Vacay in PA

In May, our family traveled to Pennsylvania to visit our dear friends and our children's godparents ("Padrino and Madrina"), Brandon and Corene, and their children, Jude, Abigail and Ezra. As I was still suffering from pregnancy sickness and since "it's the dad's job" anyway, Gabe drove all the way to (and from!) Pennsylvania. The boys were able to eat, sleep and read en route; Gabe to do none of those things; and me, to eat, pretend to sleep and read no more than a dozen pages. Road trips: Ya gotta love 'em. (Many thanks to Cousin Stephie for loaning us her family's portable DVD player; it killed a few miles!)

Pig with apple.

We all spent a couple days and a night at Brandon's parents house, which is "out in the country." They live in a beautiful wooded development, which was nice and quiet, and we all enjoyed being spoiled by them. I don't think that Corene or I did any cooking, and we were treated to a delicious steak, grilled tuna, grilled garlic bread and artichoke dinner our first night there. (I'm sure that there was more food on the table, but my memory is having trouble stretching back two whole months.) The food was very, very exciting, and the quiet setting was so relaxing. Thanks, Ann and David!

Manny and Ezra enjoyed playing with -- what else? -- rocks in the front yard.

Jonah, Ezra, Abigail and Jude, all feast on Kid Cuisine at Grandma's house. Hey, a vacation's not a vacation without a little KC.

Grandma (Miss Ann, as our kids called her) also has a sandbox-in-a-tub. This idea is so fantastic that I now have two of these boxes o' sand at our place in Chicago. Miss Ann, however, has blue sand. I can't compete with that.

One of our excursions was going to the Army Corps resevoir and feeding the carp. Yes, that's right, carp-feeding. They eat pieces of dog food, turning into a writhing mass of slimy green scales and gaping O-shaped mouths. The carp also like to splash their slime-tainted water all over when they get really excited about their meal. It's truly disgusging, but the kids love it. Below, Brandon and Corene try to make sure that the little ones don't fall in. (They succeeded, thank heavens.)

Here's some fun video, so you can get a taste of the experience. Just make sure to keep your mouth closed -- flying water!
I'm pretty sure that the Swishers don't consider a visit to their place to be official without a visit to the Berkey Creamery, the ice cream shop on the Penn State campus. It's okay with us if a stop at the Creamery is mandatory.

Brandon single-handedly entertains five children. Nice job, Padrino.

Manny ran away. Thanks to Jude for chasing him down. Watching Jude carry my younger son was a little nerve-racking, but really quite sweet.

Many thanks to our dear friends for opening their home to us! We all have very fond memories of our visit with them and can't wait for the next time that we get to go back, whenever that may be. We miss you, Swishers!