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Well I have been busy crafting and making Christmas presents.  Last year everyone got home made presents.  They all thought it was cool so I am making them again this year.  I won’t post any here because my family might see it.  I will post later what I have made.

I have been making some stuff for my Etsy store though.

Unique wooden gifts handmade by ole hippies by OleHippiesWoodGifts (etsy.com)

I just listed these.  What do ya’ll think?  You can check them out at my Etsy store.

Unique wooden gifts handmade by ole hippies by OleHippiesWoodGifts (etsy.com)

Thanks for stopping by!

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Samantha Fish at Bluefield Blues Festival

Early summer David and I bought tickets to the Bluefield Blues Festival to see Samatha Fish.  It was over a 7 hour drive but David and I love to go on road trips.

On the way we stopped to gas up and grab some lunch.  Then we continued on laughing, talking and singing all the way to our hotel in Bluefield, WV.

Bluefield is a small town in the Appalachian Mountains.  It is a coal mining town.  You still see the coal cars loaded with coal at the railyard. They helped support the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The development of the coal industry in this area created a boom in the local and national economy, and attracted immigrant European workers and enslaved/ migrant African Americans from the Deep South to the mountains in search of industrial work. During the Great War and World War II, coal from this area supplied the navies of the United States and United Kingdom.

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Codorus State Park

We decided to take our friends, Christina and Maria, camping.  Christina had been camping growing up, but Maria had never been.

Christina and I decided to go to Codorus State Park because Maria was doing “Go York” which is program the library has in the summer to get people to check out the local parks.  Then you find the marker and get a rubbing.  There were several in and near the park so we headed on over.

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Dutch Wonderland

We had been told that we should take Beka and Kate to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA.  It is only 30 miles from our house but we decided to stay at a Harvest Host on a farm.

Christina and Maria went with us too.  It was tons of fun!

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Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum & Candy Emporium

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.

Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum – Homemade Fudge, Old Time Candy and Elephants – Gettysburg, PA (mistereds.com)

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.

Off we go on a beautiful summer day.

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Zimmerman River Discovery Boat Ride

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.

River Discovery Boat Tours (susquehannaheritage.org)

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Buchannan State Forest

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.

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Kauffman’s Barefoot Acres

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.

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Camping For Easter

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.

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A Morning at the Park

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.

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Hershey’s Chocolate World

Sarah and I took the girls to Hershey’s Chocolate World when they visited us in February from Washington.  We had so much fun.

Unwrap Your Chocolate Adventure | HERSHEY’S CHOCOLATE WORLD

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February Birthdays

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.

My little Kate is such a ham.

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Middle Child & Her Family Come to Visit

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.

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Christmas in York 2020

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.

 

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Crazy Life

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.

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Thanksgiving 2020

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.

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Flinchbaugh’s Orchard & Farm Market

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!

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Butcher’s Family Fun Farm

Heather and I had been wanting to go to a corn maze since we have moved here.  We finally got to one at the end of the season.

Butcher’s Family Fun Farm

http://www.butchersfunfarm.com/

We found the coolest swings made out of tires which the girls really enjoyed.

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Trip Home from Disney World

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.

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Our Last Day at Disney World

Our last day was spent at Epcot.  We arrived there and made it through the entrance one last time.

Of course, the first thing you see is the big circular structure.

I thought we needed a photo of the kids here.

The Covid-19 look with masks on.

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Goodbye Animal Kingdom

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.

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Magic Kingdom Once Again

Well we headed for Magic Kingdom on the Monorail.

The girls loved riding the train.  It was really nice having the whole couch to ourselves.

We got into the park in time for the opening show.  I think the characters are the girls favorite thing.

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Universal Studios

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.

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A Day in Animal Kingdom

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.

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The Real Magic

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.

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The Magic is Back

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.

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Not the Disney Magic

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.

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Last Leg to Mickey’s House

Kate was very excited about going to Mickey’s house.  Beka would always say Minnie’s house.

We left around 9:30 taking back roads to our next camping spot.

We stopped for lunch at 11:25 at Nelson County Visitor Center in Virginia.

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Our Next Adventure

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.

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Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat

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.

DSC_0038

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.

DSC_0045

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.