Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

Yesterday, we went to Isett Acres Museum (neat museum, but we experienced a meltdown b/c of flying bees after being tired of the museum). In the afternoon, we headed out to Trough Creek State Park for a small hike. Here is Grandma and Natalee waiting for Jesse, Grandpa, and Brady to show up. This is part of Rainbow Falls. Natalee and I are sooooo strong! We held up the rock together. The whole beautiful group posing in front of the Balanced Rock. The Balanced Rock from the parking lot: It was a short hike, but perfect for our fun family outing. Natalee hiked nearly the entire trail by herself. She found walking on the rocks and crossing the suspension bridge very fun. Then we ended the day by eating at the Marina Cafe at Lake Raystown Resort .

Grandma and Grandpa Honn are here visiting us this week. At the beginning of the week, it was really hot. It went from the 40's one day to the upper 80's the next day (much too hot in my opinion). But, it was beautiful and sunny. Grandma and Grandpa brought Natalee some sidewalk chalk, so we spent part of an afternoon outside playing.

We had a fun visit with Jen and Lilly today. The girls had a fun time playing and the moms had a great time catching up with each other. This was a brief moment when both girls were sitting down together to play. A lot of the visit was spent playing "chase", dumping out toys, and dancing. Brady being a cutie. Natalee posing next to her brother. What in the world got into her!!! Although she loves her brother, she never poses when I want her to! (Thanks for the pictures Jen !)

Wow, Brady is a month old already! He now weighs 10lbs 4 oz (50 th percentile) -- up from the 25 th percentile when born -- and he is 21 5/8 inch long, which is also the 5 oth percentile. I guess that shows that his ravenous eating habits (eating every 2 hours or so day and night) are allowing him to gain weight! Brady loves his sister. He really pays attention to her voice. And, Natalee is SOOOOO helpful with Brady. She likes to help put the pacifier in his mouth. Yesterday, I put Brady to sleep in his chair. I wanted to use the restroom quickly before I went back to put Natalee down for a nap. When I came out, Brady was awake and Natalee was trying to stuff the pacifier in his mouth (like the scene below). Was he already awake or was he awake because Natalee was stuffing the pacifier in his mouth???? I'm leaning toward the latter because I did not hear him cry at all!!!!! I thought, o bother, now we have to start over again.

Yesterday, we went to the Easter Egg Hunt in Belleville. Yes, Natalee was petrified of the Easter Bunny. When he jumped off the truck (in the picture background) she dove onto my lap and cried. She did not want to be anywhere in the vicinity of him. She did not like it, here, when Kate and Todd had their picture with him. Pappy had to get her candy from him because she wasn't about to go up the Easter bunny, even with me carrying her and everyone coming with her. In fact, she didn't even like it when Pappy went up there by himself. But, she did enjoy retrieving the Easter eggs into her basket. She got 3 purple eggs and one yellow egg. Thank goodness we got a yellow egg.... and the Easter Bunny stayed away!

In a side story.... Today at church, Natalee was playing in the nursery during the service. The nursery caretaker motioned me out of church. When I went out in the hallway, Natalee was crying really hard. What in the world? Even when I took her, she did not stop. So, we went for a walk to calm her down. When she was calm, she decided we could go back to the nursery and I would play with her. When we went in, she started to wimper again. I was trying to figure out what went wrong. The caretakers offered her some Cheerios, and she gladly went to the table to eat Cheerios with me sitting next to her. All of the sudden, she spied the TV and dove into my lap crying again. It dawned on me....Barney was on the TV! She doesn't like Barney, apparently.

He already knows how to doze off while hunting!

Sunday, I had the opportunity to ride my bike from our house up the to the Peace Chapel. I think I found the Peace Chapel! It looked like I did. These pictures are taken from the meditation point. It was beautiful up there. There are some more places I have to explore up here but ran out of time on this day. I thought there was a flag pole up here on top of a hill??? I never saw that. The reason I found out about this spot is because I could see a flag pole up on top of the hill from my hospital room. Well, I guess I'll have to explore more to find out where the flag pole is!

Brady chillin' in the Boppy pillow: Every time we are outside, Natalee picks up sticks for us. It was really windy on Monday, so she got a bunch more sticks to pick up now. She uses the wheelbarrow that was mine when I was a kiddo.

Spring is finally here! It was nice outside this afternoon, so we all got outside to do a little lawn work. Natalee was a big help. Meg was pretty much a slacker. And Brady just took a nap. I have been slowly getting the lawnmower repainted. Originally, I was just going to repaint the mower deck, since more than half the paint was missing. Then I was just going to "touch up" the main part of the tractor. However, after I spent all the time taping stuff off to avoid overspray, I decided I might as well paint the whole thing. While it is certainly not a professional job, you would never know if you didn't see it close up.

Jesse's folks live in Idaho again. Brady made the Sentinel last Saturday.