Kids' First Visit to Happy Valley

I've been meaning to write about our most recent weekend trip for some time now, and am, well…finally getting to it! Two weekends ago, we made a quick trip to Joe-Pa land. We had been talking about doing it for quite a while and even a few days beforehand, we weren't sure if we would make it, but it ended up working out beautifully.

As many of you know, since Jon purchased his (used) Camaro, he has been working on fixing up his old Chevy Blazer and making it drivable. His goal as always been to get it running so that we could give it to Uncle Joel. Originally we thought this might happen this summer, perfect timing for going to see our newest nephew and checking out Uncle Joel and Aunt Jenn's new house. But, as perhaps we should have expected, many unforeseen necessary repairs, trips to the auto parts store, and late nights along with our busy schedules significantly delayed our plans.

As Jon neared completion of the Blazer, he had his eye on the weekend of Nov 13th as a good weekend to head to State College. It was preferable not only because there was NOT a home football game (and the accompanying 100,000 fans filling up the campus) but also because the observation of Veteran's Day (a.k.a. the first day of hunting season in MI) allowed him to have a day off of work on the following Monday. We set some tentative plans and low and behold by Wednesday night, we were pretty sure the Blazer would be done and would actually make it to PA. We allowed the kids to start getting excited for their first trip to Penn State!

We drove after work on Friday as far as Grandma and Grandpa Shibata's house and spent the night. We went the rest of the 7+ hour drive on Saturday. Since we were driving two cars, we got to use the Walkie-Talkie's, which Marie particularly enjoyed. We arrived in the early afternoon and spent the rest of the day hanging out with Uncle Joel, Aunt Jenn, and TJ. The weather was beautiful so the kids enjoyed heading to a nearby park to run off some energy.

On Sunday, we went to church and then went back to the house for some lunch. After the kids took naps, we headed to campus. It was a little rainy and true to the season, it got dark earlier than we would have liked. But, that didn't slow us down too much. We drove through campus and then parked so that we could take kids to the Lion Shrine for pictures before it got too dark. We then walked to the famous Berkey Creamery for some yummy ice cream, another must-do if you're on campus. We walked though campus more, checking out Old Main and a bit more of Jon's old stomping grounds. We then headed to the Corner Room for supper. (I know…ice cream before supper. What kind of parent am I anyway?) The kids enjoyed playing with the Etch-A-Sketches while waiting for their food. After dinner, we headed back to the house with some very tired kids.









Monday Jon and Joel had a couple of errands to run to officially transfer the title and get the Blazer registered in PA. Then it was another full day of driving. We ended up stopping at Grandma and Grandpa's house again for a short spell to let the kids stretch their legs. Overall, the trip was quick and enjoyable. We're not sure when we'll be back in the Happy Valley neck of the woods again, but Marie and Joey's first visit was quite memorable.


Then this past weekend we began the "holiday" celebrations by attending our first Thanksgiving dinner. Our good friends, the Mitzels, annually host a pre-Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before. All in all, there was something like 46-ish in attendance, over half of which were 8 years old or younger. Lots of good food, football (not sure if it was good), and good company. 'Tis the season!

Now we are set to enjoy Thanksgiving in Ohio with the whole Shibata clan along with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Speckhard. It is sure to be another wonderful time. We hope that you and all of yours have a great holiday and are able to enjoy giving "Thanks"!