Trip to Penn

At Heinz Field

Well...after almost a year in planning, we just got back from our trip to Pennsylvania. We had a blast! We were originally planning on taking two days to get there, but after Steve's brother and his wife decided to get on the road at 1:30am, we decided...what the heck....lets just get there. It took about 16 hours from door to door, but we made it, and boy were we happy to have finally gotten there. On the way there Steven decided it was time to get a fever and anyone who knows my son knows that this is his M.O. (method of operation). Before ANY holiday or ANY vacation, my son gets sick...I don't know why, but he does. I was giving him Advil the entire way there and he HATES IT! It took over an hour at one point to get him to finish 1 1/2 tsp. The next morning he slept in until 9:30 and and his fever broke. He was fine the entire rest of the time we were there. On Saturday we went to "Big Bear Lake" in West Virginia (http://www.bigbearwv.com/pageload.cfm) where Steve's aunts and uncle's had their own property there. There is a water park there as well that we all went to and had a good time. I think Steven was still feeling a little under the weather and stayed with me most of the time. We then had a huge family gathering at our cabin on Sunday evening where ALL the family came and we got to visit. We stayed local as well while we were there and visited local waterfalls, rock slides, general stores, go-carts, etc. On Tuesday, we took a behind the scenes tour of  "Heinz Field" where the Pittsburgh Steelers play which was very cool. We then went to lunch at "Primanti Brothers" in the strip district. This is Steve's brother's favorite place to go when we go to Pitt. This in the third time I have been to Pitt and also the third time to "Primanti Brother's". http://www.primantibrothers.com/index.html. We then rode the incline, did some local shopping, and then let the kids play in a fountain with water set to music. They loved it! Steve and the rest of his family are huge fans of a local restaurant called "Bud Murphy's" http://www.budmurphys.com/Home_Page.php and they just could not wait to get there to have some of their pizza. All in all it was a wonderful trip and we had a great time with family. I am looking forward to going again...sooner than later (our last trip there was when Steven Jr. was 9 months old).

If you click on the title of this post it will take you to my "YouTube" page where I have a number of video's that I took while on this trip.

Frogs & Fireworks, July 4th, 2010

I must say...I love the title to this post...."Frogs & Fireworks"..It almost sounds like an annual event...come to think of it...I think it should be....Fireworks and Frog Gigging! Well...Steve Jr was so excited about seeing his cousins that he could not stay awake for the festivities. He was asleep by 9:00p.m. He and his cousins went swimming, we fished and then they played until dinner. After about 2 bites of dinner it was bath time, his nightly "night cap" of chocolate milk, and then he was asleep within 5 min.  After a wonderful dinner with Kay and Mike, we did fireworks and then went "Frog Gigging" in two good size ponds that surround the house. Steve had recently told me that he and his brother had seen some huge frogs there and had wanted to go "Frog Gigging" but did not have the proper tools to do so. On our way to Monticello, Fl yesterday morning we stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up a 5 prong "Frog Gigger". It looks like the top of a large fork. Steve cut down a small tree, and used that for the long handle of the "Gigger". We then took to the banks of both ponds and also got into a small boat and "gigged" from the water. I must say...we both had a blast and were able to come away with 11 large frogs. We watched a video on "YouTube" which showed us how to clean the frog legs (very easy) when we got home this morning. I let Steve do the cleaning and I assisted, but WOW..what a cool new experience. Thank you GOD for this gift of family, and this new experience that I was able to have and share with my n-laws and my husband.

Click on the title to this post for a "YouTube" video of one of the frogs that we caught...Enjoy