Back from Pennsylvania

Well, we are back from our trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to see Jason, Jenn, Jaylee and Jenni. We went with Jamie, Ryan and Emily, and James came later for his business trip. I love this part of our country. It has a lot of American history. The countryside has lots of Amish farms, rolling green hills, and a peacefulness about it. And we see lots of quaint little shops, Amish buggies, and antique stores. One of these times I may break down and buy one of the Amish quilts. They are exquisite, but very expensive!

We saw Amish farmers doing their field work with horses!





You see the Amish buggies frequently going down the roads and highways.

We had a wonderful time just being around the grandkids!

Ryan learned not to be afraid of dogs from Uncle Jason when he let Ryan feed Boop! After that Ryan was frequently looking for Boop just to play. When Boop wants a rest from all the activities he hides under a bed.

The cousins all became good friends! Jaylee's a natural at playing with and caring for younger children. I could always count on her to help me out when little ones got fussy traveling in the car.

Here's Jason cooking our Mother's Day dinner. The steaks were just perfect! All the guys cooked the dinner and cleaned up after. That alone made it special! But to top if off they had also cooked us breakfast! And to even top that off we all went to church together!

Our Mother's Day dinner. Notice the fine china? Well, it sure made for fast clean up!

Jenni and Ryan decorating our dessert.

Jason and Jenn's backyard is a mini playground and the kids had lots to do!

Jason teaching Ryan how to shoot a BB gun.

Ryan very proud of his shot!

Jaylee is getting very good at target practice!

No matter what we did, the favorite time of the day was when the dads came home from work!

We went to the Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. What a fun place! The kids especially liked the little tour of how chocolate is made. The singing cows were a hit! We took that tour three times!

Doesn't this make your mouth water? We had way too much chocolate!!

One day we took a train ride on the worlds oldest short-line railroad in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. It's a great tourist attraction! The train is a beautifully restored, actual coal-burning locomotive! We got off at a picnic area for a short time, where we ate lunch and the kids got to play on old-fashioned merry-go-round, swings and teeter-totters!

The Liounis family (Jenn's family) are connoisseurs of fine food and know the best restaurants around. Here we are at Carrabbas Italian Grill in Lancaster. Emily especially enjoyed her spaghetti dinner!

We got to celebrate Jenni's 3rd birthday. She was so excited and revels in the attention. What a cutie! She's fun to watch. They kids got to hit a pinata. Ryan, although relectant at first, was the one to break it.

Our time there passed too quickly! We hated to leave, but we had one more stop to look forward to. We got to visit the Mall of America in Minneapolis during a 4 hour layover. It was huge! We only had time to visit the world's largest underground aquarium. It is fascinating! Emily loved it and kept looking for and asking for Nemo. Ryan, on the other hand, was a little nervous about the sharks, sting rays and other creatures swimming all around us and above us. He did, though, enjoy the the treasure playground.

All in all it was a great trip! We really appreciated Jason and Jenn's hospitality! They sure know how to make us feel welcome! We were very tired when we got home, but have the most wonderful memories!

P.S. Family members will probably see triplicates of this vacation since Jenn and Jamie may blog about it also!!