Busy, busy, busy...On Vacation!

Rachael, Evan & Tyler on the porch of The Casselman Inn

Well, sorry to all my loyal blog fans for not posting regularly lately.

I had a week off from work last week. You would have thought...perfect time to post, right?! Um...not so much...Busy with the boys, who both got sick (my luck) during my week off. Tyler with an earache (due to teething) and Evan with a summer cough/cold. I do have to say, though, that I enjoyed playing my Mommy role and taking care of them!

We did take a family trip to the Deep Creek Lake, MD area the weekend before last. We stayed at a wonderful little hotel/motel called The Casselman Inn in Grantsville, MD.While there, John bought me a gorgeous turquoise sterling silver ring as an early anniversary gift from Sacred Ground, a jewelry shop that sells authentic Native American turquoise jewelry. Going to that jewelry shop piqued my interest in how turquoise is valued. So, of course, I did some research online to look up information on turquoise mining. I found a couple of really good resources. One is http://www.skystonetrading.com/. Another good resource is http://jewelry.about.com/cs/turquoise/a/orvil_jack.htm. Apparently, the value of turquoise goes up if a mine has closed or if the turquoise is hard to find. The turquoise on my ring came from the Blue Ridge Turquoise Mine in Lander County, Nevada.

John, Evan & Tyler in front of the Casselman Bridge.

Our anniversary is September 18th. We'll be celebrating 6 years married! Technically, we've been together 8 years. We met November 2002 at Matrix dance club in Station Square. He actually asked me to dance. And, well...the rest is history! A house (with a mortgage) and two babies later...Here we are!

This past weekend we took at day trip to Mill Creek Park in Youngstown, OH where we visited Lanterman's Mill. What an absolutely gorgeous view! It's one of the largest "urban parks" in the country. I love how it weaves in and out of residential areas.

The Casselman Inn

At the Lily Pond in Mill Creek Park, we saw turtles sunning themselves on logs in the middle of the pond next to ducks. And, we met THE FRIENDLIEST squirrel alive! I'll post pictures later...You won't believe how freakin' cute this squirrel was. It came right up to us! Apparently, someone is feeding this squirrel. LOL ;)

Tyler playing in the sand at the lake in New Germany State Park (Maryland).

Evan is "King of the World"!! Tyler could care less...hahaha

Chillin' with my homie, Tyler! :)

Me @ The Stanton Mill near the Spruce Forest Artisan Village

Kayaks @ Deep Creek Lake (Maryland)

Friendliest Squirrel Award goes to...

I've never seen this many turtles in "the wild" in my life!

Lanterman's Mill, Youngstown, OH

Another view of Lanterman's Mill

Flowers in a tree stump...pretty!

Beautiful day in PA

I enjoyed a beautiful vacation day with my family today. First we went to The Living Treasures Animal Park in Donegal, PA. It was a neat petting/exotic animal zoo. It has everything from chickens, ducks and ponies to llamas, camels and lemurs! Evan became more interested in playing in the gravel, though, near the end of our self-directed tour. He kept throwing the rocks up in the air saying "popcorn!". LOL...

Then, we visited Grandma at church camp in Rockwood, PA (near Seven Springs). She was pleasantly surprised to see us as we came unannounced. She gave us the "grand tour" of the facilities, inlcuding where she cooks all the great camp food (can we say...homemade mac 'n' cheese?!) and where she sleeps (all the ladies in one big room...one guy in his own separate room). She introduced us to her "WV hubby" (Chuck) who we already previously met at John's grandmother's funeral viewing. She thought it was funny that Tyler was wearing a bib with the word "Friday" on it because apparently Chuck's last name is Friday. She said he's part of the clan, too (not so much).

Dad and Evan played hoops for a little while on the b-ball court while Grandma and I talked and I held Tyler. We discussed the recent massacre at the L.A. Fitness Gym in Bridgeville. She said that my sister-in-law who was there at the time was contacted by L.A. Fitness for counseling if she (or her friend, Andrea, who was there with her) needed it.

Finally, we went swimming at the beach at Laurel Hill State Park, not more than a mile from the church camp. It was a beautiful day. We found a cozy spot near the back of the beach under a shady tree to keep Tyler out of the sun while he rolled around on the beach blanket. Evan loved playing in the sand. He did venture into the shallow end of the lake a little. We had fun splashing each other.

We rounded the night off with some tasty pizza and rigatoni from the local pizza joint (one of many!). Tyler got "tubby time". Of course, Evan helped give Tyler his bath by trying to pour water on Tyler. I had to be sure he didn't pour it directly on Tyler's head. It's so adorable seeing Evan and Tyler beginning to interact more and more. Evan is 2 years and 4 months old whereas Tyler is 8 months old. Evan gets a kick out of making Tyler laugh while riding in their car seats in the back of our 2-door cavalier.