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November
2006 Journal
Let the
hustle and bustle of the upcoming holidays begin!
This month is going to feel like it's flying by! We
have a big trip to visit the Lemmons' family planned and I
can't wait!
Lots of other fun stuff too! So visit often to see
what we are up to!
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Mommy got the Flu!
November 2, 2006 |
Ugh...after
Mommy sent home over half of the kids in her class this week with
that lovely flu bug....she got it! I stayed home with her,
although I did hear her saying she would never do that again, and I
"took" care of her the best I could. I enjoyed the day because
we just laid around on the couches watching Nickelodeon cartoons on
TV! We stayed home 2 days and Mommy felt better by Friday
afternoon, we spent the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning up the
house! I think I would have rather been at school!
Heehee.
Glad Mommy is feeling better, I have never seen her so sick.
Hope Daddy doesn't catch it! He's been lucky so far.
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Geocaching Event
November 3, 2006 |
We went to a
geocaching event in Hershey tonight at the Red Robin restaurant.
The Hartley's met up with us there and this was a first event for
them. Daddy introduced them to all the cachers that were there
and we sat, ate, visited and just had a good time. Geocachers
are a good group of people. Everyone loved my "flag" pictures
that I drew and enjoyed how I walked around holding it above my head
for everyone to see! Also, others were impressed with how
Mommy was looking, some haven't seen her in a long time! It
was a fun night with friends.
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Geocaching
Weekend!
November 4-5, 2006 |
It turned out to
be a really nice weekend, Mommy was feeling much better and we all
wanted to get out of the house....so, Daddy loaded up the GPS and
out the door we went. There were some new caches in the area
with nice hikes in the woods. I tried to protest, threw a
couple fits (not sure why I do this, it never works), but ended up
having a good time. We found quite a few caches and I spotted
a few first myself! I also found lots of rocks to climb, it's
my new favorite thing to do. So as long as there is something
for me to climb around on...I'm happy!
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Bowling!
November 5, 2006 |
We went bowling
this morning! I've been asking to go but we've been busy people.
I did pretty good...bowled an 85 this time. I even had some
balls go down the lane without touching the bumpers. Mommy and
Daddy would like to find bowling shoes for me...it now costs 3.50
just to rent shoes! Mommy and Daddy are glad that they have
their own pair!
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Trip to The
Lemmons'
November 9th
- 12th, 2006 |
Thursday ~
We loaded up our Pathfinder, picked up the Hartley's and it was
off of to visit my best buddy Sam! ( We were excited to visit with
Sarah, Jen and Scott too!) I was so excited I could hardly contain
it and I am pretty sure that I drove my parents nuts! I had
been asking every day for the last 2 weeks if "today" was the day we
were going. Finally! The day had arrived. It sure
was a long ride in the car but I enjoyed watching a few movies and
visit with Jen & Darrin! We stopped at Cracker Barrel for
dinner, there I bought 3 gigantic lollipops for me, Sam and Sarah!
We arrived at Sam's house pretty late at night. I was soo
tired and everyone else was already in bed. We said our quick
hello's and went to bed.
Friday ~ Everyone got up kind of slowly...but not
us kids! We were up and tore into the playroom! Sam &
Sarah have some neat things. The "boys" visited with a tour
around the house and property. Sam has a "mountain" in his
back yard and they hiked up that! Us kids, played outside for
awhile...I love riding in Sam's gator car! The "girls" got
ready, had a tour of the house and sat around visiting, while
waiting on the men to get ready for the day. We decided that
since it was such a nice day out that we should go somewhere.
We decided to head out to this place called The New River Gorge
Bridge. It was awesome...we had to drive over it first before
we got to the visitor's center. Boy, were we up high!
Arching gracefully across the New River, the bridge has the world's
2nd longest single arch steel span. At 876 feet above the New
River, it is the second highest bridge in this country!
While there we discovered that there were all kinds of hiking trails
below it! We were limited on time with our late start in the
day, so we chose a short but difficult hike to an old mine area.
The
Kaymoor Miners Trail. Jen decided it wasn't safe for her
to continue, with being pregnant and all, so she sat out with
Darrin. Smart move on her part, this hike was tough...but we
did it, with minimal complaint and Daddy didn't have to carry me all
that much. We saw some really neat things while down there.
