Our friend, Christina, had told us about Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum & Candy Emporium located on the other side of Gettysburg from our home in York, PA.
When our daughter, Sarah, and her family visited in February we stopped by when we were out checking out Gettysburg. We didn’t get to check out everything outside because of the snow but the store was worth the visit.
Christina tells me she read that they had opened up a shed that is full of teapots and she would like to go check it out. She then proceeds to tell me that she has never taken her daughter, Maria. I told we needed to go then.
I am so sorry about taking so long to since I have blogged but summer has been a whirl wind. Here it is August and there are so many things we haven’t got done. Anyway back to my new story.
I received a email about things to do in our area. One of the things listed was the River Discovery Boat Tour which was free. Well David and I are really into free and boats so I grabbed us some tickets.
David and I decided to go camping over Memorial Day weekend. I found us a campsite in one of the state forests, Buchannan. We left at 12:30 thinking we would be there in a couple of hours. We had put the forest in google maps and headed out.
At 1:30 we hit Maryland and at 3:18 we were in Pennsylvania again. Thinking we were almost to the campsite we drove all the way through the forest. NO CAMPSITE! We had noticed a place by a trailhead that had brochures so we headed back there to get one.
After looking at the brochure we noticed that there are like 5 different places that are part of the forest. Who would think when you put it in it is going to take you to the farthest away and you need to be at the closest one.
Then from the tiny map I notice there is a name of a road, which I had thought was a creek when I reserved the spot, I put that into google. Low and behold it was there and we were 3 hours away. We finally arrived at 6:30.
The kids, I mean the grown kids, wanted to go to a mystery dinner date. It was in Lancaster so we decided to use our Harvest Host and find a place to stay close. Oma and Grandpa could watch the girls while Mom and Dad had a date night.
We headed to Bird in Hand, PA where we stayed at Kauffman’s Barefoot Acres.
This was our maiden voyage with Merida, Winnebago Brave. Well that is what we have named her. She is just what we wanted. Merida is just the right size for David, Harrison and me, 29 feet.
David drove me to rehab so we could head right over to the kids to head out when it was over. I jumped out and got my rehab over with. I went back to the motorhome and David informed me we were over heating. We tried to find an auto parts store but nothing was close. David opened the hood and we could see the hose that was cracked. David and I reverted to our Alaska ways. I told him I have duct tape in the RV and water. David let it cool down before he could apply the duct tape. We didn’t have a funnel to get the water into the radiator, so David went into the store to see if they had one. He came out with a plastic cup. I had a pitcher we could use to pour the water into from the 5 gallon jug. We were then off to the kids house. Dan had David go pick up the hose. Then Dan replaced it. Thank goodness that boy loves cranking a wrench.
We finally go off around 4:30pm on Thursday April 1.
Heather called me one Sunday morning and asked if I would like to go to the park with the girls. I told her that there was a nice park by us that had a nice playground.
As Heather, my daughter, pulled up to the park the girls started yelling we want to go to the red one. We couldn’t get the girls out of the van fast enough.
Yes I am really running behind on my blogs. Here it is May and I am still blogging about February.
February is a big birthday month for our family. My youngest daughter, Sarah, was born on the first of the month starting the birthdays. Next is my son in law, Dan, on the 13th. We can’t forget the girls, Kate and Beka, who celebrated their 3rd birthday with us. Last of all on the 26th is my birthday.
Since the Mossberg’s were here visiting we had a party at Heather and Dan’s to celebrate all the February birthdays.
The middle child, Sarah, and her family decided to drive across country to visit from Gig Harbor, Washington. I call her the middle child because all her life we heard about her being the middle child of 5 children. We do give her a hard time about it. but she tried using it on her Dad and me. Got to love the middle child!
They were going to come in the spring but Steve, son in law, wasn’t working right now. He was waiting for his job to start up, so they came in February. They were all here for my birthday which was great.
Little Bear, their dog, snuggled up with Meadow.
