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Pennsylvania Trip Part 3

Before I start this post I just wanted to say how EXCITED I am because I just got back from purchasing my brand new Canon 50D body....I am looking forward to taking a lot of new pictures with my new camera and posting them for everyone to view....I've gotta finish editing the hundreds of other pictures I have since October though before I post new ones. :) :)

So on to Part 3 of our PA vacation....

The next day we decided to go back to Allegany State Park as there is just so much to see and do there....we went a different direction this time and drove through semi off-roads and finally wound up back on the main street through the park. We found a set of trails that were a bit hidden and decided to venture on them.

We looked at the map we had gotten at the entrance and saw that the trail led up to this other area we wanted to visit and thought 'hey! We can make it up there! Let's go!'.....so after we're walking about an hour or so (mind you, Caydan is running along with his little legs the whole time), we get to a point where we can compare landmarks to the map again and realize that we hadn't even gone a quarter of the way towards where we wanted to be!

So much for that idea...we turned back at that point and started walking back towards the car...to distract Caydan I sang just about every kids song I could think of and he walked alongside me singing along. The last 10 minutes or so of our walk though, his little legs couldn't go no more and Dada and I took turns carrying him. :)

Here's a shot of Caydan and his walking stick...he HAD to be like Dada and get a stick...why Dada needed one either I'm not sure...but they insisted. :)

This was a portion of the gorgeous trail that we walked on...the trees were all so beautiful and lush and it was just such a peaceful walk.

Here we stopped for a bit to pose for some pictures. :)

After our Allegany Park trip, we went back over to more family's house and hung out there for a bit....Emily and Caydan played with a doctor's set that they had there....the funny glasses seemed to be a big hit :)

Then they had some coloring book time. :)

And then we watched some television, had popcorn, and played with barbies. :)

The next day we trekked on over to Coudersport, PA where my father, stepmother, and 2 younger sisters live. It's about 30 minutes from Smethport, PA...about an hour from Bradford, PA.

My dad and stepmom have miniature Schnauzers and 2 of the females had a litter of puppies each just about a week or so before we got there. So this was a special treat for Emily and Caydan. After saying hi to my dad (he was the only one home when we got there), the kids were immediately introduced to the new additions....puppies are so darn cute!

My sisters got home from school a little bit later...the youngest, Sarah, is a high school cheerleader in the younger squad (sorry I don't know the lingo)...there was a football game going on that night and so she was dressed and ready to go. Her coach (?) allowed her to cheer with the varsity squad all night since we were in town watching her....I thought that was really nice of her to do and it was great to see her cheer her heart out that night....the team lost which was a bit of a bummer, but still a fun night. :)

The older of my two sisters, Casey, is in this pic lounging with Caydan and Emily. :)


The next day we wanted to get out and do something outdoors....so we followed my dad and everyone down to the local deer park where you can buy these "deer biscuits" and feed the deer through the cages. It's great fun for the little ones especially, and great photo ops for me. :)

his picture below is in my top 5 favorites from the whole trip! What a great moment. (That's my stepmother in the pic with Caydan.)
In addition to deer feeding, the location also had a rock/gem sifting activity. You go in the store on location and purchase a bag of "dirt" for about $10...you then go outside to their running water area and put your dirt in these sifters (like the kind you used to play with at the beach to find shells!) and you sift the sand out of (like panning for gold) until all you have left are all of these pretty little gems. A few big ones and tons of tiny ones.

After everyone got through their bags, we discovered that 1. there were tons more tiny stones in the water areas that people had let fall, and 2. the grounds all around the area were also covered in the pretty rocks.....so we all spent another 30 minutes "treasure hunting" around the grounds for more stones. :)

After we left here, Dan, Caydan, Emily and I stopped at another set of trails to go walking and exploring...I didn't take any pics though (bad me!), but it was tons o' fun as well!

There's still more! I'm tellin' ya...we were BUSY this "vacation"! :)

To Be Continued...

Pennsylvania Trip Part 2...

So I forgot to add a couple of pics from Alegany State Park in my last blog...so here they are...

This is a shot of the lake...so pretty :)

And here's one of me and my little Caydan. :) This was on our walk around the lake area. :)

It's been a little while since we took our vacation...so the details are already getting a little fuzzy...but either the next day, or maybe the same day....whenever it was, it was the next thing we did..........but we went to Dan's sister's house, Amy, to hang out with her and the kiddies in Smethport, PA.

This pic includes 2 of the 3 kids at Amy's house...Kolin and Katelyn.

