Our Very Long Drive

I now remember why it has been so long since we have been to PA. The trip is sooo long. We drove for 17 long hours. Nick entertained himself with Gameboy, PSP, the portable DVD player with 20 packed movies, books, a boys only journal, and a million snacks. Ashe on the other hand was not as easy to entertain. He basically napped, ate, and screamed (in all fairness he did get four teeth on this trip, for a total of six).
On the way there we made the trip in one straight shot, the trip back was pretty rough. We got stuck in traffic, which added an additional two hours to an already long trip. So we ended up having to stop and stay over in SC on the way home.


We finally got to PA after 1am. Here Nick, Shelbea, and Tony are all bunked together. They waited up until we got in... so everyone was exhausted.



To help pass the time we played a license plate game. We ended up finding 40 out of the 50 states. We even saw two from Canada. Nick made the colored map below to show what state plates we saw.

First Day

On Sunday we spent time visiting family and catching up.


Here are Tony, Nick and Shelbea getting ready to go to Aunt Michelle's house. The kids played together in her big yard on the trampoline, swings, and with the water rocket Nick had to bring. Today was the first time Ashe met the family.

Later we went to back to the condo swimming.

Ashe with his teenage cousin Sarah.

Aunt Shelly loves smooching the baby. He loved all the attention.

Swimming

Today we cooled off in the indoor pool. We played a pretty intense game of water volleyball where it was the big kids (aka Aunt Lisa, Aunt Shelly (Michelle), Uncle Tim, and Sarah) against the little kids (Nick, Tony, and Shelbea). The little kids were actually kicking the old folks butts.

Steven was helping Ashe in the water. Today was the first time he was ever swimming. He loved it until his little teeth started to chatter.

Instead of showing everyone how bad I am at volley ball, I enjoyed a tame game of ball with Stephanie.

She is so cute in her water wings.

Second Day

On Monday I went to Lisa and Tim's new house. The kids had a good time swimming in their pool, having a cook out for lunch, and playing in the yard. The big yards are one thing I miss about PA. She has a pool in her yard, a deck, a garden, a swing set, a hammock, and still more yard then she knows what to do with.

She has a beautiful house, but like any home she has so many things she wants to do to it. It all takes time... and a ton of money.

Third Day- Visiting Family in NJ

This is my Nana and my mom, just look at the two of them you can so tell they are related.

This is my Uncle Hank, Nana, and Mom... The Oliver's.

Ashe with his Nana!

Me and my little (by 15 months) sister Lisa

Ashe loved meeting his Great Aunt Sharon.
He hugged her until he fell right to sleep.

This is the best lady on the planet, my Nana. She is looking good for her 80s.

There were a ton of kids... all cousins.

Today we travel to NJ to see my Grandma, Aunt Sharon, Uncle Hank, Ciotka Carol (ciotka means aunt in polish, she does not like to be referred to as a bug... ant). We love spending time with my mom's family. We always get to hear all the good stories, like that my mom wasn't an angel.

Day Four- Hershey

Our memories at Hershey, PA...

This was a real candy bar that they put our picture on the wrapper.

Today we went to Hershey, PA. For all the years that I have lived in PA I have never been to the chocolate Mecca of the world. I being all about chocolate was in my glory. The kids were excited but I think I might have been a little crazier then them.

Here we took a chocolate tour. You got to see all the chocolate on the assembly line.

It was SO cool.

Later we went to this neat show about chocolate. It had effects such as water spraying and snow falling on you. It went along with the animation from the screen.






When we came out of the show we saw this huge Hershey kiss. This was a real Hershey kiss for the 100 years of Hershey. The kids then got to be factory workers and get Hershey kisses off the assembly line.

Lisa and I even got in on the fun... two big kids.

Then you can't forget about all the chocolate shopping. We found some of the coolest chocolate there at Hershey. They had the World's largest candy bar. Teenagers hate when their aunt makes them pose with huge candy bars. HAHA...

Wow!! that is a huge bottle of Hershey syrup. It could really give you a belly ache.

Some of the other cool things we found was every type of Hershey kiss under the sun, like the army limited edition. We saw Elvis Peanut butter and banana Reese's cups, we also saw rainbow fruit flavored Twizzlers, Carmel KitKat's, any many more strange new flavors.

Day Five- Bushkill Falls

Beautiful Waterfalls

While at Bushkill Falls we went on a hike through the forest past beautiful waterfalls. Unfortunately about two minutes into our hike Nick was turned around tell me how steep the trail was and wasn't watching where he was going. Nick came down strange on his ankle and gave it a good twist. We continued on our hike, but we spent so much time waiting on Nick to catch up.

Gem Mining

While we were at Bushkill Falls Uncle Tim got all the kids a large bag of sand to search for gems in. They dumped the sand onto a screen and rinsed the dirt and sand away with water. When the kids pulled out the screen they had all different kinds of colored of gems. What ever they found in their bag was for them to keep. Now Nick has a beautiful arrangement of different gems like rubies and emeralds.

Indian Historical Information

At Bushkill falls they had an area where you can go in and learn about Native Americans. We were able to see different tools Indians made and used. We were also able to go inside an Indian hut and check out a canoe they made from a tree log.

Saying Goodbye

Saying Goodbye to my sisters, my mom, and all the kids is always so hard. I of course wanted to avoid this but the day had finally come. I miss them all so much already.

Lots of love from FL... The Herod's

Happy July 4th

I hope you all have a safe and happy Independence Day!!

Here is a wrap up of my fourth of July...

Fireworks started three days before the actual holiday. The dog was going crazy and got out because of the lights and the smoke. Let's not forget about the baby, who was crying because of the noise. All because my neighbors were shooting off hundreds maybe even thousands of dollars of fireworks until very late. The fireworks from the picture were not from a park, where a trained person is lighting them and could extinguish them properly. NO!!! These are from my neighbor, who frankly has no training (and we could tell).

Remind me WHY I'm suppose to like the 4th of July.

9 Months Old

Ashe is 9 months old today. We went to the doctor's to get his birthday shots. Luckily Ashe only got one shot today. As you can see they gave it in his chubby little thigh. When we got home he was all smiles and playing. Then a few hours later it really hit him, as you can see. All he wanted was to be held and then he still cried, however when you put him down he cried even harder.

Ashe is getting very big. His weight has taper off because he's getting so long. He is now 21lbs 2ozs and measured in at 30 inches long.

Haircut

Before

After

Thank goodness Nicholas has finally given up the plan to have long hair, at this time. I have been begging him to get his haircut and he finally decided since we were going to see family in PA he wanted to look nice.

Sippy Cup

We are working so hard to help Ashe learn to use his sippy cup. I have managed to buy four different brands, Playtex, Gerber, Dr. Brown's, and Nuby, in hope that we would find the one he loves. He thinks that his cup is a teether and only gets water when he bites too hard. When Ashe turns one the bottle goes in the garbage so I'm hoping he gets the hand of this cup thing soon.

(Product) Red

Yesterday I went into Gap on my search for a new swimsuit for Nick. As many of you know many months ago Oprah had Bono on talking about the new (Product) Red items. Part of the money goes to help with the fight against AIDS in Africa. I was super excited to find that they are now carrying these cute items for babies/toddlers.