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...