (Of course, when you go “camping” in a motorhome, it pretty much just means that you’re driving the house a little closer to the pool!). The natives are stirring, and there’s still lots to do to get ready to go, so it’s Ta-Ta for now! But fair warning, there are bound to be more grandgirl pictures in the not so distant future!