Happy Valley, again.

Sure, the Pennsylvania hills are pretty and all, but they're nothing compared with what I imagine is a tanker truck filled with the world's best coffee. I mean, that has to be what this is, right? Oh, wait, that says "on the Interstate." Interstate's best is not = world's best? Shoot.

Like last year's visit, this year's included a visit to Brandon's parents' house, "in the country," as my kids like to say. I think that to their minds, "country" means anything that has a farm or farm animals within a couple miles, so this fit the bill well enough. As soon as we pulled up, the kids leapt out of the van and disappeared into the woods, never to be seen again. Well, until dinner and dessert, and until they ran back to tell us about all the berries they'd found in the woods, or about how one or the other was bugging one or the other of them. Actually, though, this was a pretty quiet portion of the evening for us adults who stayed on the porch. Bliss.

Kisses for Baby Lucia; ice cream; and memory-capturing, in action.

Father's Day.

Maybe this photo would be cuter if it didn't include a smashed quarter of an avocado, but that look on Iohan's face is awesome.

Berkey Creamery: A clown with his very own ice cream, and more kisses for Baby Lucy.

Here's Jude, eating pretzels straight outta the tub. Here's Jonah, acting casual, until he sees his opportunity. Afterwards, he ate his captured pretzels, victorious.

You might guess from the above photos that we had a water-based outing during our visit. The Swishers took us to a nearby waterpark on our last full day in State College. It was great seeing the kids having so much fun, and I think that Gabe and I both had more fun than we could've anticipated. We were even able to sneak away for a bit to go down the giant slides on tubes. It brought back memories of childhood outings to waterparks -- good times! Jonah spent most of the day scooting around by himself, while Manny required Gabe's assistance for maximum fun. He was scared to do much of anything by himself, but he didn't even mind going through the "water blast" as long as Daddy was holding him. So sweet.

Manny and Ezra.

Ioey and Lucy.