Scrapbook Retreat--Scrapping and Misc.

Yes, we actually DID some scrapping! lol

Although there was a whole lot of laughing and smiles and an all around good time!

Some time ago on Facebook there was a thing going around that if people posted on your list they would make something for you. (Hmm, better check my list as I don't even know who posted on mine and obviously haven't done anything! LOL) Well I posted on Pam's and she knowing my lack of cardmaking ability made this awesome tin with a whole load of cards in it!!!! I am thrilled! I can't wait to use them! (But then I worry about using them all up and having no cool cards to give out later! lol)


Pam also showed us this nifty little project using a large envelope to make a gift bag!! Oh YEAH!!! Now what I need to do is take some time to make a few up so I don't have to buy gift bags anymore! Oh wait, I don't have any stamps, well I am thinking stickers will have to do! lol

On Saturday we heard the doorbell to the house ring. We were so shocked because obviously no one around there knew us. Who could possibly be ringing the door??? Well it was a delivery man delivering an edible fruit basket to Alicia! It was from her hubby! Oh yeah that think rocked!!!! It had chocolate covered strawberries, but even all the other fruit was so good. You could tell they used good quality fresh fruit! Thanks Erik!!!

Doesn't it look yummy?! It was!!!!

Later that night some of the girls ordered pizza. I, on the other hand, just had some of the delicious leftovers we had there. All the food was just marvelous! Then we decided to take a dip in the hot tub. It was great fun, but the chemicals were HORRIBLE! I don't know what they did but it was choking us! So we did not stay in it for long. I am only posting this pic because we are all pretty much hidden by the water!!! lol

Sisterhood Scrapbook Retreat--The House

The 10 of us rented a darling little retreat house called the Girlfriend's Getaway. Most of the things in the house were white and pink! CUTE!!! Here are pictures of the house and the yard.

The plaque at the front door

The front door.
The kitchen, and yes most of that stuff is what the provided for us. Baked oatmeal, lasanga, rolls, fruit (although some of that was spoiled, so sad we were so looking forward to it), soda, chips, etc. Most of it was very yummy. The other interesting thing about this place was that yes, you are looking down into the kitchen. The dining room (shown below) was up like 3 steps from the kitchen. Good thing for those steps though because I had to go stand on the steps to see what was going on with my food in the microwave it was so stinkin' high!!! lol

The dining room, isn't it cute with the pink curtains and silver candlesticks?!

The living room area (part of it).

The kitchen(ish) area upstairs, no fridge or stove up there, but a dishwasher! lol Not sure what's up with that! lol More pink!

The small bathroom and sitting area upstairs.

One of the lights--Pink!

One of the beds in one of the bedrooms

One of the other bedrooms

Some of the decorations in one of the bedrooms. Isn't is sweet?!

The scrapping area, too small and upstairs. But we had fun anyway.

The flowers on the mimosa tree. Absolutely beautiful!

The yard.

Overall it was a nice place, but we definitely won't be going there again. Many of the little details were just not good, but the place was cute as could be. The decor was definitely inviting.

Scrapbook Retreat - Hershey's Chocolate World 062609

So many of you know that I am a HUGE scrapbooker. You also know that I have been losing weight using a free website called SparkPeople.com. One of the teams on SparkPeople was a scrapbooking team. Within this team we started having weekly online crop and chats. There was a group of about 11 of us that got really close and we decided to create our own private team. We named it the Sisterhood of the Traveling Crops! lol Our goal is to eventually be able to have each person be the hostess near their home. But this year we all went to PA since it was a central location for 8 of the members. Tracy was our hostess this year and she did a FAB job at getting everything coordinated, especially with the issues we ended up having with the place we decided to do the retreat at. They were not the smartest owners and Tracy got it all worked out and even got them to waive some fees AND get us a store credit for $20!! lol WTG Tracy! YOU ROCK!

So on Friday Jack took me to Hershey to meet the girls at the outlet mall. Originally we met at a scrapbook store (big surprise, I know). Then we wandered the rest of the outlet mall. By this time we were STARVING! We headed to Red Robin. (This was not a SparkPeople approved weekend as far as food was concerned! hehehe) I have not been to Red Robin in YEARS and I LOVE going there. We used to go there all the time as a kid because it was the closest restaurant to our house (that and a mexican restaurant called Garcia's). Anyway, the food was delish! I had a Rookie Magic (a cookies and cream milkshake--minus the alcohol that is in the regular Cookie Magic! lol) and a Bleu Ribbon Burger! YUMMY!

After Red Robin we went to Hershey's Chocolate World. We took the tour of course! It was cool!

Messing around before we go in for the tour.

The Hershey's Great American Chocolate Tour

Our "car" in the tour.

The pictures of us in both "cars"

Aren't these dudes cute?!

The store. Oh my, you will be pleased to know the only thing I bought was 3 cookies from the bakery! lol They were sooo good! :-)

All us ladies outside of the building under the stop for the trolley.

