Lunch

These pictures were taken on Sunday after Thanksgiving but have all the people in them that were at Thanksgiving dinner.  This is Sunday dinner at my sister Greta’s house after baby Sammy’s Dedication!

The boys in the kitchen drinking sugary soda.  Thanks Uncle Marc for all the sugar!!!

Steve all by himself in the family room catching up on some football.  After three years of not watching it and the mission house TV didn’t get reception, so he was making up for it when we were in PA.

On this table was an apple cake that Marc’s mom made.  It was sooo good and tasted just like the apple cake my mom use to make.  I think Dad and I enjoyed two pieces of it.

The rest of us at the Dinning room.  Grandma Washington is holding baby Sammy in this picture.

 

Snow

Our children were praying they would see snow while we were in the US.  They got their prayers answered.

This is the van that my Daddy bought for us to drive while we were in the states.  Thanks Dad!

This is a different snow than the above two pictures.  Heather’s shoes where soaked.  We were at a friends house.  They let us borrow hat, mittens, and snow pants.  Then we used the dryer to dry their clothes. 

There is a little hill in their front yard that they went sledding down.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Thanks so some friends of ours we got to enjoy their timeshare in Gatlinburg.  We just spent the time relaxing and enjoying the pool.  We did drive the craft loop and buy a few things.  They came for the weekend.  We hiked, played games, and just had fun catching up with each other.

A family picture in the woods.  Thanks Tonia!

Instantly friends.  All our kids bonded instantly.  By the end of the first night they were asking for sleepovers. 

 

A Night View!

This is a view we have at night from the side porch of our church’s mission house in Moore, South Carolina!  There is a cemetery between the church and the house.  This picture doesn’t do it justice.

Charleston, South Carolina

Steve signed up to run a marathon on Kiawah Island which is about 20 minutes south of Charleston.  We had the wonderful pleasure of staying in my sister’s father-in-law’s house where he grew up right in Charleston.

We spent Friday at Patriot Point.  The kids loved it.

On the web site I knew there were 6 different tours on the USS Yorktown.  There is another ship and a submarine to see also, but it didn’t say anything about touring them.  So it was very exciting to go down into a submarine.  I don’t think I will be joining the navy to work on a sub! 

This is a live Oak called the “Angel Tree.” 

Here is Steve in front of the map of the race.  It is a small island and so in many places you come to the end of the road and turn around and run back.  He did finish the race in under 4 hours which was his goal.

Heather’s Birthday

Heather has been planning what she wanted to do for her birthday for months!  She wanted steak at a restaurant and a store bought cake with that butter icing.  She did decide that Daddy make steak the best!

She wanted orange flowers with yellow middles and pink icing.  I didn’t get it alright.  I remembered the pink, with orange and yellow flowers.  In the end I thought this sunflower would work wonderfully!

Cousin Time

After the Thanksgiving dinner, Greta’s two oldest, Isaiah and Lena, stayed with us at Grandpa’s house for some cousin time.  They stayed until Sunday.

It turned out to be a very cold and windy weekend.  We did go to Lapp’s farm.  There we got to pet the calves, dogs, and cats.  Then we washed our hands and bought milk and homemade ice cream to take home with us.  I thought it would be a little more enjoyable to eat the ice cream in a warm house.

We also went to the Imurgut Pretzels Factory in town.  I might be spelling that wrong.  It is PA Dutch I think.  Anyways, it means “them are good.” 

In the back you they show you how them make the pretzels and let you try to make one.

Not everyone was too impressed, but it was interesting.

  Then it was off to the playground.  I sat in the car.  After 10 minutes I decided it was too cold for this.  If you look closely, Tobias has a face mask on.

This is a true bed hog or a major snuggle bunny! Heather is about to fall off of the bed!  After seeing this I decided I need to quit fussing at my husband for hogging the bed.

Thanksgiving

We spent the week of Thanksgiving and the week after up in PA with my Dad.  I hadn’t cooked a Thanksgiving dinner in over three years.  So I cooked it at my Dad’s house. 

There were 17 of us, one being a baby and so he doesn’t count food wise.  My whole family was there and my sister’s husbands whole family was there.  After being shy and quiet the kids soon all warmed up to each other and had lots of fun. 

I took pictures of the table all set, but forgot to take pictures of people after they arrived.  Which is sad!  We could have had a family picture and they could have had a family picture and we didn’t have to hire or find someone to snap the picture.  Maybe next time we are home we will remember to do it then.

Cemeteries

The week of Thanksgiving we did some walking thru cemeteries here in Lancaster county with my Dad.  We found the graves of all his grandfathers that were in this country.

When I was studying my genealogy, I fell in love with the name Tobias, which is a name of one of my great grandfather’s.

Here is Tobias at the grave of his name sake.

Liberty University and Harrisonburg, VA

On the Friday before Thanksgiving we went to visit Liberty University.  They call it “Friendly Fridays.”  It included breakfast, lunch, a tour, and information about the University.

Being a family of 6, we would need two hotel rooms for two nights!  Steve didn’t like the price and so I started thinking about how we can do this and not stay in a hotel.  We have friends in Harrisonburg, VA and they were kind enough to keep 6 extra people in their house.

We stayed with them Thursday and Friday nights.  We drove to Lynchburg, VA to visit Liberty University Friday morning and drove back to Harrisonburg in the afternoon.

This pooch slept on Heather’s bed all night on Thursday night.  Or I probably should say Heather slept in his bed.  I thought I would take a picture of him there on Friday night.  He didn’t want his picture taken and went down into the basement to sleep with Seth all night.  Seth was in love.  He misses our cat that usually spends her night in Seth’s bed.

On Saturday morning we went out to their little farm where they were butchering turkeys.  We soon left to drive up to PA to stay with my Dad for the week.  This is what I found my boys doing!

 

Horses

We had fun getting to know a lady in our church named Gayle.  She and her family love horses.  She helps out another family with their horses.  One evening she took us along to see the horses and then she took us out to Subway!  Thanks Gayle.  We had lots of fun!!

Deer

I have many cousins!  One of them raises deer.  So we stopped in after visiting and speaking in their church to see the deer.

If you stood really still with grass in your hand they would eat out of your hands!