I'm back

Hi all!  Sorry for not visiting anyone's blogs the past two weeks but we were out of town visiting our grandbabies!  I will be catching up with stuff because I had a 'Pennsylvania Bucket List' and we managed to hit all of it which was awesome!  We had a blast.  

Just some highlights for now:

Raymondskill Falls, Pocono Mtns, PA

Bushkill Falls "The Niagara of Pennsylvania"

Hershey, PA.  This place is seriously like going through Willie Wonka's factory.

Thought it was important to visit Gettysburg at least once in our lives.

American kitsch at it's finest.  I cannot recommend Mister Ed's Elephant Museum & Candy Emporium enough.  Located in Orrtanna, PA, this is well worth a visit.  It's about 30 minutes due west of Gettysburg.  Full disclosure:  It's across the street from an old Mail Pouch Tobacco barn.  When I did google streetview of the barn, prior to our trip, I swung the camera around and saw this directly across the street and made a written note to be sure and stop here as well.  Easily one of the highlights of the entire trip.

Arriving to both boys wearing the 'My Nonna Loves Me' shirts I got them a month or so ago.

Val arrived in OH a few days before we did and she went home earlier too.

 Trip to Jungle Jim's

Brothers bonding in Olive Garden

Casi's 27th birthday

Lots and lots of cuddling with this precious nugget.

Huge and awesome indoor flea market next to the casino.

Me loving on Mark

GAH!  Cutest. Baby. EVER!!!!!!!

Girls day out, to Jungle Jim's and the casino.

I love it when the three of us go out!  Jeff & Russell babysat the boys at the apartment while we were out galavanting around.  When we got back, we all went out to dinner.

Babby Mark turned 5 months old.

Dale's cheeks are flushed cause he was sick.  We babysat both boys that afternoon so Casi & Jeff could finally have some alone time out of the house.

Mark had his very first cereal.

Grumpa loving on Mark.

The new Tappan Zee Bridge at sunset the day we drove back.

We were gone for 8 days and it was really great to get home even though we miss the kids like crazy!

Out & About

In the course of conversation, Casi mentioned that there was a casino nearby.  Russell perked up and said, 'Casino?? Where?'  We left Jeff & Val to babysit the boys and we took Casi for a much-needed mom's night away from the house.  We went to Miami Valley Gaming and it was a really great casino.  I have trouble with too much audio-visual stimuli in casinos but this one was awesome.

We had to sign up for our free play cards and we were each given a lucky buckeye! I was so excited! I've never seen one before....other than the guy that dresses up as the mascot for THE Ohio State University.  Ohio is the Buckeye State.

Casi & I didn't do so well but Russell won a couple hundred dollars so we went out to dinner at the Rusty Bucket at the Dayton Mall.  I had the best quesadilla EVER and I can't stop thinking about it.  

I was so happy to be in Bob Evans country again.  I love this restaurant.  Russell & I went for breakfast there a couple of times.

I get a huge kick out of this picture of Jeff because I shot one of Mark, directly below, and he's making the same face. 

Twinsies!

He makes the funniest faces

Fathers and sons.

I have to say that Dale was extraordinarily well behaved during our outing to this international grocery store called Jungle Jim's.  We wandered around for hours and he only got fussy towards the end when he got hungry and thirsty, but he quieted down with a couple of juice boxes.

Teensy toesies.

 That time Grampa fell in love.

Pizza rolls!

Jeff being goofy

Dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings in Middletown.  Again, both kids were beautifully behaved.

There was an adorable little girl at the table behind us and Dale was 'flirting' with her.  It was so cute.  She was probably about 4.

I love them so much.

 So. Very. Much.