We Drove 8 Hours For This...

This last week found us venturing north to one of our favorite places on Earth-- our Amish Paradise in Lancaster, PA. We have often times worried that if we recommended this vacation to anyone else, they'd get there and wonder what the heck we like so much about it. There are some Amish farms. It's pretty countryside. And there's some tasty comfort food. But other than that it's a pretty tame vacay. Indeed, throughout our 1 1/2 day stay we constantly found ourselves looking at each other a little bewildered and stating, "We drove 8 hours for this." And honestly, sometimes it was said a little more questioningly like, "We drove 8 hours for this?!?" but most times we found the theme of our trip to be said with total affection, yes, "We drove 8 hours for THIS.":

A stop for a pork salad at the Cafe Rio in Olney, MD which is the perfect halfway point from Richmond (where we stayed the night) and Lancaster. Mmmmmmmm. Pregnancy craving satiated... kind of. For like 6 hours.

A fresh-baked gingerbread cookie to decorate while mom and dad check out the jams and salsas at Kitchen Kettle Village. One of the traditions Lucy LOVES.

Catching the Pennsylvania leaves just as they are turning colors-- bright orange, gold, and firey red! SO gorgeous, and the 20 degree drop in temperature between PA and NC isn't bad either...

Feeding the naughty goats at the free petting zoo. Zachary has been a goat whisperer ever since he was a baby, but we still have to count 10 fingers and 10 toes before we leave, just in case.

Llama Face! My kids thought this guy's wicked underbite was HI-LA-RI-OUS. So instead of saying "cheese" I started requesting "llama face" instead. Try it. Promise.

Eating a huge breakfast out once a year (other than the hotel's not-so-great continental breakfast of course) complete with buttermilk pancakes and hot chocolate. Yum!

A quick trip to Hershey, driving through scenic dairy farms, stopping to buy pumpkins along the way, and dreaming about a whole factory devoted entirely to chocolate!

"It's the milk chocolate! Moooo-wooo!" We rode the free factory ride 4 times before we could talk Zach off with promises of free samples. My kids think this is better than Disneyland.

Should actually be Zach....it would be more accurate.

Picking a treat to share from the Hershey bake shop! Chocolate lover's heaven!

Relaxing 8 hours away from work. THAT alone was worth driving for right there.

Homemade Amish root beer. You pull off the highway, into the backyard of this real Amish farm, pay THE cutest little Amish boy $2 a bottle, and slowly sip away your troubles. I have no idea what they heck they brew in this concoction, but it's herbacious and earthy and delish.

Homemade cheese. Same thing. Pull into the farm, buy a bag of random cheese, and devour.

An outdoor picnic with unbeatable scenery, complete with Amish pretzels, cheese, and out-of-this-world apple cider (Jon would have driven 8 hours for this sweet elixir alone). The tastes of fall!

And finally, we basically drove 8 hours to smell hundreds of homemade candles in the Ol' Candle Barn to find just the right one for Christmas, shop the early sales at the outlet malls, gorge ourselves on Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, and relive the simple traditions of our very humble past when Amish country was about all we had to do on the weekends living in Philly. Can't really explain its draw other than that. Guess that means will be back next fall.:)

Conference Weekend

Happy Fall to those of us in the South! The temperature has finally dropped below 80 degrees, so I guess I can officially pull out the hot cider and canned pumpkin. In honor of fall and bounteous harvests, I decided to celebrate by having a major jam session yesterday. I figure I went through about 20 cups of fruit, 20 lbs. of sugar, and 10 boxes of pectin and I'm pretty much stocked with freezer jam for life. Actually, about half of this load with go to the girls at Jon's work, who are throwing me a baby shower at the end of this month. Apparently they tease me for making jam because it's something only Amish women do-- so I'm really showing them by sending it as a "thank you" gift.:) There are worse comparisons I suppose.

Anyway, in between conference sessions as I was pureeing, stirring, and cooking away, my little Ratatouille jumped in on the action and had his first major kitchen accident. I had just boiled some pectin at high heat, turned the burner off, and turned around when he leaned over right onto the hot burner and fried his forearm.

