For the 4th of July we packed up and headed East to Penn State in State College, Penn to see Uncle Mike. Although he can make the trip in about 9 hours, it took us a lot closer to 12 hours, which was a VERY long time in the car. It was worth every minute of that 12 hours though because Sutton and I LOVE our Uncle Mike and it was so great to have 4 whole days to spend with him.
"Monkey see, Monkey do"...I had to ice my quad too...When we decided to make the trip, we had initially planned on staying in a hotel. When Uncle Mike caught wind of that though, he insisted that we stay at his place (a mistake he probably won't be making again). There was some concern about the fact that he doesn't have air-conditioning, but he assured Mommy that the weather seldom gets above the mid-70s there and that we would be A-OK. What of course, he couldn't have predicted was record breaking heat for the 4 days we were there.
Probably the one other thing that Mommy should have reminded Uncle Mike of was just exactly how much "stuff" we require and how much room we take up. Uncle Mike is a bachelor who doesn't have TV service, a microwave, a clock or even a fan for that matter. He is constantly on the go- be it running, swimming, climbing, biking or even just working at the office on campus. Generally, (read: when we aren't there) short of providing him a place to sleep and eat, his house does little but store his clothes (and his beloved bikes). And did I mention his entire 2 bedroom house is maybe 600 square feet? I'm pretty sure when we came in with 2 pac-n-plays, 2 booster seats (which by the way, where pointless since he didn't have kitchen chairs), 3 suitcases, 1 bath seat, a cooler of food, a stroller, a music table for Sutton, a tote of toys and a bin of swimming/beach gear, those 900 square feet never felt so small to my minimalistic Uncle. Although you could see his eyes bulging as we brought in trip after trip of "stuff" and as he stepped over toys and kids shoes for the next 4 days you could see it ware on him slightly, he was a great sport about it all. And this, is why we LOVE our Uncle Mike so much!
Because of the heat and the, shall we say, shortage of space in his house, we were constantly on the go as well. We spent went to the park...
...of course the for the first trip to the park we hiked what seemed to be miles (and did I mention State College is NOT flat?) because that was supposedly the closest park. The next day though we discovered that low and behold, that vast open space that was practically in Uncle Mike's back yard was in fact...A PARK complete with swings and slides!
With it being the 4th of July, no weekend would be complete without a trip to the local fair. It was a lot of fun and I even got to ride my first fair rides! I especially loved the ferris wheel that I got to ride with Uncle Mike.
Look Ma...no hands!
In addition to the park, the fair and a trip to campus (which by the way is beautiful!) we also spent a day at the beach. A beach in Pennsylvania you say? Yep, a beach in Pennsylvania. There are some wonderful state parks there and at one of them they had a perfect lake-side beach. It was a great day, the water was perfect and I loved playing in the sand. Sutton, of course just ate the sand and then had a huge diaper blow out (thank you to the lake for helping us clean up that one), but also enjoyed the water and the family fun!
All in all it was a great trip and although I think that Uncle Mike was secretly a little relieved to see us go, we sure hope he'll have us again next year...except maybe next time we'll check out the local Holiday Inn!! We love you Uncle Mike! XOXO
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