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August
2004 Journal
Can you
believe that we are nearing the end of summer already?!
It seems like it just started. If it hasn't been raining
around here, it's been almost too hot to breathe! But
that hasn't seemed to slow us down one bit! We
are hoping to visit the grandparents this month. We
haven't been "home" in a long time. Not sure
how that happened...oops.
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Trip
to Grandparents Proper
July
30 - August 1, 2004 |
Threw together a
last minute trip up to visit Grandma & Pa-Pa. Grandma had
done some Geocaching with us over my birthday and really enjoyed
herself, so Pa got her a GPS for her birthday! We just HAD to
go up and give her a basic "Geocaching 101"
course. Mommy had to work on Friday but got out early,
so Daddy and I picked her up and off we went. We hit a lot of
traffic (due to construction) and had to make a few detours along
the way (seems the rains have been rough everywhere this summer) but
we still got "home" around 9 o'clock. I was all
ready for Pa-Pa to get the tractors out, but he said we would have
to wait until morning! Bummer. We visited for awhile and
all went to bed around midnight.
I was wide awake at 7 and ready to go outside! It was raining
so we had to wait. After the rains let up a bit, Pa-Pa and I
went outside and played with this really cool Frisbee thing they
bought. You have probably all seen it on TV...it's huge, like
a balloon...I think it's called a "hover"
something....anyway.....then we powered up the tractor and I drove
it all over the yard. Pa let me steer all by myself! He
was quite impressed with how well I did! I was driving in-between
Grandma's flowers and bushes without hitting a thing!
After a bit of that....and Grandma's short beginners' course, we
loaded up in the car and headed to Erie to do some caches. We
did 3 while we were there. We did a virtual, it was in this
mans front yard, he apparently builds strange things out of old car
parts. My favorites were the giant spider and bumble
bee! Then we did a "mystery" cache, which you had to
read the description and figure out the clue to get the
coordinates. It ended up being an airplane along I-90.
We found it, and it is actually part of a memorial cemetery for the
military...Mommy eventually found the hidden cache. Next, was
a traditional one, this one was easy but had a surprise to it (the
cords, actually led you to a decoy, then you had to do a little more
searching for the real one). We picked up a travel bug at this
one and Grandma found a "Where's George" dollar.
Grandma tripped coming out of this one, but she said all she hurt
was her pride and got a little muddy. After all that
caching...we were hungry! Erie has an actual Krispy Kream
Donut store, so we stopped there. Pa-Pa was all excited
because the "red light" was on. We didn't know what
the big fuss was, but decided to amuse him anyway, and went
in. NO WONDER HE WAS EXCITED!!! When the red light is
on...you get a FRESH, PIPING HOT DONUT....for FREE!!
Yummy!! I liked watching the donuts get made. We bought a
dozen and got some drinks and sat down for a bit. Pa-Pa took
me and got me a Krispy Kream donut truck. I am still
having fun playing with that!
Sunday morning we got up and decided to do one more cache.
Only after, I drove the tractor around some more. We went to
Garland, PA, which is only about 10 miles away. It was called,
Baker's Rocks. This one was rated pretty high in difficulty
but the cache was hidden in a cave and we were all intrigued by
that! You could either climb up a steep hill or go the grassy
road, slightly more level, route. We, of course, chose the
grassy road. Well...it was about 2 1/2 miles long and took us
a long time to get up there. I will admit it was very pretty,
peaceful and we picked yummy raspberries along the way. I got
carried a lot too. We would stop and take some breaks for
water too. Finally, we got to the top of the mountain and
figured we should start bushwhacking into the woods. Once we
got in there, it opened up a bit and there were these HUGE boulders
all around. They were soo cool! We thought we were at
the spot we needed to be, but nope, wrong cave. I still liked
looking around in there, while Grandma took a break and Daddy and Pa
looked around for the safest path for us to take. Finally,
they spotted where we needed to go. I walked with Daddy and
Grandma...and we found the cave entrance. Daddy gave me the
flashlight and I found the cache right away! Daddy and me went
inside and got it. It was really neat in there...must have
been around 60 feet deep. I liked the echo my voice would
make! I was excited to find a Jeep Travel bug in there and we
took that! I had gotten a Geocoin for my birthday...so, we
launched it in there. I hope someone finds it and takes it
someplace cool. Funny thing, on our way out, we ran into
another cacher. He was from Orlando, FL and up visiting family
in the area. He was nice and had a really nice doggie with
him.
