Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

We spent our Good Friday in the wood.  Isn't that a great way to spend the day? I recieved a tip last Saturday about the rock formations on the Standing Stone Trail in the Rocky Ridge Natural Area.  Since it is only 20 minutes from our house and the children absolutely love rocks, we had to check it out ASAP. Brady summed up our hike many times by saying, "This is AWESOME!" I think he ran 3/4 of the "hike".  We hiked up to the top of the ridge where the rock formations called the Three Sisters are located.  We spent a lot of time on these VERY large rocks.  Or maybe I should call them boulders. These pictures do not show the scope of these rocks at all . We climbed up some of the large boulders.  I had to keep reminding them that you must come down what you go up! "Mom, we found a cave!"  The "cave" actually was very large boulders all piled up and resting on each other.  We ended up crawling through the "cave...

I finally gave in and sent Amie to preschool.  And, she LOVES it! She was obviously excited to start preschool.

Jesse was working yesterday, and we (I) could not bear to spend the whole day inside the house.  So, the children and I went on a hike to the Peace Chapel.  I feel very blessed on many occasions that we have this public forest area close by. On the way there, they decided the wanted to walk to the Peace Chapel and the flag pole.  We've been the both plenty of times before but not on the same hike. I knew they could make it to the flag pole fine, but I wasn't sure they could return to the Peace Chapel parking area without a lot of complaining.  But, they convinced me, and they did it!  Natalee actually wanted to go further. Of course they had to walk (or run) around the Peace Chapel.  Then, we started off for the flag pole. We made it to the flag pole! Pretty view of town from Flag Pole Hill

We wanted to take the kids skiing at least one time year.  They went for lessons once, but we all wanted to go together. (minus Amie, though she wanted to go) This time we went to Blue Knob, which has more skiing options than Tussey.  We signed the children up for lessons again.  They have 2 hour lessons at Blue Knob.  So, Jesse and I got a 5 hour pass for ourselves.  We skiied during their lessons and then joined the children for lunch and afternoon skiing. It worked out nicely.  Natalee was paired with a girl who was a little more advanced. (e.i. it pushed her to go a little faster)  Brady was paired with a boy who ended up dropping out.  So, he had an instructor to himself for half of the lesson. In this first video, you'll have to ignore the first ten seconds of video of Jesse's coat.  He didn't know he was recording.  In fact, before he recorded this, he thought he was recording Brady skiing, but he wasn't.  So, this i...