Aaaaahhhhh! A-W-F-U-L. He cried and cried and even after we'd been running it under cold water for a good 45 min. he still couldn't take his arm out without it shaking violently and his teeth chattering. I wouldn't even let Jon go to the priesthood session because I was so afraid he was going into shock. We kept his arm dunked in cold water for THREE hours before he could finally take it for a few seconds at a time. It was a long night. This morning he feels fine, but it is all blistered and swollen purple. I feel terrible!

Forsaking jam, Lucy helped me make some quiet games for church I'd found on Pinterest this morning. She loves to be a helper, and I love her help!

We cut and glued and made a whole bunch of these little puzzles which helped her (and I) listen better to Conference.

And since it's finally feeling like fall, anyone up for some apple pie ala mode? Lucy's class made some for Johnny Appleseed Day a couple of weeks ago and she's been begging for more ever since. Yum! We *heart* fall!

Preschool Drop-Out

It's true. I already have a child who's dropped out of school. So much for my empty nesting! School 4x a week just proved too much for little Darth. I'm actually not surprised-- our morning schedule was CRAZY and while he liked preschool 50% of the time, trying to convince him to stick with it when he has to do school the rest of his life just wasn't worth it! We had to be up by 6:30 a.m., dressed, fed, and rushing out the door by 7:10 a.m. to drop Lucy off at school by 7:30 a.m., and then since Zach's preschool was only a mile up the road from the elementary school, we had to sit in the car and wait for 45 min. before we could drop Zach off at preschool. It was a weird combination of rushing and then waiting, and trying to entertain Zach in the car (just didn't make sense to drive 20 min. back home, then 20 min. back to school) was nearly impossible, and picturing doing THAT morning routine with an infant WAS impossible. Plus I'm saving the $200/month which helps a ton!

He was so tired from waking up early, angry his morning routine no longer involved cartoons, and just wanted to stay with mommy he would cry every time I dropped him off. As Lucy continues to spread her wings and be less and less dependent on me, and although I'm sad for him that he didn't like it, I'm realizing it's not such a bad thing to have your kids want to be with you all the time. Jonathan told him that if he decided to stay home with mommy he had to be the man of the house and let me get my work done. So now we're frequently regaled with reminders that Zach "is the mans of the house." I love my little drop-out!:)

Hero Squad!

A few weeks ago Jonathan had to attend an Air Force Ball on a Saturday night at a local hotel. He had to go stag because a) no ball gown will fit over my belly, and b) we have two children who require my undivided attention at all times. Basically I didn't want to go.:) Poor guy was on his own! Anyway, being bored and alone during cocktail hour, he decided to walk around the lobby before dinner was served, and stumbling out of one of the other banquet rooms was an older lady, turning blue in the face and grabbing around her neck like she was choking and might collapse. Since he was the only one nearby he asked her if she was choking, but since she obviously couldn't respond he had to assume she really was choking! Being the cool cucumber that he is, he quickly jumped behind her and started doing the Heimlich maneuver. He said it took about 3 or 4 solid thrusts before she started coughing and threw up, and by that time there was quite a crowd of shocked Airmen from the ball surrounding them, so he told one of them to call 911. She was still having a hard time catching her breath and gagging, but luckily there was a hospital right across the street so the EMT's arrived quickly and took over. But I think he gets credit for saving her life. I'm proud of him for his quick thinking and acting! Like Zach said, "he's a hero!"

Up Close and Personal!

Some first looks at Baby Girl Cardon. The ultrasound tech was able to get some pretty good 3D pics, which was SO cool! I have never had a 3D ultrasound, but it was really amazing how clearly you could see the baby's little features. Obviously the pictures didn't turn out as well as the live stuff, but I had to share.

The first thing I thought when I saw her was that she had her hand up by her face, just like Lucy always did. In fact, for weeks after she was born Lucy would wiggle out of her swaddling (and I made it TIGHT)so she could sleep with her hands over her face.

