A Full Week of Family Fun

This past week has been wonderful. I wasn’t lying about spending it in my baby brother’s pocket. We arrived on Monday, 10/3, and spent time together every single day. The tough part is that, although we had a great time (or at least I did!), I’m not sure you all will find our long stroll down memory lane nearly as fascinating. So feel free to skip this post and pick up again when we hit our next stop at Shenandoah National Park.

Evening light on the Juniata River next to our campsite.

For those still reading that may not know, I have two younger bothers (no, that’s not a typo) – Tom is 4 years behind me and Tim is 11 years younger. We grew up in Strodes Mills, PA (you need a really good map to find it) which is about 6 miles out of Lewistown. Tim moved out to Washington when he was still a pup and currently resides in Seattle. Tom and his truly lovely wife, Kim, still live in Lewistown.

I joined the Army and left home in 1979 and have only been back a handful of times. So getting to spend a whole week with Tom and his family was a rare treat. Although we did spend an inordinate amount of time just sitting around and telling stores, we were not total slugs. Honest!

On Tuesday, 10/4, Rog made some long delayed upgrades to his bike. New tires and a set of gears so his single speed is now an 11 speed. Much easier for climbing those crazy steep mountain bike trails. In the evening, we visited a pumpkin patch and corn maze – a first for me! The farm had lots of activities for the kids, both the littler ones and us big ones. Last year Kim and Adrianne (Tom & Kim’s 12-year-old granddaughter) got lost in the corn maze and barely made it out before full dark. This year we made sure to exit the corn maze in plenty of time, but still ended up on the last hayride and had to be escorted out by flashlight.

All hands on deck. Lol.

Rog, Teddi, Tom, Adrianne, and Kim at Snyder's Farm.

Kim and Adrianne paint pumpkins.

The official greeter. :)

Fun for the big kids too.

Baby brother beats big sister in an oversized game of Connect 4. I demand a rematch!

Corn maze at dusk - yeah, I am outta here. :)

We were up early the next morning to hit the Belleville Sale – a combination farmers market, flea market and livestock auction that is very popular with the Amish community. The baked goods are to-die-for good. So much for eating healthy – moon pies, homemade bread, whoopie pies, sticky buns, apple dumplings… yeah, I got it all! This was about reliving my childhood (no wonder I was fat!). Lol.

Whoopie Pies - a staple of my childhood.

Don't see many of these in Seattle's rush hour traffic.

In the afternoon Kim gave me the full treatment – cut, color, and style. I was about four weeks overdue when we arrived and asked for a salon recommendation – turns out Kim used to be a hairdresser and still does some on the side. Wow. She did an awesome job. I’m trying to talk her into coming down and setting up shop in Key West in another six weeks or so. 

 

Thursday, Rog dropped me and our laundry off at Tom’s and then headed out for a mountain bike ride in Rothrock State Park. He was excited to find a whole slew of trails in the area and decided on a 26-mile expert level ride. He had a grand time, although he did take several spills including one pretty bad one where he launched himself over the handlebars and landed hard in a rock garden. That one left a mark. Some rock bites and an injured (possibly cracked) rib which is still giving him some trouble. Near the end of his ride, Rog had another thrill – a fairly close encounter with two black bears! They were about 25 yards away when he first saw them, luckily they headed in the opposite direction and paused about 50 yards away. Meanwhile Rog was frantically trying to pull his phone out to take a picture only to find the battery was dead. Arrrrgh. He finished the ride and made it back in (mostly) one piece and considered it all great fun. To each his own I guess – pass me another whoopie pie. Lol.

 

That evening we had a really nice dinner out with Tom & Kim. Through Yelp we found Revival Kitchen, a great little farm-to-table restaurant in a nearby town. Excellent food and awesome company.

Double date night!

Friday, Rog worked around the rig and slow cooked a pork butt on the Traeger. I went with Tom and Kim to pick up their 3-year-old granddaughter Abigail (Abi) to see if all the rumors were true - how she’s amazingly funny, adorable, brilliant, etc.  Yep. All true. Lol.  We had everyone over to the RV for dinner – pulled pork sandwiches, veggies, salad and s’mores. Yumm.

This is Abigail - too cute for words.

Dinner at our place.

S'more time!

I do believe that I put on nearly 5 pounds in just the week we were here. On Saturday, we were joined by Kim’s daughter Jenn for a dinner cruise on Raystown Lake. The prime rib dinner they served must have contributed at least 2 pounds to my total! The slabs of prime rib were HUGE.  We caught a break in the rain after dinner so we got to enjoy the view from the top of the boat. Sunset over the marina was lovely. Luckily nobody caught a video of my pratfall on the extremely slippery pier.  I ran down to take just one more picture and as soon as I stepped onto the slick, wet, algae covered wood ramp I went down hard. It was so slippery I had to literally crawl hand over hand up the railing to get back to stable footing. Between Rog’s sore rib and my sore bum, we’re quite the pair. Lol. 

Our dinner awaits.

Dinner cruise crew - Rog, Teddi, Tom, Adrianne, Kim, and Jenn.

We got a little fall color from the boat.

This sunset picture was literally a pain in the butt. Hope it's worth it. Lol.

Our last day of family togetherness was Sunday. I abused Kim’s hospitality one more time and did a final load of laundry. Their machine doesn’t even take quarters – almost forgot what that was like! Lol. We had fun (sort of) when Tom and Kim tried to teach us a new card game – interesting teaching method: wait until I do something wrong and then explain the rules. I’m thinking there was payback for some sisterly abuse going on there – we got cut no slack at all. Lol.

We did a final trip down the culinary memory lane and got hoagies and had chocolate cake with peanut butter icing from a recipe my Mom always made when we were kids. Kim was worried that it hadn’t turned out because it had sunk in the middle. No, it always looked like that! Lol. Then they surprised me with candles on the cake and birthday presents. (Thanks all!) 

Yes, I'm putting out the blaze!

That evening we had fun taking a drive through the neighborhood we grew up in and just reminiscing about all the stunts we pulled that did not end in tears or police involvement (and a few that did!). It was really hard to leave on Monday. Not sure how my bratty little bother ended up in his 50’s. Thank heavens I’m not getting old! Ha!