The second hike of the week.

This was the second hike I went on this week. It was kind of an at the last minute decision to go, (don't you love spontaneity.) Ryan was planning on going with the teachers on their summer adventure and I then realized that I had the same 2 days off. So, I ended up going with the boys and men on their adventure. I wasn't sure at first if I should go because it was going to be a long hike and it would be in the back country of Yellowstone. There are bears in Yellowstone and we would be on foot and sleeping in a tent in the middle of their territory!

These first 2 pictures are the before and after. In order to get where our destination was (Union Falls) we had to ford 3 rivers in order to get there. This was a new experience in which I had to bring an extra pair of shoes to wade the river and then dry off my feet and put back on my hiking shoes to travel to the next river. The rivers were a little deep in spots and most of the hike I had wet pants and then mixed with the dust I guess they were mud pants. It actually was quite refreshing though to wade through the ice cold river, (when I say ice I mean your feet and legs were numb by the time you got to the other side. You then felt the tingle pain of them coming back to life while trying to put back on your shoes.)

You can tell this is on the way out by looking at my hair because we went swimming in warm river and then I went to bed with my hair wet. I guess when you go back packing you have to expect some loss of luxuries ( such as a blow dryer, refrigerator, toilets, to just name a few.)

Here is our ritual of changing our shoes.

I will be forever grateful though to Ryan for packing a nice mattress, a warm sleeping bag and all of the things we needed for the trip. I just carried my clothes and towel and it still felt pretty heavy after 10 miles. Oh did I tell you how long this hike was? Well, the hike in was 9 miles
and then after hiking to Union Falls we then went to Warm River Falls,(I don't know if that is what you call it but that's what I called it.) So in 2 days I hiked over 20 miles!!! I have blisters to prove it.

The sacrifice of hiking though was definitely worth the destination, I have never seen a more beautiful, perfectly symmetrical body of water in my life. We stayed here for awhile admiring the grandeur of this beautiful world and then went on to our next destination.

Our next destination was where I could have stayed forever. The river was warm and there was this most beautiful falls coming over the rocks. It felt wonderful and was natures best Jacuzzi ever. It was quite deep in the middle and the boys had a great time jumping off of the rocks into the warm river. I was sad to make the 4 mile hike back to camp because I wanted to wake up in the morning and spend more time in this river. (I really didn't feel like making the 8 mile round trip the next morning though.)

We had a great trip. It was an experience that I will remember for a long time. My feet though are feeling like I may have over done the hiking this week.

Our trip to the Peak!

This last week has been the week of the hikes. Last Saturday Isaac and Ryan decided they were going to go on a hike to Ben Lomond Peak (well I guess they were really going to go to Willard basin and find some rocks) and because Mary and Jessica had never been to Ben Lomond Peak we all decided to tag a long.

Making it up on the bumpy road from Mantua was quite the trip but once we arrived in Willard basin it was worth all of the bumps.

It was a pleasant day, (not too hot) and the flowers and the views were spectacular!

When we got to the top we had to sign our name in the book and we decided that Lincoln was probably one of the youngest hikers to make it to the top. He is just 6 months and his Uncle Mac being the great man that he is packed him up to the top.

I didn't want to go down because it was so beautiful.

We met Isaac and Ryan coming around the corner on our way back, they didn't find the rocks they were looking for but Mary was very glad to have Isaac back. I think Mac was also glad to hand over Lincoln to Isaac, ( Lincoln is getting to be quite the load.)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Lincoln in the flowers, it was a great day and the next hike I took this week made this one look like a piece of cake.

It's someone elses birthday!

Today is Layne's BIRTHDAY and he is 6 YEARS OLD!
Layne was here just recently and it was fun to have him and his brothers here to play with their cousins. Kace and Layne love the water and while they were here they spent a lot of time, IN THE WATER! Kace loves it when they come to visit.

Layne is such a fun loving kid and he just enjoys life to the fullest.

Layne loves to bounce on the tramp and especially when the little guys are not on so he can go HIGH.

Happy Birthday Layne, hope you have a great birthday!!

Yep, he is king of the water slide.

We love you Layne and we are so glad you are going to be six! Have a great day and lots of hugs and kisses.

It's SOMEBODY"S Birthday!!!

Guess who? Of course it is Jaedon's and he is 4 years old!!
He has been so excited to celebrate his birthday and he couldn't wait to go to bed last night so he could get up to celebrate this big day.

We went to the Sugar Shack to find some treats and their were so many we had a hard time deciding what to choose. This was a very fun store and of course all that was sold in this place was you guessed it SUGAR! You should have smelled it, you gained weight just taking a whiff.

After we made our choices we were off to the toy store, that even had harder choices to make.

It was a great store in Hummelstown with every kind of toy and even toys you couldn't imagine. He made his choices we went home and wrapped them up and now he can't wait to open them.

I am sure his favorite one will be the one from Sofia. Since we have come Jon has been telling him that she has a special present for him,"A stinky, dirty, poopy, diaper." Every time you ask Jaedon what he is getting he will say, " A dirty, stinky, poopy diaper," from Sofia and in the second breath he will say, " A Sponge Bob Square pants fishing pole. ( I think I see something shaped like a fishing pole in that pile of gifts and Jon put a pile of candy in a diaper and wrapped it up.) HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jaedon we love you and your cute personality. We are glad that you are four years old. Of course we are going to go and do his most favorite thing in the world, you guessed it! Go to HERSHEY PARK! See you later!

What we did today...

