More Poconos...

One afternoon most of the family went to Tobyhanna State Park for a hike. (I stayed back for Emma's nap and Lydia stayed to nap too). Luke and Jeremy took turns hauling Mario in the backpack. Caleb picked wild blueberries and enjoyed eating them all! (Reminds me of Blueberries for Sal. Anyone else remember that one?) He did bring home a couple in his pocket to show me, and he also showed me sadly that one got smooshed. Caleb also became "the Tobyhanna Ninja" and stopped everyone from passing him until they told him their favorite color. He loves being a warrior....

Almost every evening we were able to swim in the indoor pool in the community center. What a blessing! All of our kids loved it. Two mornings we ladies also went to the pool for high impact water aerobics. We younger ones were surprised by how sore we were! Ha! (Most of the ladies at the class were probably 60+) =) It was very fun. In these pictures are Aunt Kate with Emma and Elizabeth and then Caleb floating on his back, which is quite funny. He always closes his eyes.

One morning we went horseback riding. The kids were all too young, but thankfully Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Rachael volunteered to stay home with them. Since Elizabeth and Caleb got to ride horses just a couple months ago, I didn't feel too badly. I loved riding the horses through the gorgeous PA woods, enjoying the ferns and other trees and plants. Sooo much more beautiful than California. At least to me! We got to ride the horses across a stream, too, which was fun. Here's Luke on his horse, Sarge.

Our Pocono vacation - part 1

We just returned from a 10-day trip to PA/NJ. The majority of the time - 1 week - was spent at a huge, beautiful rental home in the Poconos. Luke's grandmother lives in the Poconos and invited us all to her 90th birthday party, which she began planning 3 years ago. So Luke's parents thought it would be a perfect time for us to have a big family vacation there.


We started the trip with 4 of the 5 of us (not me) having the stomach flu. Yuck, yuck, yuck! Luke, Caleb and Emma all threw up on the plane. But by the time we landed in Philadelphia and were picked up by Luke's sister Kate and her husband Josh to drive to their house 1/2 hour away in New Jersey, everyone felt much better. (Unfortunately we must have still been carrying it and passed it on to several more people that week...)

Sunday we went to church at Kate and Josh's church and then drove up to "the big white house that's sometimes yellow", as we called it all week. It has 6+ bedrooms, a 72-inch T.V. a pool table, hot tub, an amazing kitchen and many levels of decking. The next morning we discovered a deer in the backyard with her fawn. She seemed to be waiting for something, so....we fed her. Which made Luke very mad. But the kids liked it. =) She came back daily at mealtimes hoping for more.


We spent lots of time hanging out at the house - the kids quickly became addicted to playing the Play Station on that huge T.V. Lots of games were played and most nights after the kids were in bed various ones of us hung out in the hot tub. What great times those were - talking, laughing, and sharing.

One of the best things about the week was getting to meet our first-ever nephew Mario, brought home from Guatemala by Papa Jeremy and Mama Lydia only 2 weeks before! He is 1 and such a cutie with smiles and hugs for everyone! Here is Luke with Emma and Mario. He's bigger than her, I think!

More to come...