I fell asleep on the walk back down the hill. Of course, it
took us about half the time to walk down as it did up the
hill...heehee! We were all tired, sweaty and thirsty but
admitted how much fun it was. By the time we got home, had
dinner, I got a shower...it was time to head back to
Harrisburg!
We had a nice visit...it's so relaxing at Grandparent Proper's
house. We are hoping to maybe have Mommy take a day off in
September and go up again and do some more caching in the woods!
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Trip
to Grandparents Wiles
August
6-8, 2004 |
This weekend was
another trip for us. This time we traveled the turnpike home
to Grammy & Pap-Pap's house. What fun we had along the
drive, stopping at the rest areas along the way to do some
geocaching! People are going to begin to wonder, "when
aren't we geocaching?". We found some really cool
"micro-caches" along the way! I had a lot of fun
getting all of the truck drivers to beep their horn for me! We
finally made it to Kittanning around 11:00...Grammy & Pap-Pap
were waiting up for us. We did visit for a little while and
then it was time to go to bed so we could get up in the morning for
breakfast.
Saturday, breakfast was bright and early at Dizzy Lizzie's.
Grammy's Breakfast Club hang out! Let's see who was there...we
had quite a crew, us, Grammy, Susie, Larissa, Mert, Pat, Debbie and
a few other ladies that I didn't know too well. I had some
very yummy pancakes. I got a lollipop too for being a good
boy. Mommy didn't count when I was being silly and bumped my
head on the table! After breakfast we did some walking around
town to get some pictures for...you guessed it....some
geocaches. We needed a picture of a Kittanning sign, for a
"my hometown" cache. Also, we took some random
photos of Kittanning that were used in The Mothman Prophecies
movie...to claim the "Good-bye Hollywood" cache.
That one was a lot of fun to do. (If you click on our banner on the
front page you can see the pics we took.) I had fun checking
out all the boats that were docked along the river. We also
took some pictures of a fire truck vehicle and Lock #7. That
made for 4 total locationless cache finds...our most in one
day! After all of that running around it was time to go home
for lunch and a nap. Mommy got me to lay down and it didn't
take long for me to drift off. Mommy & Daddy went and did
some more challenging caches. They did some around Crooked
Creek Park. While they were gone, Uncle JG came to help
Pap-pap with the lawn mower. I was excited to see him when I
woke up! I love him bunches and love playing with him, I wish
I could see him more often! Anyway, we played all kinds of
ball...basketball, soccer and even some bowling. I even tried
out his skateboard and big wheel! It was a lot of fun!
Finally, Mommy & Daddy got home and we got dressed and went
downtown for the Fort Armstrong Folk Festival. WOW...what an
exciting, bustling place! There were soo many people! I
got to see a horse too...petting him was fun. I painted a
"spin-art" picture, picked a frog out of a pond for a
prize, got a balloon sword from the clown and Grammy got me a toy
wooden boat for the bath tub! Thanks, Grammy! Mommy,
Daddy & Grammy looked around a bit at the crafts but mostly we
tried all kinds of yummy food. Daddy bought a giant bag of
Kettle Corn! Mmmmm! I had the most fun watching them
make it! We also got some "blue" candy apples!
I gave one to Pap-Pap when we got home! It was a long fun day
and I was ready for bed...after watching my Gordon movie, of course!
Sunday - we got up and went to breakfast with Susie at Kings restaurant.
I had yummy chocolate chip pancakes there...Mommy & me shared
them. We then went over to Wal-Mart and Grammy bought me some
new shoes and clothes for Fall. She also got me this really
cool Spiderman towel. I'll have to model it for a picture
someday. Susie was really interested in our geocaching
adventures so we met her and Larissa, her granddaughter, and took
them on a hunt. There was a new one placed along the rails to
trials in Kittanning and it was a pretty simple one. So, after
a brief lesson, we let Larissa run the GPS....she got us to the
location but needed some help in actually "uncovering" the
cache. I got a cool alligator toy from it and we left some
jacks for the next cacher. They really enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, there aren't many caches in the Kittanning. It
must just be catching on there...hopefully, someone places some more
in the area. After that we decided to head back to the
festival for lunch. I got another balloon, a hat this
time...thanks Susie! And Grammy let me pick another
frog. Before we knew it, it was time to head back home...play
a bit and then get packed up to go. We had a nice visit and
hope to get back again in the Fall. Or at least before
"next year"...heehee!