We decided to go to the Roots Farmers Market in Mannheim PA, it is not far from Lancaster and they hold a large market every Tuesday. It was probably THE BIGGEST market I have been too. There was tons of fresh fruit, vegetables, crafts, antiques, and things to buy. They even have an auction in the morning where they auction off animals and produce. We didn't get to see that but did get to see the animals. I did love all of the fresh produce and we ate fresh corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers tonight for dinner. We will have to eat the cherries and blueberries tomorrow. It was delicious! Most of the booths were run by the Amish and there was pretty much anything you wanted to buy there.

There were lots of people there too and we each had to be in charge of someone, I tried to be in charge of myself because I am usually lost.

Isn't this a large mound of radishes and don't you just want to take a bite!

We drove home in the afternoon and drove through Lancaster so Caitlin could see all of the Amish homes and see them working and driving their buggies around town. I never tire of watching how they live, it is quite fascinating.

After dinner Sofia was sleeping in her swing and Mel made the comment that if we didn't wake her up she would probably be up all night. So I volunteered to play with her ( they really had to twist my arm.) I thought maybe if we took some pictures and changed her clothes she would wake up for awhile. Some of these pictures turned out so cute, it is not hard to take a cute picture when you have such a cute subject.

I was playing with the color on this one and I think the pale pink turned out so cute, I think this is one of my favorites.

She was really quite good for most of these photo's which is amazing for a newborn.

I think she is saying in this one,"Grandma, you are pretty funny!"

I love the innocence of babies, isn't it just the best.

" Peace out"

Another cute pale pink.

Okay, so I saved the best for last, isn't this just the cutest little face, I am sure she is thinking, "Okay, Grandma that is enough!"

Bringing Sofia home

Not all kids could say that their Mom walked to the hospital to have them and then walked home afterwards. Sofia will be able to tell her grand kids that her Mom walked to the hospital and then when it was time to be discharged her Mom and family walked back home. Of course they only live a couple of blocks away but still that is quite impressive!

It seems when you take off the little hospital t-shirts they are no longer newborns and Sofia was not real excited about this part.
Jon was the official carrier of the precious cargo and we all followed along.

We had fun at Cocoa Castle while we waited the afternoon away before little baby Sofia could join us at home.

When you are in Hershey everything is chocolate even the play grounds and if we could have taken a nibble we would have.

Jon is such a great Dad and it is so fun to watch the kid in him. Take him to the play ground he has as much fun as Liv and Jaedon.

Today we went to church and let baby and Mom stay home and get a well deserved rest. Do Mom's ever catch up on their lost sleep? We will try and give Mel some rest while we are here, this pioneer woman deserves it.

Sofia's birthday!

Today is Sofia Lorraine's birthday she was born at 3:06 pm and weighed 9lbs. 7oz. and was 20 3/4 inches long.
It is so fun to be here on her special day. Livy and Jaedon were so cute and excited to meet their baby sister.

Mom and Dad are doing well and did a great job!

Olivia and Jaedon have a new sister! Her middle name is from her great Grandma Jones (Lorraine)

Welcome into this big, old world baby Sofia!

The swing set

Isaac has been working really hard this summer and has finished a lot of projects outside. Mary is opening a day care in their home and she has been working hard as well to get licensed and have everything fun for the little kids. She really wanted a swing set in the back yard and after getting the yard fenced they bought a swing set and it was delivered in several big boxes. The instructions said it would take 2 individuals 3 days to assemble and Isaac said that was a little under estimated. After several days he finished it and it looks GREAT!

It was good that the little boys weren't there waiting to get it finished because they would have been quite impatient. They had fun playing on it when we met at Isaac's and Mary's to celebrate Bryce's birthday. They really liked all of the toys that Mary has bought for her daycare, Tydon loved tending the baby doll and Lincoln while we played volleyball.

We had a full week

This last week was a full week and I feel like I need to post some pictures everyday because I took so many! (I know Rachel is waiting for the tree hugger blog.)

The Cannon's came to visit and it seemed like we were doing something every minute and I don't get to take pictures of their cute little faces very often.

When I was little I took swimming lessons in the summer at Katherine Johnson's pool. She would always have diving for pennies at our last swimming lesson of the season. Kace and Layne spent much of their time in the hot tub doing everything but relaxing, (I think that is what hot tubs are for?) They wanted me to get them something to dive for so I went in and got a handful of pennies. The competition was on and I think they would have spent the rest of the day diving for pennies but we had to stop because they hadn't had any food in the last 5 hours, their hands looked like prunes, and they were beginning to gasp for breath. The breath holding under water was getting to be hard because they each wanted to find the most pennies. It was funny because they wanted to have an equal number of coins. I had thrown in a few dimes and a nickel with the pennies. The nickel seemed to be the grand prize because that was the one they wanted the most. The winner was the one who found the nickel.

We had a lesson on learning which coins were of the greatest value. When they were finished they made it fair and square.

We then went to Kace's ballgame and watched him play. It was so hot and humid that we almost melted but Rainee's treats were definitely more exciting for some than the ball game. We then went back to Rachel and Nate's and played, danced, and ate Pizza.

I wish this picture on the bottom was a little more clear because I am loving the hug by the 3 boys in the middle. I think Isaac's cheese is pretty good too. Oh, we have fun when we are together.

Granpa's hay haulers (Rollers)

Our 4Th of July was kind of boring and a lot of hard work because Ryan spent the day finishing hauling all of the hay. Earlier in the week he had some helpers and he was wishing that they were still here to help.

For their size they did a great job and Evan would not be out done by his brothers so he wouldn't even let me help him. He would just say "Me do it Grandma!" so I let him go at it. Our hay field is on a hill so it is easier to just roll them down the hill in a line and they are easier to pick up.

Thanks for your help you strong little men, I know they have muscles because they are always showing me, (I think they get that from you know who?)

Carson, Kace, Layne, Evan and Bryce thanks! Grandpa can't wait until you are older, maybe we can have it finished before the 4Th of July then.