I haven't had an "AT Home" day in over a week. Whew! Today is one of my favorite Mondays, since I am at home, and this week, most days, will be normal. Yay!
So, what have we been up to? Oh, LOTS! And fair warning, this post is picture heavy!
First of all, Dale and I went on a Pastor and Wife retreat last Monday and Tuesday... in Hershey, PA! Oh yeah! I know, taking a chocoholic to Hershey is very dangerous, but I think I did very well. :) Besides, as Dale pointed out, "what happens in Hershey, stays in Hershey." Hehehehehe. The speaker for the conference was Dr. Marriot, president of Maranatha Baptist Bible College (Dale's Alma mater) and his wife, Miriam, also spoke to the ladies in a couple of sessions when we were separated from the guys. It was excellent, and very refreshing!
We stayed in a Comfort Inn, and it was gorgeous. The welcoming committee was very diligent as well.
The rooms were gorgeous, and nice and clean.
I took a fancy to this chair. Weird, I know, but look at the next pic.
Doesn't that look like a quilting pattern? I want to try and mimic it in some experimental quilting. Which brings us to the next pic....
Another quilting inspiration picture (ignore my dress boots please!)
Of course a good distraction is overcoming one obsession with another.
After the conference was over Tuesday around noon, we went to the Hershey "Chocolate World". Oh come on.. it was only 3 miles from the hotel. OF COURSE we were going to stop by! We went on that free ride through the simulation of the factory. Here are some very random shots. By the way, the cows were all singing. Oiy vey.
The beginning of the ride... the floor was on a turn table and you entered the little cars that took you through the ride.
Back side of a fake cow. Charming, eh?
Around a corner, and there were the front of the singing cows.
Trust me, as soon as you set foot in the place, you could smell the chocolate. I think I gained about 10 lbs. just walking through the front door.
These rounds of chocolate were ground down to make cocoa powder. I had some pics of that, but I bumped a button, changed a setting, and they all came out dark and blurry. Pfffft.
More singing cows. Look at the blue and white boa's. I had to laugh at that. Jerusha would have loved it!
Making up chocolate milk.
My personal sweetie!
We went into the shopping area after. Now this is a SERIOUS container of syrup!
Proof we were really there. :)
This is the main entrance to the building.
We were going to take a trolley tour of the area but it didn't leave until we had to pull out for our four hour drive home. We had studied the biography of Milton Hershey back in the fall, and I would have loved to see all the buildings in the town he founded, and hopefully a glimpse at the mansion (if it is even still there). But alas, the meter on the babysitting was ticking, and we had to go. Still, it was an excellent time away, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!
Wednesday was the normal round of laundry, school, and our ASL class and Bible Quiz team practice. Then Thursday was an errand running day. I had library books to return, some to renew, a stop at the thrift store which turned out to be very profitable as EVERYTHING was 50% off in honor of Valentine's day, and a stop at the church to set up for the Fellowship dinner on Sunday, and a stop at the grocery store... you get the idea.
Friday we had school, chores, and then we had to be up at God's Adventure Camp by 5 for a Teen Winter Retreat. I was helping with this one, so I had to pack... again. This time my wardrobe was very different, as you can imagine! We had lots of fun despite some minor injuries here and there in the camp, and some sickness. Thankfully we managed to dodge most of it. Benjamin did sustain some injury. I forgot to get a picture, but his face looks like he was in a fight! He got nailed by a elbow playing football and had a nice scrape under his eyes. Then he got cut with a jousting stick. Normally, the sticks have padding at each end for protection, but during the fight, the safety pad had slipped back and Benjamin got a nice joust right in the chin. Being such a "mom", the first thing I asked, "Are your teeth okay?" We just got done paying for braces. Benjamin, somewhat sarcastically said, "Yeah, I'm fine, Mom, thanks." I offered to sew up the cut, but for some reason he didn't go for it. The cut wasn't deep at all, and just a quick wash and he was off and running again.
One of the girls in the girls' dorm was up in the night with the flu, and had to leave the next morning. Ugh. I'm praying none of us get it!
There were lots of things to do, and if anyone was bored, it was their own fault! Up in the barn there was knife throwing, a trampoline, and basketball, and Foosball, and pool, and .... well, you get the idea.
Here they had a make shift basketball game going. The net was over the trampoline. Hehehehehe! Even I could dunk it if I wanted to!
Yeah, knife throwing.... Esther knife throwing.... RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
There was another pool table in the house. Josiah, as you can see, didn't appreciate his mom stalking him with the camera for some reason.
After the basketball players left, the twins wanted to get on the trampoline. They loved it!
Okay, I loved it too. :P
More games in the barn.
After supper and devotions Friday night, Mr. Greene set up a relay with tires. Oh, the catch was they had to carry one of the girls in a big tube.
We went on a night hike which I absolutely loved! We did that back in November too at the Harvest Retreat, and when I heard they were going to have another one I was so excited!
Obviously, I couldn't get pictures of that, but we went tubing on Saturday, and you can get an idea of the hills in the area. Where we hiked was a steeper, more challenging hill than what you are seeing.
This pic is looking up from where we were tubing. We hiked up that way last November.
This is looking down from where we were tubing. That is the horse ring and the barn, house, and cabins to the left of the picture, which are really hard to make out from this distance.
There was horse riding this time too, and Josiah (red, tan, black coat towards the back of the pack) road the trail for the first time. He looked so relaxed and well seated, I was proud of him! Benjamin was going to go too, but time ran out. The way he was getting injured left and right that day, it was probably a good thing he didn't get on a horse!
Benjamin stayed for a few hours after camp to help clean up, and Mr. Greene drove him home. Meantime, the rest of us got home, took showers, and crashed! We were exhausted!
Sunday was our Fellowship dinner day, and that was fun. We planned some games in honor of Valentine's day, and everyone seemed to have a good time.
As I said, it was a very busy week last week. I'm looking forward to catching up here a bit this week. Elizabeth and Josiah have been sporting sore throats and colds, but are feeling much better. I'm hoping no one else gets it. We are hoping to be able to go see some dear friends of ours on Thursday, but if anyone else gets sick, we'll have to postpone it.
And that's the latest Buzz here at the Beehive!
Have a blessed day everyone!
1 comment:
Ok.. looks like you had fun but I think the boas on cows would have been the LAST thing Jerusha loved in a chocolate factory. hehehe
I want to go camping too! Do they have one for old grownups?
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