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The
Lemmons Visit!
August
13-15, 2004 |
Our friends,
Scott, Jen, Sam and Sarah came to visit us in PA this weekend.
If you don't remember, they are old friends of ours that used to
live here, Mommy and Jen worked together at KinderCare.
Anyway, Scott's job had moved them away to Kentucky in early 2002
and his job has recently moved them again, but this time closer,
they now live in Virginia...only a few hours away! YEA!
They were coming up for Melonie's surprise baby shower. They
were supposed to stay with us, but Daddy caught a cold and we didn't
want to give it to any of them, especially Sarah. They stayed
with our friends, The Hartley's. I was excited to see
Sam. I had been asking Mom all day on Friday when he was going
to come over! He spent the whole Saturday at my house, while
all the grown-ups went shopping in Lancaster. Boy, did we play
hard...we played trucks, trains, laser guns, water tag and watched Johnny
Quest movies. Daddy said he used to watch that show when he
was a kid! Then the grown-ups all came over and we cooked hot
dogs and burgers on the grill and had yummy ice cream! Sam
& I had fun playing with Mrs. Hartley, the other Jen. She
would let us jump off the couch and dive on her. We don't
think the Mommy's were too thrilled with this game...heehee.
Jen said it was her job to get us all wound up! It was soon
time for bed for us...and I was really tired, since Sam and I played
hard all day! The grown-ups stayed up and played games.
Mommy said that the boys kicked their butts and that Darrin is some
kind of closet genius when it comes to pulling things out of
nowhere! I am glad they had as much fun as Sam and I did!
On Sunday, the girls had the baby shower to go to for Melonie.
She is going to have a baby in October! We are all excited for
her and Ryan. Anyway, since this was a "girl's
thing", Sam and his Daddy came over and we (me & Daddy too)
went to Chocolate World! Boy, was it crowded...so we only went
on the free ride and got our piece of "locolate"...yummy!
Then we went to Adventure Sports in Hershey and rode the
go-karts! Daddy had to drive but I did get to go for a
ride! Boy, did we go fast and we passed every one up. I
think Daddy was having more fun that he is willing to admit!
We rode them two times...but in the middle of our second ride I was
ready to get out. We played in the arcade for awhile too and
on this really cool wooden train that they had outside. It was
a fun day. Later, Mommy & Sam's Mommy came home and talked
about how nice the shower was and Melonie was truly surprised to see
everyone there. She received a lot of nice things. I was
sad to see Sam leave, he didn't want to and I didn't want him
to. Mommy said that we will try and go to their house soon,
maybe in the Fall and go to the DC zoo. That would be fun!
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Potty
Training 101
August
16-?, 2004 |
I woke up this
morning to my first lesson in potty training! Guess I couldn't
avoid it any longer. Daddy & Mommy threw all my baby
diapers away and we got out my big boy underwear! I have all
kinds of neat one, Thomas, Buzz Light-year, Bob the Builder, Spider
Man and Sponge Bob.
I think this is going to be a lot harder than it looks. I have
my own little potty that fits on the big potty and I also have a
little one of my own. I like the one I mentioned first better,
the other just doesn't "fit" me right. Mommy is a
bit disappointed in it too. Anyway, I have a cool sticker
chart that I do when I go in the potty. I get one sticker when
I pee and 2 when I poop. When I get 10 stickers, we are going
to the dollar store and I get to pick something out! Also,
when I go, I can have some "locolate"...I usually choose
the Hershey Kiss...my favorite over M&M's now. I ask for
it as soon as I go...so, I have definitely caught on to how that
works. I have had about 8 successes now (up to 9 stickers,
since I did poop in the potty once). I have had just as many
accidents though, but I help to clean them up and have to change my
own messy pants and clothes myself. Daddy is very patient with
me, although, some days I can see it is hard for him. I haven't
really been able to tell anyone I need to go....they just have been
making me sit on there. I do like to be alone and read my
Thomas magazine that Grammy sent a long time ago...that thing is
falling apart! I wear a pull-up at nap and bedtime...but usually
wake up dry. I have been staying home from daycare, except for
field trip day, and Mommy just sends me in a pull-up so the teacher
doesn't have to worry about me. Eventually, when I get better,
I will go to daycare in underwear but not until I am going on my own
or bit more consistently when put on the potty by
someone.