We didn't get to go all the way to the bottom of the trial, to see
the coal ovens because we would have had to climb down 800 steps and
back up them of course! If would have had more time and
daylight we would have.
It was a neat place and it is definitely on our list of a place to
return to the next time we visit the Lemmons'. You can also go
whitewater rafting there too!
Today, was also a special day for the Hartley's. They were
celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary
guys! The Lemmons' took us all out for dinner at this huge
Chinese buffet place! Everyone ate good and ate way too much!
I had fun making my own sundae! Yummy!
Saturday ~ It was kind of rainy out today, so everyone
just decided to just spend some time visiting with each other.
Sam, Sarah and me played and played and played. The "girls"
went shopping. Daddy and Sam's daddy went outside to work on
fixing the electric fence around the goats field. Yea, Sam has
3 goats! They are big and too scary for me! Anyway, poor
Darrin came down with a pretty bad cold, so he spent the day
relaxing.
Mommy and the girls returned with pizza for dinner and a shirt
painting craft for us kids to do! We had a fun time decorating
our shirts and then we all painted our handprints on the back of
each other shirts. They came out really nice. Mommy
didn't get a picture so we will "borrow" the one Sam's mommy took
off of their website.
TheLemmonsFamily.com
Ms. Jen read us all a bedtime story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
It was another fun night!
Sunday ~ This day came too soon for me! Sam's
mommy cooked a huge breakfast for everyone! She made eggs,
cinnamon pancakes, biscuits with sausage gravy and bacon! It
was yummy. I had pancakes and lots of bacon! It was soon
time for us to load up the car and head back home.
Thanks to the Lemmons for hosting such a fun weekend. We were
glad that we finally got to see your new home. Thanks to Sam
and Sarah for sharing all of your toys with me. I can't wait
until you all come here and visit me!
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Pink Eye!
November 17, 2006 |
I had to stay
home from school today because I had a "pink eye". Mommy was
not happy about having to stay home again and miss work. We
have no idea where the pink eye came from, but I had it pretty bad.
Fortunately, Mommy still had some drops left from the last time I
had it. I fought pretty hard for the first dose, but then
settled myself down for the next ones. My "pink eye" looked
pretty good by the end of the night.
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Funny Cole ~ A
story told by Mommy
November 17, 2006 |
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Cole and I were
watching the movie "Home Alone".
During the
scene when Kevin is preparing to defend his home from the robbers.
He grabs his "gun".
Cole: "Is that a real gun?"
Mommy: "No, it's a bb gun."
Kevin shoots the one robber in the private area.
Cole: "Ha, ha, ha...did he shoot him in the pee-pee?"
Mommy: "yes"
Cole: "Oh, that why it's called a pp gun!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
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Bowling with Daddy
November 19, 2006 |
Me and daddy
went bowling today. Mommy stayed home and did some cleaning up
around the house. I did pretty good. I got 2 splits!
(Daddy thinks it is funny that I like getting those!). I did
have quite a few spares! My final score was 92!
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Decorating the tree! Yup, already!
November 19, 2006 |
We put our
Christmas tree up today! Yea, it's early, but we are going to
be really busy around Thanksgiving and we wanted to have it up and
ready for our holiday party with friends!
This year I got my own little tree to put in my room. We set
it up right in front of my window so everyone can see it outside
too! I hung on my decorations and icicles. My favorite
part is the shining star on top!
I helped Daddy put the big tree together and checked all the lights
to be sure that they were working. I also was in charge of
hanging up the Star Wars ornaments! My favorites are "R2-Do2"
and "CPR". (Mommy is still laughing!)
We don't have the rest of the house decorated or the outside done
yet...that will take awhile longer. We'll keep you posted.
We need to go battery shopping...I can't wait to have all my singing
snowmen working!
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Happy
Thanksgiving!
November 23, 2006 |
Happy Turkey
Day! We were able to leave work early yesterday to get to
Grandma's house with plenty of time for a visit before having to get
to bed! We got up in the morning and started helping to get
everything ready for dinner! I helped to fix the rolls.
