Whirlwind Weekend

The three of us left Friday AM around 7ish for PA. We met Ben's Dad in Hazleton, and the two of them took off for some golfing fun (this time, they didn't go 3x in one weekend - lol!). Rachel and I headed down to my parents house to wait for them to get back from the doctors and hopefully get a good afternoon nap in for Rachel - especially since she didn't sleep at all on the way up to PA. Unfortunately, she took a 20 min catnap between Hazleton and my parents house, so although I fed her and let her play for a while when we got to my parents, she still took about an hour to fall asleep. Literally, she fell asleep....I watched around the corner as she was sitting up fussing, and fell down, stayed there fussing for about 10 seconds before nodding off. She proceeded to only sleep for about 45 minutes and woke up crying. Perhaps it's b/c she fell into the corner to sleep and woke up w/ two large red marks on her face, which took about 2 hours to clear up....ruining any photop moments w/ my parents;( But, I had a relaxing time hanging out w/ my parents, and I got to hold my friend's 5lb 3 week old baby (yes, he's a preemie). He was just so little and sweet. It got my baby urge out of me for a while....especially as they were lamenting the minimal sleep they were getting. Rachel and I re-joined Ben later that evening and we got to see Rachel's Grandma and Pah-Pah and her Aunt Kelly and cousins. Here's Rachel enjoying the first of hopefully many rides in the hummer at Grandma and Pah-Pah's house. Thanks for the lift, 'Miah!

Aside from the 5:30 wakeup call from Rachel on Saturday, her sleep went back on track throughout the rest of the weekend, including our transition home. So, no more whining about sleep:) On Saturday, we mostly hung out, went to Quaker Steak & Lube (Katy -try not to be jealous - btw, I did look for the sauces, but couldn't find them - maybe it's a western PA thing?), and then went to the Bloomsburg Fair. A lot of eating all in one day - thanks to Grandma and Pah-Pah - we definitely could not have eaten all that we did at the fair w/ out you watching Rachel for us! For those of you not familiar w/ the Bloomsburg Fair, you definitely should head to the great state of PA sometime to check it out - Carrie Underwood was there last year. And although, they only had Taylor Hicks this year, they do actually get some other good concerts in there. I can tell you where to get the best apple dumpling (well, 2nd best since I think the best are at Rohrbachs during Pumpkin Days) w/ cinnamon ice cream and a quart of apple cider (that makes you look like a hick when you drink straight out of the container like I did) or really, really good gyros, cheese steaks, beef sandwiches, and bloomin onions....just to name a few delicacies:) I was amazed at how many infants there were at the fair at 9PM admist thousands of people....infants that couldn't have been more than 1 month old. Then, there were the 3-4 year olds munching on cotton candy at 9:30/10PM - wow, I can't even imagine that! But, good times were had by all!

I think by our next visit to PA, Rachel will get more and more acquainted w/ stairs. She was a little curious about the stairs, so we'll see how she is w/ them the next time we head north. Until then, she'll have to continue the joy of crawling about an apartment:)We arrived back home around 1PM on Sunday, and we all took some much needed naps. Rachel treated us by taking a 3 hour nap....allowing her to do very nicely in nursery Sunday night at church and start out our week on some good sleep!