and catching our breath.

It seems like forever since we’ve been in our house with the slides out, a little bit of power to run the A/C and the coffee pot, and a little free time on our hands.
We had a great visit with our kids in Lancaster,


an excellent (though too short) visit with my sister, hubby and some of their family north of Carlisle -

(L-R – Me, Niece Chris, Sister Joie – sure do love those ladies!)
and an all around great time re-aquainting ourselves with the beauty that is Pennsylvania.
But I must confess, that it is LOVELYto be sitting still, not only catching our breath and catching up on chores, but more importantly, catching up with friends!

(They’re reviewing the morning’s yard sale finds!)

Oh, and sleeping in our own bed!

is good.
It’s very good!

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.

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.

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


Gia – age 1 1/2

Libby (short for Liberty) – age 7 months
and

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.)

(and the tub was NOT in the budget!)
Hot Diggity Dog for dinner

A drive through downtown Lancaster


and our final stop -


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,

Life in Lancaster is good.
It’s very good indeed!

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 -

Or the majestic barns that dot the countryside.

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!

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!

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!

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!

before we move on.

The Garage Sale

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.

I mean, really, who wouldn’t buy a little lemonade from these girls?

And there was only a little bit of drinking the profits!
Maddie was also pretty interested in being the “cash register”.


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!


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.

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!


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?

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 -


(That’s Pops behind Ellie, getting ready to terrorize her. Ah, the memories!)
Everyone had a really fun time-






but long after the big girls had retreated to the blanket

little Maddie was still going strong -


“Hmmm, let’s see if that will happen again….”



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!