This year I made them "fancy", one looked like a snowman and I even
made the letter in my name! Daddy is always in charge of
carving the turkey and this year I got to help too! He also
showed me how you are supposed to eat the turkey as you are doing
it...boy was it hot...and tasty! I ate a lot of it! I
then got to use the electric knife and help to finish getting the
rest of the meat off. It was time for everyone to sit down and
eat, but of course, I had filled up on my turkey while helping
Daddy, so I was not that hungry anymore!
It was a nice relaxing day and we just enjoyed each other's company.
We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This was the
first time I have ever seen it, since PaPa got his new satellite
hook-up, we can get the local channels now! Mommy was excited
as she remembers always watching it as a kid and has really missed
that part of the holiday tradition. It was neat seeing all the
different performers, bands and the giant balloons! Garfield
was my favorite! We also watched Home Alone before it was time
for bed! We are staying at Grandma's for quite awhile...this
should be fun!
Hope everyone had a nice holiday with their families!
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Geocaching Adventure!
November 24, 2006 |
We planned a day
of geocaching with Grandma and Pa. Mommy had found this really
cool one called Logan's Falls that wasn't too far away and the
terrain seemed to be easy enough for all of us to handle. Boy,
the journey to this one was a real treat too! Good thing we
have a four-wheel drive car! Daddy's GPS took us through this
little "town" that must have just been a camp/cabin area and also up
the side of a mountain! We went around bends and turns and
over bump after bump. It was pretty funny! Mommy
survived without getting carsick too! We finally found our
parking coordinates and headed "down" to our destination. The
area was quiet and we were the only ones around, in fact, I think we
passed only one car during our whole trip there. Anyway, half
way down I found some pretty big rocks that were jutting out of the
ground, so of course, we had to go check out and climb around on
those for a bit. Then it was off to find the cache...it took
us to another big rock, so I walked around and found it! We
traded some stuff, packed it back up and headed back down the hill.
The cache is called Logan's Falls for a reason and so far all we
found were "big rocks". We could hear water so we followed the
sounds and came upon a really nice stream with lots and lots of
trickling rapids. After playing around there for awhile we
decided that this still isn't what they want us to see.
Grandma followed the stream a little farther down and "found it"!
It took us a bit to figure out how to get there, so after a bit more
exploring we found "the falls". Boy, they were pretty.
We took lots of pictures! It was nice to see such a natural
thing that was not written all over nor was there any trash in the
area. Nice. Daddy and I found a place to cross the
stream, so go explore the other side. We were able to get
pretty much on top of the Falls. Then...we needed to get back
over....well, that proved to be a bit more challenging. Pa
helped to pull me back over, but I didn't cooperate so well and I
banged my knee on the rock. OUCH! I got over it and we
played around the area some more and it was soon time to head back
up the hill to the car! I rode Daddy's shoulders for some of
the way, but mostly hiked it on my own and Mommy and me raced to the
top, while we waited for the rest of them to catch up! That
was fun....now what?
It was time for lunch so on our way home we stopped at a little
pizza place in Tionesta, PA. It was yummy! I had fun
watching the little Italian lady make our pizzas. She tossed
the dough up really high in the air! It tasted great too.
Now, off to the next geocache which was an easy one we picked up
near the lake. Mommy and me walked down to the water, I tossed
a few rocks and it was time to head out again. Next cache on
the list to find was a virtual in a little town called, "Pithole".
This adventure deserves it's own journal entry!
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Pithole, PA
November 24, 2006 |
What and Where
is Pithole, you ask. First, a little history lesson:
Pithole -
Oil's Vanished Boomtown
Oil production was centered in
the valleys of Oil Creek and the Allegheny River when the
250 barrel-a-day Frazier Well drilled along Pithole Creek
came in. Numerous other gusher wells in this isolated part
of Venango County attracted thousands of fortune-seekers to
the area and a town called Pithole City sprang up on the
Thomas Holmden Farm in May of 1865.
By September, 15,000 people lived in Pithole which had 57
hotels, a daily newspaper, and the third busiest Post Office
in the state, handling more than 5500 pieces a day!
But Pithole declined almost as rapidly as it grew. A
combination of oil running out, major fires at wells and
hastily constructed wooden city buildings, and new wells in
nearby places caused the population to shrink to less than
2000 by December 1866.