Willow is a normal child who thinks she is already a teenager. Who in the old days we would have said can’t get her nose out of the book and now we say get them off their tablet. I think I like the idea of their nose being in a book better.
It just so happened that Santa rides his horse right down the street in front of our house. The twins were here to see him.
My son, Cade, and his daughter, Brodie came to visit us for Christmas. Brodie was hoping we had snow. Well she was lucky and got to build a snowman with the help of Daddy and her new friend, Maria.
It has been a long time since I posted. I guess it all started when I decided to make everyone’s gift. I should have started a lot earlier. I have learned from this Christmas.
Anyway David and the girls got all the leaves up during the fall.
The girls even got Dad in the leaves. Kate thought it was fun to sit in front of the leaf blower.
Even with Covid-19 causing many to think this year is the worst ever we found things to be thankful for. In fact, we found a lot; no one in our family have contracted Covid-19, we have a loving and caring family, we are very lucky to have 12 beautiful grandchildren, we have portal to stay connected to our family which seems to make them seem closer and many more.
David and I are lucky that we do have some family here. That means that we went to Heather and Dan’s for dinner. Heather and I split the cooking which made it easier on both of us. I did cheap on desserts by buying the pumpkin pie from a local bakery and the Lemon bundt cake from Maria to support her school. They were both delicious and I didn’t have to cook them which was nice.
When we got to their house Heather and the girls already had the table set.
Once again we head to a farm that we have been wanting to check out. A lot of people told us about all the things that go on here; like summer programs, corn maze, straw maze and more. We were a little late for the season but we still had a great time. The girls had a wonderful time playing.
I figured to start the day we should do a family photo of Heather, Dan and girls. Check this out MeMe and PopPop!
We loaded up and were off by 10:26am. At 12:15 we had to stop so Dan could check on the trailer. We ate lunch in the truck and were off again by 12:30.
We had to make a pit stop in Georgia for 10 minutes at 4:30. By 5:10 we hit South Carolina and were at the Whipperwill Farms by 5:36. Dan got us parked up while we took the girls to look at animals.
It is getting close to the end of our trip. One last day at Animal Kingdom. I said before this is our favorite park. We were hoping to ride the Banshee again but with it being a weekend the line was too long. I guess it will be on our list next time we go.
Heather had planned our trip so well but this was something she didn’t plan. She didn’t know that her big brother, Jared, had connections to Universal Studios. She had always wanted to go to see Harry Potter land. Jared has an older gentleman that lives with him who is the father of his best friend, Justin. Justin’s Mom, Karen, is a witch at the Squeaky Cauldron and she got us free tickets. Justin is also one of my adopted sons, so I really wanted to meet Karen.
We were supposed to just hang out at the hotel by the pool for the day while Dan went to car museum he had been wanting to visit. He dropped the rest of us off at Universal Studios where we met up with Karen.
Karen didn’t get to stay with us long because she had things to do and has a hard time wearing the mask. To say the least she hasn’t been able to work because of this. It was really nice to get to spend a little time with her. Her family think so highly of my oldest son, Jared, which makes me very proud.
This is the day that we went to Animal Kingdom which we were all looking forward to going to because of the opening of the ride, The Banshee. If you watched the Avatar movie you will know that these are the animals that they flew on. We had to do a baby swap for this ride. David and I went first. I have to say it was the best ride of all and we rode it twice.
I always say that everything happens for a reason. Heather thought that she had ruined everything yesterday by her error. I believe she didn’t because the line wasn’t bad and as we found out it is too long on the weekends and this was a Monday.
Kate was being goofy with her hat. I think she had her nimmie, sea anemone, under her hat.
We ate breakfast in the room before we left. We all wore our hats we had gotten the night before. Heather got the girls some ears that just clipped into their hair. I had to get a photo of my girls together.