HeeHee....Daddy had asked Mommy how long this was going to
take....she didn't seem to have an answer. I know I can be
pretty stubborn and I really don't like to have to quit playing with
my trains...but I am sure it will happen eventually, just probably
not as soon as everyone hopes.
We'll keep you posted on my progress!
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A
Day at Knoebels
August
22, 2004 |
Finally, a nice
cool & beautiful weekend day! We decided to go do
something fun. Mommy has been hearing from all the
"locals" around here about this place called Knoebels
Family Amusement Park...so we decided to check it out! It
is in Elysburg, a little over an hour from here. It is
really nice because you can pay as you ride, entrance is free and so
is parking!! I had the best time! I got to ride all
kinds of stuff and a bunch by myself! First, Mommy & me
rode "The Whip"...that was fun and I liked holding up my
arms when we "whipped" around. Daddy & me rode
the "Pirate Ship". That thing was a bit much for
me! It went really high! Let's see, what else did I
ride....fire trucks, motor boats, merry-go-round, a train, tilt a
whirl, tea cups, antique cars and airplanes. My favorites were
the kiddie bumper cars and go-karts because I could drive them
myself! We all went on "The Flume" (log ride).
We got wet and that was GREAT! My MOST favorite thing was the
"Hand Cars" (I called them little trains)...you have to
pump your hands around and around to make them go around the
track! Daddy didn't think I could do it...but Mommy
(again...flashbacks to my very first solo ride) convinced him to let
me try...and around and around I went...I didn't even need a push
from the workers there! I must have ridden this thing 6
times! I loved it! Daddy got a few good pictures of me
on it and a video clip too.
I also got to play some games and won a ball and puzzle toy.
We ate some yummy fries, cotton candy, candy apples and ice
cream!
What a great day! I can't wait to come back next summer!
I should be big enough for the little roller coaster then! I
was quite upset that I couldn't ride it this year!
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A
Camping We Will Go! Finally!
August
28-29, 2004 |
Finally, after
over a year of owning a tent...we went camping! We didn't want
to travel too far away from home since it would be our first time as
a family. We went to a state park, Little Buffalo. It is
in Perry County, only about an hour away. We arrived early Saturday
afternoon and were putting our tent up with the threat of a storm
getting closer and closer. Mommy and Daddy had some trouble at
first with it but soon figured it out. We had about half an
hour to gather our things when it started to storm. We just
hung out in the tent while it passed. It was a short one and
managed to cool things off a bit but made the ground a little
muddy...it really wasn't too bad. We walked down to the office
to check in and walked around the campground for a little bit.
Soon it was time to start a fire and cook supper. Daddy had
forgot to buy something to get the fire started and with the rain,
the damp logs weren't helping. He eventually had to go out to
the store and find something...we were able to get a fire started to
make mountain pies. I had fun helping to make them, but of
course, wouldn't eat any of it! We hung out by the campfire at
night for awhile and it was time to go to bed. Heehee...I
think both Mommy & Daddy fell asleep before me!
The next day we got up and had breakfast...yummy mountain apple pies
in the fire! I played for a while on the playground. I
was pretty fussy for most of the morning...just kept saying I wanted
to go home. Mommy didn't seem too concerned since I say that
when I AM home! We had to be off the campsite by 1 o'clock, so
we got all packed up and dressed for the pool. We went over to
Little Buffalo and went swimming. They have, by far, the
coolest pool we've ever been too! There was a whole playground
of sprinklers to run through. In the shallow end they had
these huge mushroom things that water poured out of and this cool
bucket thing. The buckets would fill up with water and then
water would drop on you. You never knew which one was going to
drop next! They had two slides, but I was too little for them,
so Daddy went down them! We had a good day and a great
weekend! We are excited to go camping again!
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A
Potty Training Update
August
31, 2004 |
It's been about
2 weeks of this going to the potty business....and I must say that I
am doing a GREAT job! I am going all on my own. I no
longer need to be told to go, I really don't whine about doing it so
much anymore, and I really don't need much help with my pants.
I have gone quite a few days without accidents too. I have
already blown through one sticker chart and have got to buy a few
toys at the dollar store. Grammy said she would have to sent
me Bill & Ben soon (Thomas trains, of course, if you needed to
ask...heehee), since I have been doing so good. I also
remember Mommy telling me that we would go ride Thomas if I was
going pretty good by the time he came! I can't wait!
This being a big boy is pretty neat stuff!
One thing Mommy noticed since we have started this, I now like to
just hang out in my underwear all day and nothing else...heehee!
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