This was a lot of fun. We were crazy and had a blast together. It was definitely a great way to start the weekend retreat!

Series of Unfortunate Travels Part II 062509

Well this time was not actually my travel problem, but since he is my husband it is! lol Kevin had to go back early so while Tye and I stayed to play with Mary and Jack and my scrapbook retreat Kevin headed back home to work. He sure is good to allow us to play while he works. (Of course he gets a good end of the deal too because he sits at home playing his video and computer games for hours without doing any chores or having a wife asking him to do anything! lol)

So Kevin headed back to Florida. Of course, the person that was supposed to drop us off was supposed to pick him up, since the car had now been moved to the Credit Union instead of the airport. When I emailed her to confirm this I got a return message stating that they couldn't do it and is there a way Kevin could find a ride to the Credit union. I was PISSED (to say it nicely). They had basically screwed us twice. I was told she was going to get dr tests and he had to "work" (he is a school teacher, what work was he absolutely needing to do that he couldn't go pick Kevin up and then either return to work or be done for the day?!)

Of course, if you know me, you won't be surprised to hear I began to cry. I had no way to get ahold of Kevin (he doesn't have a cell phone, only I do) to let him know this. And I had no idea who to call to get Kevin a ride. Kevin's parents were still on the road home to FL. Not to mention I had no phone numbers with me. So I tried to see if I could get ahold of someone, but couldn't find their numbers on the internet.

So as a last result and in sheer desparation I ended up gettin gon Facebook praying someone would be on that could help me. Thank heavens for the chat functionality of FB! A lady from our church was on and asked if she could help me. I briefly explained what happened and she told me she couldn't do it but could bring her car to me and I could go get him. I said, "well I am in PA still". So she said don't worry I will take care of it. So she tried to page Kevin at the aiport, of course he never got it because he was out standing at the curb waiting for someone to pick him up! Her son ended up going and picking up Kevin at the airport.

Thank you Sue and Scott you were life savers! (I promise I have not forgotten about the treat I promised, I just forget it each Sunday! lol) I was so upset and able to relax and actually be able to know he was in good handle. Scott even called and told me he had gathered my husband. Kevin went to the credit union and picked up our car. So the lesson learned, I will NEVER rely on anyone to take me and pick me up from the airport that isn't family. I wish I would have paid the money to leave it at the place we normally would, the money paid would have been WAY more worth the stress all this caused us.

Leaving NC 062409

This was the morning we left NC to go back to PA. This picture was in front of the fireplace in the lobby of the hotel.
Here is the lobby of the hotel. (Don't mind the man on the couch! lol)

And here is our boy doing his usual thing when we leave someone he loves. He will just sob, sob, sob for quite some time. He cried from the hotel until we stopped to get gas (probably about 5 miles) lol

I feel bad when he cries like that. Two reasons, I don't like hearing him cry and I feel like he doesn't like being with us because he cries so hard when we leave other people he is having fun with.

Mystery Hill 062309

After we went to Tweetsie Railroad, Kevin, Tye and I went to Mystery Hill. They have neat little things that are a little on the strange side. The first thing is this slab that when you stand on one side it makes you look taller and on the other side it makes you look shorter. See these two pictures.....

The next thing we did is go through the Mystery House. You can stand at a 45 degree angle. Here is Tye trying to walk across the room. I didn't get the really good one on video where he was falling down the room! lol

In the room you can do several nifty tricks that aren't quite right! lol The swing that doesn't entirely swing back and forth only back really. And the following one...a ball that rolls uphill.

Then we went into the Mystery Hall, which had some cool little games and things to play with. One of the things is you are supposed to be able to make a HUGE bubble with the person standing inside. It didn't really work for us--at least not completely.

The quality of the videos aren't the best, but you get the idea! lol It was fun, we had a good time. I am glad we went.

Tweetsie Railroad 062309

Warning long post ahead, but lots of cute pictures! lol :-)

Gosh about a year ago when Kevin's parents were planning this trip to Pittsburg for Opa's class reunion they asked us if we possibly would like to join them and then on the way home go to Tweetsie Railroad in North Carolina. When Kevin's parents lived in North Carolina with the military when Kevin was young they would see the commercials for Tweetsie Railroad and always say they wanted to take the kids. They never did and when Tye came along they definitely knew they wanted to take him. So the opportunity arose and we all went for it! lol

I will try to keep the commentary to a minimum and let the pics speak for themselves! lol

If you ever want to take your kids to a fun railroad/old west type place for the day and you are in North Carolina Tweetsie Railroad is lots of fun!

Here are Tye and Kevin in front of the Tweetsie Train
Tye giving a high-five to Hopper and Porter

Tye and Kevin getting ready to ride the rails! lol

Oh yeah, his favorite part!! He loves to lean out the window (no not far, so don't freak out on me and tell me how he could fall out and get run over by the train) and looking down the track at the engine or whatever we are coming up on.