Heather had everything scheduled because that is what she does and we had to have reservations for everything; including the parks. We arrived at the Magic Kingdom as the park was opening. Heather tapped her wristband to get in and we didn’t have reservations for that park. She had made a mistake and we were supposed to be at Animal Kingdom. They had openings to get into the park, so we all got in but they canceled our Animal Kingdom and we couldn’t change it to the next day. Heather got our reservations changed for our dinners, so that was okay. Heather was so upset and thought she had ruined our whole vacation. David said she sounded like her Mom. I guess she is like me in some ways. Anyway, this is when the real magic came into play.
Heather planned our first day at Epcot. We took the monorail to the Grand Floridian Resort. Before you could get on the monorail you had your temperature checked. Due to covid-19 we got a car to ourselves. We could roll the stroller straight on without taking the girls out.
Also, you have to make reservations for the parks because they are limiting the people they allow in. You must wear a mask at all times except when you are seated and eating or drinking. You can’t walk around with food. Reservations have to be made for restaurants too. This is one of the ways Disney is trying to keep everyone safe.
We had reservations for the Grand Floridian Cafe. The breakfast was so good. We really enjoyed it. The magic has started.
Heather had never stayed at the The Contemporary Resort and wanted to so we could view the fireworks from our balcony. Of course, the fireworks had been canceled due to Covid-19. She paid extra to get this suite but we thought we would still be able to have a good view of the park.
We arrived at The Contemporary Resort at around 4. Our room was ready, so we walked in to the lobby. We just didn’t feel the magic. The people were great but it just seemed like a normal hotel. There was Mickey ears on the carpet. We continued to the room hoping for more there. The suite looked like many other suites I had stayed in all over the world when we had our timeshare. It was nothing special. There was Disney art on the walls but that was it. So it began, no magic, like we expected from all our previous trips to Disney.
Heather, Dan and David when out to the camper trailer to get everything we needed for the hotel. I stayed in the room with the girls. We went out on the balcony and watched the choo choo, monorail. The girls enjoyed that. We could see the family unloading the camper from our fifth floor balcony.
I know I haven’t posted in a while but I do have a very good excuse. Our daughter, Heather, and her family took us to Disney World. I had things to get ready; like making masks. This is just part of the masks I made. I made enough masks for each person, six of us, to have a new one each day for over a week.
Then I thought a lanyard would be a great idea for the girls because at 2 1/2 years old I knew it was going to be a challenge to not loose the mask. I also got some Mickey Mouse beads which I used to make all of us lanyards.
We left on September 3rd. That morning I finished our last minute packing. We left our house at 9am to make our way to the kids house. We had to stop and pick up a couple of things at Walmart that we had forgotten to get. We got to the kids and helped with the twins while Mommy and Daddy finished getting ready to go.
Every time we drive through Harrisburg we go over the Susquehanna River. I always saw the paddle wheeler. I checked into it and found that they have special events and a 45 minute river ride. We thought this sounded like fun, so we got tickets for our family.
David and I rode with Christina and Maria. Heather and Dan met us there. I took a few photos while we waited for them to get there.
The other kids were running a little late because Kate had to go to the doctor. She told Mommy that her ear hurt. She was not running a temperature or acting like she felt bad but Heather thought she better get her checked out. It was a good thing too because she did have a ear infection.
David went to meet them when they got there, so they could find us.
Due to Covid-19 we were required to wear a masks and there were limited people allowed. I had made our reservations so we were good to go.
They might not look like it but the girls were really excited about riding on the boat. They couldn’t wait to get on the boat. Of course, Bekka, didn’t think there was enough woggie, water, because she asked for more the whole ride.
We decided to check out the inside.
Then back outside for some photo ops.
Now it was time to head back to the dock.
After our ride I went home with Heather to help her organize her dressing room. David rode home with Christina and came over to get me later. We stayed to have dinner at their house.
While we were at the kids house Bekka started pushing her sister, Kate, in their car. All of a sudden she stopped and ran into the house. She came out with their twin babies, then handed them to her sister. Bekka then continued to push her sister.
