We arrived in Linesville, Pa on 31 May and spent a night with Joan and Tom. We arrived late in the afternoon to a wonderful home cooked dinner and lots of hugs...in the rain. I do think that the rain followed us across the states. We had a great pancake breakfast with Tom's homemade syrup and all the fixings. The girls had a fun time at Pymatuning Lake where ducks walk on the fish. We fed the carp lots of bread near the Spillway where the carp gather in hundreds to catch the bread thrown by visitors. The ducks try to get the food too and since there are so many fish...they actually have to walk on the backs of the carp to try to get the bread. The Spillway draws over 300,000 visitors a year to see this attraction...and the only advertisement is by "word of mouth". Joan had about 6 bags of old bread that the girls were able to feed to the fish!! We bid farewell to Joan and Tom knowing that we would see them in a few days when we were to meet them at their camp and spend a night.We talked to Pete and Linda and Danielle Walsh while we were having lunch at Joan and Tom's as they were heading to the Cape from Tucson. They were in Akron, Ohio. We thought we would meet up as they were going to be staying the night in Clearfield, PA. When we next talked to them, we were only 12 miles apart!!! We met them at their hotel in Clearfield. (Julie and Denny had invited them to dinner too!!) and they follow us down the mountain to Julie's. Once again we had a wonderful family dinner at Julie and Denny's and Tyler and also Massey's ( their cute little dog). Pete, Linda and Danielle went back to their hotel and left the next morning for the Cape. What wonderful family we have to welcome all 9 of us into their homes. Julie took off the next day and all went to a local amuzement park..Kenny also joined the kids for a day of fun and rides. On Wednesday we headed to Joan and Tom's camp about an hour into the woods from where we were staying with Julie. Another fun time with roasting hotdogs outside around the firepit and then making smores. The girls were exposed to using the outhouse and staying in a real camp!! We took a couple walks in the woods...saw a few cow elks, deer and their fawns, turkey's with new chicks. We walked down to Maryann's Dad's old camp as Kelly had memories of spending time there with her grandparents. Joan and I took them SNIPE hunting when it got dark....but unfortunately we were making too much noise so were not successful at capturing a SNIPE. We woke to a beautiful day and another great breakfast and played some DICE before we headed back to Julie's.
Friday, Kenny and Julie and Tom took Kelly and girls for a hike to a local waterfall. I stayed back as the area was fairly rugged near the Falls. They did see a couple snakes. Uncle Kenny made sure that Kirsten made it back up the rocky area..and she actually saw one of the snakes and alerted all!!
Friday evening we traveled about an hour down to State College and spent the evening with Joan and Tom and Roseanne, Jeff and girls and Sara and Adam and their twins. It was so fun to see all the cousins ranging in age from 10 to 6 immediately bond. They played all kind of made up games outside and then went indoors to Roseanne and Jeff's basement play area and played while the adults sat on their outside patio for a beautiful evening of fun, laughter and catching up. We thank Roseanne and Jeff for once again making us feel so at home.
Saturday the girls played outside in Julie and Denny's beautiful huge yard. Kirsten loved their swing.
Julie made their stay special by doing manicures and pedicures with them..even did do overs with a big smile on her face!!! They really enjoyed talking to Denny and playing games on the x-box and pool with their cousin Tyler who will be in his third year of college for engineering. Julie would go to work but still had time to fix us wonderful home cooked foods and desserts. Saturday evening , Kenny, Steven and his family and Rita and her Tom came over and we all had Pizza plus a great taco roll plus that Julie made. The kids and Julie played crouquet. Denny made a fun bond fire and once again made smores. The kids and their cousins collected lightening bugs (fireflys) and put in a jar. What fun to see the kids make these new memories with their Hugar Cousins.
Kelly and girls left for Stephenson ,Virginia on Monday to visit their friends that had recently moved to Virginia from Tucson. They had wonderful adventures with their friends and then met us in Carlisle , Pa on Wednesday. We took Maryann's Aunt Fran out to lunch. She picked the perfect place for the girls ...Friendly's !! It is always good to visit with Aunt Fran. We were to visit with Aunt Ethel but she had eye surgery scheduled...she had a long day so we will see her on our way back. We visited the Army War College Museum with the girls and they had fun exploring the outside areas and military bunkers and World War 1 Trench. We stayed at the Carlisle Barracks Military Billeting in a building that was build in 1880....of course remodeled!!!! Thursday, we went to Lancaster and had a lovely lunch with Peggy, Larry, Lisa, Brendon and Elisabeth and Oakley the family pet!. We spend the night in the Pocono Mountains at Tobyhanna Army Depot. The girls were so happy to see deer and a turkey and her hens near our villa. We were all in bed early as we were excited to head to Mashpee on Cape Cod to spend time with Gramma and Grandpa Walsh and Danielle.
We just found out that our Emme is finally 19 pounds and 2 ounces!!!
We are keeping you all in prayer and thank you all for the prayer and thoughts for safe travels.
God Bless,
Tom and Maryann
~A JOURNEY IS BEST MEASURED IN FRIENDS AND FAMILY RATHER THAN MILES~
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