Today in kindergarten Lucy's class had the school counselor come in to talk about feelings, and then they drew a picture of how they were feeling that day. When the teacher asked her which feeling she drew, Lucy said, "Excited! I just can't wait to meet my new baby sister!" We seriously can't wait to meet this baby! Zachary is already pretending to hold her and play with her on a daily basis.

Jonathan thought this one was a little freaky because part of her head is being covered by the placenta, but I LOVE her little profile! I think her little nose is so sweet! We are 95% sure on the name, FINALLY, so that's monumental since we couldn't agree on Zach's name until after he was born. She was weighing in at 3 lbs. 12 oz. and is still feet first. She better flip soon!

So everybody always asks me: Who do I think she'll look like, since my kids are so totally opposite-looking. Who do you think this baby looks like? Lucy? Zach? Or all her own?

Soccer Star!

Now this is a post Uncle Taylor would truly be proud of! Last spring I got it in my head that I should put Lucy in soccer this fall, in an effort to give her the full gamut of childhood experiences. We'd done ballet and tap in Vegas, so I figured it was time to try out her sportier side.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?!? Our first big meltdown was over the fact that the jersey was orange, not pink or purple. The second big meltdown was over the fact that she absolutely did NOT want to get sweaty and stinky!! That would be disgusting.

We finally convinced her to check it out and just see if maybe she could like soccer. We arrived and there were TONS of kids. I thought she'd be assigned a team with just a couple of kids, but I guess the way they do it now is they have all 50 kids show up, they have the parents coach them to do drills for 30 min., then they split them into smaller groups and have them scrimmage for 30 min. That's what I paid $90 for?!?

It was kind of a joke. Lucy wanted nothing to do with it. I knew I should have just stuck her in gymnastics!!

She actually did really well when it was time to scrimmage. She was fairly aggressive and went after the ball and seemed to have fun.

But she was NOT happy (despite the happy smile in the picture) to be hot and sweaty afterwards. She's quite a character.

Her jersey number is in honor of Uncle Taylor since he always wore that number during basketball season-- so she felt pretty cool about that.

Maybe we'll try this little guy next in soccer and let Luce stick to dance!

Labor Day Love

I love Labor Day. Well, let me be more specific: I love any government holiday that allows my husband to be home for a four day weekend (he also gets the Friday before off). Super!! This Labor Day we decided to take a couple of day trips to some cool surrounding areas, so instead of spending money on a hotel, we got to see two different places instead of just one.

We left first thing Saturday morning and drove the 2 hours to Myrtle Beach. We have totally fallen in love with Myrtle Beach-- it isn't stinky like the New Jersey shore, it's FREE to use and FREE to park, and the surrounding area is just one big vacation mecca with tons of shopping, restaurants, and mini golf.

It pretty much rocks. I was worried about it being crowded since it was Labor Day weekend, but we basically had it to ourselves. The water was warm, the weather was perfect, and it was overall just a great day at the beach.

After playing for a couple of hours we got dinner at Five Guys, and then headed to hit up the outlet malls with all of their Labor Day sales. We had a blast shopping! We get so deprived in Pinehurst with only Walmart and Kohl's to choose from.:)

Monday morning we decided to head to Charlotte, since we hadn't been there yet. It's only about 90 miles away, but because there aren't really any freeways that go East/West in the South, it takes almost 2 1/2 hours to get there because you have to putter along various country highways. Not crazy about that! But we made it just in time for lunch at "Cabo Fish Taco" which was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

I got the special salmon burrito with chipotle sauce, and Jon got the honey wasabi burrito. It was pretty good!

Charlotte is famous for its local plantations, which I was SO excited to tour, but naturally they were all closed on Labor Day. So instead we swung by the downtown area, coincidentally where the Democratic National Party would be camped out later that week.

Then we headed to IKEA-- which is the only one for miles and miles, so it was a good time to get my IKEA-fix before the bambino comes. Plus the kids LOVE playing in the "Smaland" playplace which is fine by me to get to shop solo for once. We finally coaxed Zach out of the ball pit with the promise of chocolate cake up in the IKEA restaurant. Yum! All in all, we had some great day trips and will definitely be going back to both sometime soon!