Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Birthday Trip to Lancaster

I'm back from a wonderful weekend with my family in Lancaster, Pa. It started off with a long night in the airport, enjoying Starbucks and a good book. I can't remember the last time I did that. Kaden cried when him and Andy left the airport, and I felt terrible for leaving him, but I knew it would be good for all of us. Andy was looking forward to a guy's weekend with his little buddy, and I was looking forward to a weekend with family and shopping! After being served beverages from an airplane cart in the terminal (everything else was all closed up by then), we finally boarded the plane and I arrived at my parent's house around 12:30 on Friday morning.

I slept for a few hours and at 8am we were off to first get a notorious egg and cheese sandwich. My mouth was already watering just thinking about a NJ egg sandwich- nothing beats it! At 8:20am, we arrived at my Grandma's house. We had it all strategically planned- from which way she would enter the car to how long it would take for her to lock up her house. I sat in the back seat with a camera in front of my face ready to capture the moment. My Grandma got in the car, looked at my mom in the front seat and said, "Hi, Sharon." I was wondering how long it was going to take for her to realize I was sitting right next to her in the backseat. She looked at me, and after a brief paused, exclaimed, "Yennifer!" (The Y is from her heavy Dutch accent). She cried and said, "Now this is going to be the best weekend ever!". I think we surprised her, what do you think?!? :)

The rest of the weekend was full of lots of laughs, time spent with family, and shopping. My Dad had to buy a trailor for the car to fit everything, and his chairs were tied to the roof. The biggest joke of the weekend was my antique window that I'm SO excited to get. It's a good thing my parents are driving out here in a month- they'll transport all of my large items to MI for me! :) My grandma couldn't believe I'd pay money for a falling apart, antique window. But, I've got the perfect plan for it in my house. A different generational view, I guess. We shopped till we dropped, bought too much, ate lots of good food, but most importantly, spent time as a family.

Now it's back to reality, catching up, snuggling with my little man, working, and jumping into the routine again. Even though life quickly goes on, I'll savor the memories with family and my Grandma. Life is precious, and I'm determined to savor life memories like these.


Surprise!


Yennifer is here!


Family picture- my Grandma, me, and my mom

Amish boys on their way home from school. I love it.


The girls on their way home from the one-room schoolhouse

A little blurry, but that's what happens when you try to hide taking pictures of Amish schoolchildren from the back of a moving car.

A little girl and mother or older sister on a bike.

The Amish version of a minivan.

I think at this point my Grandma was telling us we were nuts. The Amish guy was also selling us his personal trailer. Nice.

"See, this old window can go right here." I won't even tell you what my Grandma said after that.

Roadside stand. Buy some gourds, and put some money in the basket.

The scenery. Sometimes I wish I lived a more simple life.

The final packing job of the trailer. Notice my window and suitcase are both on there.

Ta Da! My dad was proud of his packing job.

Me and Grandma

My Family (minus my brothers)

Amish one-room schoolhouse. Maybe I should move here and teach there.

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