Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

Natalee has absolutely loved swimming this summer.  She's become quite passionate about it.  She loves to go to practice.  A few times she even begged to go to two practices in one day!  If you would have told me this two years ago, I wouldn't have believed it! Two years ago, she wouldn't even allow water to run over her face.  Last summer she still struggled with fear and believing that she could swim.  Over the winter, things suddenly clicked.  Natalee overcame FEAR. And, now she LOVES swimming.  I really don't care how many ribbons or medals she wins.  I'm ecstatic that she overcame fear and is currently seeing success and improvement. This year I forced Natalee to try a home meet. She loved it. I forced her to try an away meet. She loved it. I forced her to try swimming the butterfly stroke in a meet. She loved it. And, she ended up being selected by coaches to swim that stroke in the championship medley relay. Somehow she was a...

In all those years that I lived in Washington state, I never saw Sasquatch.  Well, I saw him in Pennsylvania! A few weekends ago, we went up to camp for the afternoon/evening.  It was a lot of fun! Brady with too much messy marshmallow. We roasted hotdogs and made smores with the Yoders. After being with them all the younger two could do was talk about Kaylene coming to their house soon to babysit.  The anticipation was high! Amie sneaking more cheese curls...  Everyone went for 4 wheeler rides. The kids, especially Brady, discovered that it was quite fun to put things into the top of the creek water pipe and watch it pop out the other end and float down the stream.  With all the rain we had earlier in the month, the creek was running quite nicely.  They put ice cubes, ferns, and moss into the pipe.  The ice cubes and ferns were fun to watch float down the stream.  The moss made a nice splash. They watched the it...

We went to Fort Roberdeau on the 4th of July with Jesse's family. We were planning to spend more of the day there and take a picnic, but more rain ruined that idea.  Luckily it cleared off for the afternoon.  Fort Roberdeau had a special day to celebrate Independence Day.  It was a revolutionary war fort, although it never saw any battle.  We learned how they washed their clothes, how to throw hatchets at the target, the medicines they used, how to start a fire, and more. In the farmhouse on the property, the kids learned how people dressed during the revolutionary era and they got to dress up in the clothes. Brady had to be convinced to participate (or rather threatened with an early bedtime!).  There was no way that "Napless Amie" was going to dress up.  She's not a dress up type.  In fact, she recieved an Elsa dress for her birthday and has only worn it once-- for 42 seconds. Outside by the garden, they had a demonstration showi...

With Jesse's parents visiting, we planned an outing to hike next to Detwiler Run in Rothrock State Forest.  We knew there were beautiful stands of rhododendrons along the path and stream.  That hike turned out to be a bust.  1.  We passed blooming rhododendrons on the drive there, but these ones were not blooming yet. 2. Huge trees fell down during one of the many rain storms we've had lately.  3. The trail was nothing but mud.  4.  There was so much water in the stream that you could not distinguish the many cute waterfalls.  In fact, there was so much water you couldn't even go out to the viewpoint. We had already thought that perhaps we'd go to Shaver's Creek Environmental Center afterward.  We just went much earlier than anticipated.  We observed and learned about the raptors at the center.  Plus, we went into the nature center, too.  The kids loved it. When we were at Cowan's Gap State Park earlier this summer, Natalee...