Pennsylvania

    We spent 3 weeks parked at Eldon's parents in March and had a lovely time. His older brother lives just up the hill and milks at the home place so we spent a lot of time with them as well. I also have a brother that lives a few miles from there so we were blessed with many good visits with all! Also, I barely cooked at all the 3 weeks we were there, thanks to all the supper invitations we received. No complaints here except that we felt like we were being fattened for slaughter by the end 😂.

     The weather was amazing too. The day after we arrived it snowed, a beautiful, gentle snow that covered everything. Then it warmed up and it all went away! By the time we left the trees were getting buds and it felt like spring.

Most of the children liked the snow. Not Ethan though! He's our snowbird.

Michael zooming down the big hill behind the house.

And Emily too.

My niece has a very tame bird that the children loved to play with.

Perched on Michael!

Eugene's also raise puppies and brought a few in the house for the children to play with. So cute!

One Saturday Kylie (my niece) came to play with Makayla. They played in the snow for hours then came in and played Lego's.

Michael was thrilled when Eldon said he's old enough to climb to the top of the silo!

Sunday night snack with their King cousins.

We went to Eldon's Grandpa's for lunch one day. The children always pull out the Tinker Toys and this time they built a cage for the cat!

More puppy fun at Eugene's.

Kylie did a wonderful job of entertaining our children in their attic. 

Grandma King played Uncle Wiggily with Emily.....over and over and over!

They love climbing the huge tree in the front yard that Eldon's Grandma planted.

The very old shop. It was originally built as a chicken house for laying hens. Grandpa King sold the eggs for $1 a dozen and they went to Delaware for hatching eggs. He had the shop paid off in a year! Later this was used by an uncle for a glass shop and now it's just storage. 

Unfortunately, there is no great place to park other than here, where our front end is up almost as high as it goes to get level!

The original part of the barn is the tall part. Eldon's dad added everything else.

Michael is always excited to go to his Great Aunt Ruth's and play with the brain balls :).

Ethan playing with his cousin.... or second cousin? Cousin once removed? 

Playing school with more cousins of some kind 😂.

Aunt Judith came up from Virginia for 2 days. 

Laura and Emily played quite nicely!

Arlin and Ethan are a year apart but had so much fun together! Here they are rowing their boat.

Eldon's favorite meal and it is authentically Amish. Bean soup, moon pies, apple pie, pickles, and cheese.

Early birthday cake for Ethan!

We spent and evening with 4 of Eldon's aunts. Since we love history, Lena pulled out old photo albums and told us a ton of fascinating family history.

Playing Racko. Michael was excited to win nearly every game!

Playing with marble rollers made by their great-grandpa King.

One day we went exploring. This used to be a cute little cabin that Eldon's aunts bought and put back in the woods for a little get-away place. Sadly, it's falling apart.

Checking out the tractor :).

No one (not even Aunt Lena!) can find a date when the barn was built but definitely in the 1800's. The boards in the old part are notched and fit tightly together. 

I love that they took time to add fancy touches! So much history here. 

The original barn (without the lean-to). 

More cool beams.

     Another fascinating yet horrifying story Aunt Lena told us was about Eldon's great-great-great grandma (I THINK that's right....). She fell from the hayloft while throwing hay down for the cows and as a result, died a few days later. The really sad part? She was buried with a stillborn baby in each arm - she had been pregnant with twins.

This barn has the second longest beam in the valley. 

My nephew Dallas taught Ethan how to shoot a BB gun. Eugene then sent it home with us 😐😃.

Riding scooters in grandpa's garage is a great way to burn energy!

     It was sad to leave but like we tell the children, "Without leaving we can't arrive anywhere else!"