It was an all out production on the train. We were along for the ride. Each time is different too. In this one the girl (on the left in the pic below) was holding up the other two to steal the payment (in the box) that was supposed to go to the Indians to keep the peace.

They get in a shoot out and one of the guys hides in the outhouse until the stick of dynomite blows the outhouse apart (at least he wasn't really going potty...that would have been even funnier! lol)

The marshall comes and breaks up the hold up. When they get back on the train Tye freaks out and doesn't want the "bad guys" getting on our train. He keeps his eye on them the rest of the ride (well at least until the next stop).

They have to take the payment to the indians and help the marshall at Fort Tweetsie.

Another fight ensues with the indians this time.

Lots of gunshots and Tye hops up next to Opa for protection! And to get on the far side of the train away from the gunshots and bad guys.

Tye thought it was pretty cool, but I think he could have done without the extra entertainment! lol It freaked him out too much! lol

When we got back to "town" after the train ride, we tried to get Tye to go into the "jail". It took some serious coaxing but we finally got him to be in jail! lol

And then we had to get a smashed penny to make up for it! lol

Tye thought the horse was pretty cool! Ride 'em cowboy!! lol I don't like that the rein is in front of part of his face, but the rest of his face is just priceless! :-)

Both Tye and Laramie had to pose in front of the indian tipee.

Then we spied one of those old fashioned picture taking places and I have SOOOOO wanted to do one of those for as long as I can remember. So we did! Here is a picture of the picture we got (sorry it is a cruddy pic since it is in the frame and believe it is HARD to get out so I was not going to try just to take a picture of it!) Tye looked sooooooo cute in his cowboy outfit with his little toy gun! lol The lady taking the picture just kept smiling at how funny and cute he was!

After that we went and saw the clogging show. The girls were good and it was fun to watch. Even Tye liked it.

Then we rode the ski lift up the the upper part of the park. Tye thought that was fun.

Hi Daddy!

Kevin took Tye on the scrambler. lol Kevin did not tell him or let him see what the ride was about before he took him on it. During the ride Kevin asked Tye if he liked it and Tye said to him, "this ride is craaaaaazzzyyyyy!" ROFL He is too funny!

After the scrambler they panned for gold. No we didn't find any. Some people on the next bench did.

He thought the water pump was pretty cool.

Boat ride!

Little train ride

Then it was time to go to the petting zoo part. You could buy some food for the animals and it came in an ice crream cone. Kevin held the cone and divied it out to Tye a little at a time. He thought it was really cool. He fed and petted goats and deer (and yes we washed our hands about 3 times after we got out of there to make sure we got all the stuff off our hands). We didn't go to the other part, we needed to be in another section of the park to be able to each lunch and be to one of the shows on time. In the end we let Tye hold the cone and feed it to the goats (see the video at the very end of the post).

Okay a side note commentary on the lunch people. Let me tell you there were NOT very bright! lol They had a chicken sandwich. Well I asked them if the chicken was breaded or just grilled. They said, "yes the chicken comes on a bun." I said "that's not what I am asking, I am asking if the chicken itself has breading on it or if it is grilled chicken." I got a confused look and she asked for another guy to come over to see what I was saying. I was thinking I am speaking English and you are two southern white kids so don't act like you don't KNOW English! lol I repeated my question and got the same stupid answer about the bun! lol I AGAIN said that's not what I meant, and trying to use my hands to explain again. Finally I got the answer that it was just grilled, not breaded. UGH that was difficult! lol

We then saw the CanCan show. It was very good and Tye seemed to like it. At one point they had the kids participate in a parade around the room. (My pictures didn't really turn out of that.)

Then we headed up to another ride area. Tye and I went on the race cars. He LOVES these.

Then the Merry Go Round. He is so cute and has the funnest facial expressions on it. I am not sure why as it is like this EVERY time we take him on a merry go round.

Kevin and I left Tye with Oma and went on the Tilt A Whirl!!!! I LOVE this ride, it is one of my favorites from when I was a kid! My mom used to take my sister and I on it at the fair each year and we had a ball. Kevin and I got it spinning really well!

Then I took Tye on one of my other favorite rides. He didn't want to go with me at first, said he wanted to go with Opa, but Oma convinced him that wasn't a very good idea because Opa would make the basket shake and rock. He was okay on the ride until we got to the very top and came over the top, he kindof freaked out at that point and told me, "I'm angry with this ride!!!!" lol I just held on to him really tight and in the end he was okay. lol

Laramie convinced Kevin to go on this crazy ride. But he was not allowed to spin it, she was. So he was the good uncle and just let her do the spinning. I think he was kindof bored! lol

Kevin rode one other ride and then we hit the fudge shop. Kevin and I got a fudge sampler and Tye chose this......a train (made with marshmallows and chocolate and a gummy bear engineer! lol) Isn't it cute?!?!

YUMMY!

Here is the video....

Thanks for a great time Oma and Opa! We are glad you asked us to go to Tweetsie Railroad with you! We had tons of fun and loved every minute of it!