Catching Up...

Apologies for the lack of updates, it's just been too busy to think. We've taken another trip to Boston, then to North Carolina for our nieces's baby shower, then my parents visited, then I had a scare with A-Fib, then we went to Gettysburg, then Christie worked 6 out of 7 days (and is in the middle of another identical stretch). Whew! I haven't been feeling too hot lately and we had a mini-heat wave here, so we're all pretty worn out. 

The big news is that our next assignment starts in Little Rock, Arkansas at University of Arkansas Medical Center on August 29th. We're hoping to extend this assignment up to the holidays so we can be home for Christmas. It'll be great to see friends and family, though we're already missing all the awesome people we've met here in Pennsylvania. 

Here's some pictures of the last few weeks. I should be back to normal posting next week.

Back Bay, Boston. Didn't take many pictures this trip-
it was very fast, and not very fun. Plan to go back with
friends in late August though.

Breakfast outside at the Foley's. We try to go down for the
weekends when we can. Christie fixed biscuits and sausage
gravy for Mark (his favorite). Granny Lucy's recipe. Yum!

4th of July fun. Playing with fire is one of the dangerous
things we insist is important for kids to do, along with
owning a pocket knife, etc. They think July 4th is the greatest
thing EVER.

Next up, our oldest niece, Lynsey's baby shower. This was a chance to travel to North Carolina to see not only her, but Christie's parents who traveled from Arkansas to be there. We haven't seen them in almost 6 months.

The baby's room is Jungle themed.

Eric, Lynsey, Nana, Papaw

A "diaper" cake. Sounds gross at first, until you
know what it is. Christie made this in about an hour.
Sometimes I think she missed her calling.

My parents were travelling to see family and friends and stopped by Hershey the day after we returned from North Carolina. We met them along with a surprise passenger (our niece, Emily) at Hershey World.

 

We were able to meet the Foley's and Vavo (Stacy's Mom)
for lunch at Batdorf's afterward. Glad they got to meet
each other.

And FINALLY a trip to Gettysburg to the Civil War museum. I could say a lot about this but I don't want to bore everyone. Suffice to say, it's sad so many had to die over an issue that should be so simple and obvious. Also sad that it took another hundred years to even come close to seeing equality realized. I love the history, but to me, this is one of the most disheartening and tragic events to have to teach our children about. Hopefully they learn from it. 

Gettysburg Train Station where Lincoln pulled
into town the day before he delivered his address
at the cemetery. 

"Well HELLO Mr. Lincoln!" (obligatory Friends reference...)

The Wilkes house, where Lincoln finished
writing the Gettysburg Address.

Monument to the Pennsylvania soldiers

That's it for now. More tomorrow.

Livin' In An Amish Paradise

We didn't spend tons of time in actual Amish country, but Lancaster, PA has plenty of fun stuff to do that incorporates modern transportation, electricity, and air conditioning. My kind of day trip. We asked the Foley's to be our tour guides since they knew all the good spots and particularly, where to find all the good food.

First stop, Wilbur Chocolate Factory. You can't see the actual workings of the factory, but they had a nice little chocolate shop/museum up front where you can watch some of the more customized candies being

decorated.

I wasn't paying real close attention to Brennan who may
have sampled enough chocolate for our entire group...

Some of the older tools of the chocolate trade

Next up, Central Market. This is purportedly the longest functioning farmer's market in the U.S. It is by far the biggest and most diverse we've been to so far. Outside was a guy playing one of the many pianos stationed around the city. He did a beautiful rendition of "People Get Ready" by Curtis Mayfield (oh yeah!). Some other people gathered around and started singing, something that actually happened quite a bit around the market with various buskers.

Too much good food to pick from. We ended up with a Kalosh, Artichoke Hummus, A Lamb Gyro, Olives, Moroccan Couscous, Blueberries, Olives, Sweet Rolls, two kind of fresh goat cheese, Banana chips, and those wax candy bottles with the juice inside. We skipped about ten things we wanted to buy (including an incredible loose leaf tea assortment) and it's a good thing because three days later we're still eating leftovers. 

 We ate lunch outside of the market in downtown.Great weather. That's Vavo, Stacy's mom, on the left.

Next up, Intercourse Pretzel Factory where the kids got to make their own pretzel. Intercourse, PA is outside of Lancaster, a little deeper into actual Amish country. It is so called because it is at the intercourse of several different state highways. What were YOU thinking?

Then we stopped by an actual Amish farm to pick up some homemade rootbeer. You can easily spot the Amish residences as you drive along because there are no electric lines running to the homes. We obviously didn't take many pictures inside the little shed where they kept their store, since the Amish don't like cameras. There was a huge group of people gathered to watch a kids' baseball game out behind the barn while we were there. You really get a sense that they don't want their community to be treated as an anomaly, so we tried not to stare too much. The rootbeer was really strong, and not nearly as sweet as A&W. Went great in a rootbeer float though.

The next morning, Christie fixed a good southern breakfast at the Foley's - fried eggs, bacon, and sausage gravy and biscuits (Mark's favorite). The only thing missing was grits. =( The weather was, as usual, awesome, so the adults sat on the back porch. What a relaxing meal...

We are indebted to these nice people's hospitality. They've
made our Pennsylvania experience really special.

We ended the weekend by seeing Cars 2, which the boys loved, then headed home so Christie could work a few shifts before our Boston trip at the end of the week.