Ricket's Glen, Princess Party, Home

After Connecticut, we were headed to MJ's for a special early Princess Party for Miss Micah in Harrisburg. Mary Jo had never thrown a birthday party for Micah like she did Becket and Gretchen, so the ever generous gal that she is wanted to do it for her before we left for SLC. (that makes me a little sad writing that, new subject)

Because we had a little bit of time and because we were all so car sick and/or sick of the car, we stopped at one of our top ten hikes in America; Rickett's Glen. It would be a must in the world of hikers. Waterfall after waterfall. Beautiful.



Don't know why Becket's hand is so endearingly wrapped around my hair, but I'll take that as an "I love you."

We hiked this when Becket was about 11mths old. I tried to capture the same pose with his Daddy, but as you can see, my head remembered them in the opposite direction. Oh well, at least Becket got to crawl on his Dad's back.



Here's Becket 7.9 mths later:



And, while we're at it, here's a few MORE children 7 .8 yrs later (this math is making my head swell, and I'm positive I calculated wrong, so just carry on)


Then we arrived at the Royal Palace, Mary Jo's! What a fun treat to see all the decorating and details she put in for this acting princess. She and Eileen like to make sure these kids are more than loved. The kids were nice and showered with gifts and attention. Thank you.


Joel the neighbor even came by to sing her a lullaby and the other next door neighbors, the Linguses, gave her some birthday money. (Yikers! that reminds me I need to get a thank you note in the mail)



These dogs, Ivan (top) and Buster, (bottom) are also loved too. Here's Micah saying "I LIKE it!"

We went for a walk down by the river after a lovely dinner from Italian family restaurant Elecco's. The walk cleared enough room for cake and ice cream.



We took some cake to the Linguses next door too.



The next day we we headed over to Hershey. Mat hadn't been to any of my adventures to PA since Micah was in the womb, so it was fun to show him the renovations around our old stomping grounds. It was, what's the word?...nostalgic to be back where we started, even though we are at the moment finishing what we started. Hmm, is there a better word for that? (Send them to me vocab smartys)

We took a picture of the family at our old UME apartment although it was more like a bunker back then with zero light. We drove around the hospital and downtown Hershey. We even stopped to take one last ride on the chocolate tour at Hershey. We always say it is one last ride, but it never is.



We finished up with lunch at Okini. They've got some wonderful sushi that Mat had only heard about, but never tried. There you have it! Go ahead and get your "Eeewwws!" out if you think it is disgusting, but I'm telling you from the bottom of my sushi heart, it is good sushi. I eat it for breakfast.



I noticed that Mary Jo's shirt matched the take home bag. That explains a lot about Mary Jo. Happy. You also have in the picture, Gretchen getting quacky about her Pringles, the sushi chef always wanting to give candy to the kids, and Eileen's small soup bowl that was magically changed to an extra large soup bowl when Eileen wasn't looking. It was a riot to see her face when it was brought to her.


Bye-bye, fun trip AND HELLO packing. Packing. Packing. More packing.