On Sunday Heather came over for the day, so I could help with Bekka while she took care of Kate. Kate started running a fever and was really in pain from her ear. She had been up all night and Mommy didn’t get any sleep. Heather always tries to let Dan have Sundays off from taking care of girls. David and I played with Bekka. Mommy and Kate got a little nap which helped them. Before they left though Bekka came running over to our couch and jumped up.
This is how she ended up. Mommy asked her if she was comfortable and she said yes. She stayed like this for a while before she decided to get down.
David had to take me to Hershey, PA for my last doctor appointment on my left thumb. After surgery, a cast for 5 weeks, a brace and 6 weeks of therapy I have been released to go out and cause trouble. To celebrate we decided to check out a few breweries in town.
First stop was Rotunda brewery and it was lunch time. We were starving by this time, so perfect place for lunch.
We were told that because of Covid-19 you have to buy food with your beer. I guess it is to keep people from over crowding or maybe because if you have to eat something you won’t stay as long which will allow more people a chance to come in. Anyway we didn’t care we were ready for lunch. Since we did plan to hit a couple of more places decided to eat small.
It was nice inside and the beer was good.
The food was nice. I had deviled eggs which were great. David thought he would go with the pretzel. I don’t believe it went with the small taste he was hoping for.
We said good bye to Rotunda Brew Pub; we did find out that the owners last name is Rotunda.
Well I have been so busy lately I haven’t taken the time to sit down and write, so I am a little time behind.
We took the girls to a tractor show at Creekside Farm. It was time to play in the sunflower fields. The farm is really cool and I am sure we will be back different times of the year for the different seasons. I see that pumpkin season starts on September 4th.
This is their web page if you want more information:
We went with Heather’s family to Lake Tobias Wildlife Park. We wanted it to be somewhere that will be safe for all of us from Covid-19. We went for the self guided walking tour first using social distancing and when in the reptile building we masked up. The girls are doing well learning to wear their mask.
As we walked to the ticket stand we saw a peacock hanging out in the parking lot.
As we went through the gates we first saw a zebra.
David and I are still staying home most of the time. We figure there is no use taking chances with Covid-19, so we have been just staying busy at home. Besides taking care of our granddaughters a couple days a week we have been working on crafts, trying new recipes and working in the yard. We don’t go out to eat but we do go over to the neighbors on Fridays and sit in their carport. We order out and our men go pick it up. That is the one night a week I don’t cook. Talking about cooking here are a couple photos of something I cooked.
These are Keto friendly recipes. The first one is an almond flour dinner roll. They were good. I also made fried chicken in my Air Fryer. The coating is ground pork rinds. It turned out great. Continue reading “Staying Busy During Covid-19”
Sorry I have been gone for a while but I am still recovering from my thumb surgery. I have finally got my cast off and have been wearing a splint. I go to therapy twice a week but I should be all done by the end of this month. It is getting a lot better.
Anyway we have been spending a lot of time with the granddaughters. They love to play in our backyard which has turned into Oma’s Little Tyke Playground. They love their pool too. They really like it when Oma makes bubbles in the pool.
Heather called Friday night to see if we wanted to do something fun with the girls on Saturday. We thought about several options but since Daddy had to go work on the apartments for a few hours we decided on something close. We picked PerryDell Farm. We had never been there before and the girls had never been close to moos.
This dairy is family owned and operated. It was bought in 1923 by Howard Perry. It was taken over by his two sons, George and Roger, who started bottling their milk. It is now run by George’s 3 sons. All the family pitches in on the farm and it supports 4 families. For more information follow the link below.
We decided to go hike one of the many trails at Rocky Ridge County Park not far from where our kids live. This was the girls’ first hike. Daddy brought their wagon for if they got tired.
First thing they saw really interesting was some Daddy Long Legs on a post. They love itsy bitsy.
Maria came over to help me with the girls today again. They love having her over. Kate says she is her best friend.
They played in the playhouse.
Bekka needed to sweep the floor in the playhouse even if it was grass. The broom got stuck. I really need to get this girl a little broom. She is a real cleaner.
I guess they forgot what a door was because they used the windows to get in. Thank you Maria for teaching them this. lol
