Five Boys & a Girl: PA

I think I have a postpartum itch to travel. We went on a spontaneous little trip, south of home, to the state of Pennsylvania. We traveled down to Lake Harmony, PA in the Poconos Mountain region on Sunday afternoon. We took a little detour on our route and visited the Aaronic Priesthood restoration site in Harmony, PA (now Oakland, PA). We walked along the banks of the Susquehanna River (Tag almost fell into the river). It was beautiful, aside from the busy street and train tracks that run through the property. Not quite how it was back in the day, but we tried to envision it.

We had big plans for Monday...they were derailed. I woke up with a dull pain in my lower back. Uh? It got progressively worse as the morning dragged on. Finally at the peak of my agony, Spencer said "We're going to the ER." We drove the 30 minutes to the nearest podunky little hospital where I got a CT scan and a urinalysis to find...kidney stones, on both sides. Killer. Seriously, way worse than childbirth, and I know because I just had a baby! Where is an epidural when you need one? We drove back to the resort, got some prescription's filled, and took it easy for the rest of the night (while I downed as much water as I could tolerate).

Things looked up on Tuesday. We were feeling brave. We made the 1.5 hour drive to Hershey, PA and spent an hour or two in Chocolate World. We also spent way too much money on Hershey's flavored Chapstick, mini soccer ball, baseball, & an oversize Hershey's chocolate bottle bank. Then we got really brave and drove another hour to Gettysburg, PA. The visitor's center had just been built and was awesome. I wish we would have been able to spend more time there, however, by the time we were done with the programs and the visitor's center the boys were spent (& confused about the difference between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.) We started the long drive back to the resort, stopping along the way at one of our favorite restaurants, Red Robin, to grab some dinner.

Wednesday was pure relaxation. We slept in, went to the lake & the boys swam until they couldn't swim anymore! We went miniature golfing...that was interesting. Tag threw is ball into the pond and Taede and Talmage were trying to play baseball with their clubs. Quite the spectacle we were. We dined in, enjoying tacos, and finished off the night by watching a movie together and eating homemade chocolate chip cookies & milk. Perfect.

Thursday we ventured out again. Hitting some of Philadelphia's tourists spots. Of course, food is always important to us Stucki's, so the first place we stopped was for a real Philly Cheese steak. Of course there are a million places that claim to be the "best", we opted for a place that's been around for awhile. It even had it's own official looking government sign indicating it's authenticity, or something like that. I have to say, Pat's didn't disappoint. There's nothing like artificial cheese smothering sliced steak and freshly fried french fries. The next stop in Philadelphia: The Liberty Bell. And there it was...a cracked bell. And that's about all we got out of this historic stop (we'll have to read up on it later). Finally, we visited Valley Forge and once again revisited the confusion of the Civil War versus the Revolutionary War (Truman's good with any war and any war movie and asks over and over again when they are going to start shooting their guns. He then proceeds to pretend that he too, is firing away, in a very vocal manner. Enjoyable for him...maybe not so much for the other tourists.) We saw President George Washington's headquarters used during their encampment at Valley Forge. We would have enjoyed the sites more, but, once again we had the boys exhausted and at their limit. Time to head back.

Friday was another rest and relax day. More lake, more swimming, building sandcastles, Toy Story 3, and of course another family movie night.

Saturday brought the end of our trip. The boys did get in one last swim before was left.