Grandma Larna Jeano's Fall 2011 Visit

From August to October, John-David lived and worked in Philadelphia to complete a rotation at CHOP. The hospital put him up in an apartment and when time allowed, he came home to us. My mom tries to come out and visit each fall and she planned her trip during John-David's absence to help me out. Due to the fact that my children are in school, the majority of her time was spent walking kids to school, doing homework, watching soccer games, attending tiger cubs and watching dance classes. We were able to do some other activities, which I actually documented with photos.

My mom has been visiting us, in both Ohio and Pennsylvania for the past 6 years. Each time she comes, she brings a suitcase full of meat- I am not exaggerating when I say this. Never in her life has she ever lost luggage until now. When I was picking her up from the Philadelphia airport, it took a rather long time to retrieve her bags. This is never a good sign. After a really longtime she determined it must be lost, despite seeing it on the carousel. The suitcase that got lost just happened to be the one filled with meat. She was heart broken. I kept reassuring her that it was better that one than one with her clothes and make-up. After getting home to my house we got a call from the airline that someone had taken home her suitcase and was bringing it back to the airport. When she explained to the woman that it had meat in it, the woman took pity on her and told her that she would unpack the bag into the little fridge they had there. My mother was so grateful and when the meat was delivered the next day around noon, it was still mostly frozen. We appreciate that lady at Southwest airlines so that we could have steak sandwich and ribs!

Every year our local garden center called Neighbors has something called Neighbor days. It's a fun fall festival and the majority of it is free. I was so glad that my mom was here the weekend it was happening. One of the free things is horse rides. We decided to let Bryce do it this year in addition to the other kids. They all really liked it and it was just the right length for Bryce. We also went on the hay ride which is a trailer hooked up to a tractor. This kind of has a funny story to go with. In the picture above there is a small space between Grandma and Jocelyn which happens to be Grandma's purse. Just as the tractor begins pulling us, our dainty daughter, Jocelyn, somehow knocks Grandma's purse off the trailer, a good 8 feet below us. She has no idea she has done this but Grandma notices and gave a little "aaahhh" that alerted me. By this time her dumped out purse is getting further and further away from us and there was nothing we could do. Luckily there was a kind woman who noticed the peril we were in and gathered up the contents of my mother's purse and hung on to it until the ride was completed. We were very grateful to this kind, honest lady because after losing her luggage, I don't think my mom could have handled much more tragedy. We discovered a county park about 20 minutes to the east of us, called Ringing Rock Park.

You walk about 100 yards from the parking lot and the trail takes you to a boulder field. If you take a hammer to certain rocks, they ring, making different ringing sounds. It has something to do with the minerals they are made of. Anyways, we did that for awhile and then walked down the trail to a waterfall.

Dad and Jocey scaling the field to find the best ringing rock.

This is tallest waterfall in Buck's County. Apparently there

wasn't much competition because is wasn't exactly real high.

But nevertheless is was very beautiful.

We walked up the river bed and took some photos.

We drove to the Poconos to a town called Jim Thorpe and took a train ride. We went to this town for our anniversary and I saw the train station. I have always wanted to go on a train ride in the fall. Because it has been so wet around here the leaves hadn't really changed yet but it still was beautiful.

This is how you get a toddler to stay still on a train ride.

Enjoying the fresh fall air.

After the train ride, we went to the lake there and ate lunch.

The weather was gorgeous.

We took them to the trail where John-David and I went bike riding.

These two, of course, couldn't resist a photo opt.

I am made good use of my mom's sewing skills and roped her into a few projects. One of them was a jumper for Jocelyn that she is modeling. I have to wait until Christmas to show the rest.

The day before my mom flew home, we went down to Philadelphia to show my mom a few of the sites. The traffic in Philadelphia was true to form so we only got to see a few of the things we planned. We had to make a stop to the Philadelphia Art Museum. It's steps were made famous by Rocky's run through Philadelphia and ending up at the top of the stairs.

"Yo Adrianne"

We couldn't resist taking our picture with Rocky

and then running up the stairs.

The view from the Philadelphia Art Museum or the

Rocky steps. Whichever you prefer.

The top of the "Rocky Steps"

As you can see half of the kids were having melt downs so our picture

in front of the Rocky statue was less than ideal. I think we scared

the group of foreign youth waiting for us to leave from ever having children.

We went to the park behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

My camera doesn't do these boat houses justice. They are absolutely adorable.

This is the back side of the museum. We over heard a couple meeting with a wedding planner about having their reception here. It would be a pretty pricey to have your wedding here but it would be beautiful.

Jackson and Jocelyn posing for a photo.

It reminds me of an engagement photo.

The Philadelphia skyline

Elfreth's Alley.

The oldest neighborhood in the U.S.

We stopped here on our way to

drop off Grandma at the airport.

Thanks Grandma!

We can't wait until next year.