Today, little remains of this boomtown but cellar holes in a
hillside meadow. Visitors may walk the grassy paths of
former streets and view a scale model of the city at its
peak in the Visitor Center. |
This "town"
has been a running joke in our family for years, longer than I have
been alive. Daddy has been talking about his great family
vacation to this local "hot" spot for years. Just picture
taking your children to a place that is basically on open field with
some "holes" in the ground and a few trees here and there.
Also, when he was a kid, there was no "visitor center" or historical
markers! It's also quite funny that something Daddy remembers
as being such a "boring" time when he was a child, is still so vivid
in his memory. Life is funny like that.
In all seriousness, if you can picture in your mind that an area
like this existed in such a rural place and fell apart so quickly,
it's rather amazing. If only the earth and trees could
talk...I'm sure they would have a tale to tell.
While we were the there the visitor center was not open, and we had
a good time joking around, taking funny pictures, reading some of
the history markers and running up and down the "streets". We
found the information we needed for our geocache and it was soon
time to go. Funny, on our way out a few other cars pulled in
and it was some people visiting from Texas that worked closely with
the oil industry and they were quite intrigued with the area.
We seem to forget how important Western PA was to the oil industry.
Next visit to Grandma's we will have to visit
Drake's Well!
What a perfect ending to a FUN day spent with family!
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A Day Trip to Erie
November 25, 2006 |
Mommy, Daddy and
me decided to enjoy this beautiful, unseasonably warm weather we
were having with a trip to the Erie Zoo. It was a perfect day
at the zoo. Due to lack of funds for the zoo, they were
preparing to close for the winter, so things were pretty deserted.
It was not crowded at all and being "cool" weather...all of the
animals were quite active and fun to watch! Probably the best
display we saw were the warthog brothers that were playing/fighting
and the penguins. Mommy said this is the first time she has
ever seen them out walking around outside and not behind some kind
of glass. They were neat! I got a stuffed penguin toy at
the gift shop when we were done.
Next, we went out to this restaurant called, Quaker Steak and Lube.
It was neat...there were race cars outside and big cars inside...one
was hanging like it was driving on the side of the wall! My
lunch even came served in a "car"!
We were still having fun and had some daylight left, so I asked to
go to the "beach". We couldn't believe how nice it was
outside...we didn't even need our coats on! We walked along
the beach, chasing birds, finding cool stones, drawing in the sand
and even had time to build a huge castle. |
Hunting Season
Begins
November 27, 2006 |
Daddy & PaPa got
up really early this morning to go hunting. I slept in.
Last year, they did not get anything, so we were really hoping for
better luck this time. Pa stuck his head in the house around
11ish, said "we're back!". It was a few more minutes when
Mommy thought that was odd that no one was back "in" the house.
She jumped up and saw PaPa messing around with the tractor in the
garage. "They must have got something because Daddy isn't here
and Pa's in the garage!". Sure enough, it was true. They
got 2 doe and they were too heavy to drag back! YAY! It
wasn't long before I could spot their orange coats riding down
through the field and I could hear them gabbing away....like little
kids. (hee-hee). They got one big doe and one little
one. PaPa didn't know if Daddy wanted me to see the dead deer,
but I've been told why Daddy hunts and that is just a part of life.
It didn't bother me at all...I looked and left...and that was that!
Mommy rode with Daddy to the processor and I stayed home with
Grandma. Guess we will be having some deer jerky and bologna
for Christmas. Yummy!
Congratulations! |
Time with my Grandparents
November 28-30, 2006 |
Daddy had to go
to Penn State for a conference for work. Mommy went with him
so I got to stay with Grandma and Pa Pa and have them all to myself.
We had a nice visit despite the fact that Grandma hit in the face
with a ball and I nearly took off my thumb in the lazy susan
cabinet! heehee!
We watched the Disney Cars movie, played Lego's, Grandma made me a
scarf and we went for ride down the road with the little tractor.
Mommy and Daddy got home around dinner time after doing some
geocaching along the way. They did a really cool one called
the
Beer Well. There are some pictures in the photo gallery
all about it. It's quite a funny story, although back in it's
day it probably caused quite the ruckus.
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