Caydan discovered 4-wheeler fun...his first time on one and he absolutely loved it. Obviously it was a kid's sized one, but it went pretty fast. :)

Kolin showed him the ropes a bit and I caught a pretty darn cute moment here with the two of them:

Then Uncle Dan took Kolin and Katelyn for a ride on the big 4-wheeler...it took forever to start the 4-wheeler up because it hadn't been rode in awhile....but after about 2 hours of persistent effort, it finally got started up (I believe Amy's neighbor was the one who actually came over and started it...he's a pro I think). Right behind Amy's house is little wooded area with 4-wheeler trails and a little stream...and really steep hills and ditches that were a little scary for someone like me not too familiar with 4-wheeling......I actually got stuck in a giant mud puddle with just me and Caydan at one point out in the woods....a little freaky...but I managed to make it out after about 3 or so minutes.......

Here's a shot of Mimi and little Kolton (the 3rd of the clan) sitting on Amy's porch...

The next day we went and visited some more family during the day....Caydan went blackberry picking in their yard...unfortunately blackberry season was over and a combination of dried out berries, fallen berries, bird-eaten berries, and BEAR-eaten berries, resulted in only a handful of berries left for Caydan to pick....but he still managed to get a few in his cup. We then went into the house and I washed them off and sprinkled some sugar on them for Caydan...but when we tried to eat them, realized that the end of blackberry season leaves some pretty sour berries.......in the trash they went...but at least it was fun. :)

This is actually a REAL bear...trophy bear, hunted down and stuffed....yea...not my thing at all.....but the picture still came out cute. :)

Later that night went to Dan's Aunt Kim's house in Bradford, PA for a gathering of food and family...and a bonfire of course. You can't have a real PA trip without a bonfire...

Right behind and around Aunt Kim's house is a deer park where some guy raises them for hunting I believe.....so towards dusk all the deer came out of hiding to eat and they were just all over the hills and around the house.......I tried to get some pictures, but they were still a little too far for the zoom on my lens...if you look really hard you can see them though...
Emily (right) and Katelyn (left) are cousins and very close in age...plus they're the only 2 girls of their generation in this side of the family, so they get along very well and often run off to play on their own leaving the boys to play on their own. Here they're playing like little girls do on the side of Aunt Kim's house...Caydan liked to follow them around and try and play where they did...I don't think he quite understood yet that girls and boys play different things...Mimi loves to get in on the action and play with all the little ones....I love this pic because it has her and all the next generation little ones in the same pic, with her in the midst of the fun. :)

And here's little Zane, Dan's cousin Amanda's youngest boy...I absolutely loved taking pictures of him because he's just so darn cute and has the most GORGEOUS blue eyes.....reminds me a lot of Avery's eyes...Avery's were a little lighter with white specks, but they're pretty similar.

The end of the night resulted in roasting marshmallows and making smores....you know I can't be around a fire and not roast marshmallows........it just wouldn't make sense...what's the point of a fire if you don't use it for marshmallows???

It was a pretty big fire though...the guys were throwing big pallettes of wood in to burn so it was very hot and hard to get close enough to the fire to roast the 'mallows....you can see Katie rubbing her eyes on the right here because it burned a bit......makes for yummy smores though!

And last but not least....here's Caydan being super cute with Dada's Bills hat hanging out by the fire.....

It was a great night with yummy food and great family.... another great day in Pennsylvania...but there was still so much more to come.....

To be continued...

Pennsylvania - Part 1

A picture story of our summer trip to Pennsylvania...

My father, stepmother, and 2 sisters live in Coudersport, PA.
Dan's whole family, including his 6 year old daughter, live in Bradford and Smethport, PA as well as Limestone, NY.

We went to visit everyone for 2 weeks back in August 2008...it was a VERY busy 2 weeks and we crammed a lot into our trip. :)

Our first stop was Gram's house where Dan's family was gathering to greet us back into the local area. She made her yummy spaghetti and meatballs for everyone to eat. Everyone got to see Caydan for the first time since he was only a few months old.

Dan, Caydan, and I got to see all the kids that had been sprouting out since the last time we had been in town...Dan's sister Amy now has Katelyn, Kolin, and Kolton....and Dan's cousin Amanda has Zander and Zane (they like those matching name letter things!). Along with Caydan and Emily, we could have opened our own daycare at Gram's that day.

Here's a shot of the boys...you try getting 5 rambuctious boys to all sit still and look the same way at the same time.....not gonna happen. :)

This is the youngest of the clan: Kolton

The next day Dan, Caydan, and I made our way over to Alegany State Park in New York state which borders Bradford, PA. This place is beautiful with lots of trails, lakes, wildlife, and plants...we decided to just walk around and explore...we came across an interesting "putt putt golf" course....not what us Angelinos are used to seeing, that's for sure:

We also went to a place called "Thunder Rocks" which has these gi-normous (sp?) boulders that you can climb on or walk around or just stare dumbounded at...again, another thing us Angelinos aren't used to...

We walked around some more and came across a beautiful lake where you can rent paddle boats in the summer...we had just missed them as they had closed for the year the weekend before we went.


And finally we found ourselves at a little playground where Caydan could run around, slide down slides, and climb trees with Dada. :)

To be continued another day... :)