Knoebels 2010 and Family Visit

Every summer our family makes a trip to Knoebels Grove Amusement Park. Since our girls are not the best travelers, we gave ourselves extra time and figured we would break up the trip and stay in a hotel when we reached about the half-way point. This would have worked out nicely if the navigator (that would be me) would have been paying attention instead of facebooking on the hubby's iphone. I thought, "follow Rt. 80 for 273 miles" was pretty clear but apparently was mistaken. Instead, I looked up 2 hours later and was seeing signs for Pittsburgh and it's eastern suburbs, because hubby got off of 80 and hopped onto the PA turnpike. This mishap added another hour to the trip. Once we finally made our way diagonally up through the middle of PA to Rt. 80, we found ourselves stopped due to a truck fire. As in engines off and backed up for miles.
"I have to go potty," was then heard from the backseat. Perfect!! (sarcasm). So- Layla got to have her first "pee beside the road" experience.

We did finally make it to Knoebels although it was much, much, later than anticipated. We met up with some of the family and had a great time riding rides and eating some park treats. Aelyn mostly hung out in the Ergo while Layla tore. the. place. up. She went on the biggest and craziest rides that she was allowed- even the Paratrooper twice in a row.

Since my mom had just had her double mastectomy, her and my dad were unable to make it this year. We spent the night in another hotel and then headed south to spend the rest of the weekend with them. While there, Aelyn got to celebrate her birthday for a second time and received some lovely gifts. One of her favorites is this step stool made by my dad (finishing touches courtesy of my mom).



The rest of our visit was pretty low-key. My parents have a wonderful yard for the girls to play in and explore. Layla loved having her cousin Skyler around to play with...

Layla always amazes us with her ability to find the tiniest things. Here she was showing "Poppy" a cicada shell that she found.


Afterward, there was some garden harvesting.

Layla consumed this tomato, a green pepper, and 5 banana peppers during the process.

Skyler really wanted to play chess with Layla, but it was a bit over her head. He had to settle for some intense games with uncle Lane instead.

After a rough night of sleep on a deflated air mattress, we ended our visit with breakfast at the Red Caboose Motel and Restaurant. This is one of those touristy type places that, growing up in the area, we never really visited. The motel rooms are all converted train cars, and the same goes for the restaurant section. Layla thought this was the neatest idea and wanted to unload the suitcases immediately.


Perhaps we'll have to make reservations during our next visit...