Family Meet-Up in PA

So this was a somewhat last minute trip for Eric and I. My Mom, Sister, and her kids had it planned for awhile, though... so I think it was a little easier for them.

I haven't mentioned it on here yet, but my grandmother, Nan, moved to an Assisted Living campus near my parents' in Jacksonville. But her house in Pennsylvania is still very much full from her 60+ years living there. She won't be going back there, but someone needs to go through things and either salvage, sell, or trash. And with this weekend being the only long weekend that my sister and kids truly had off, they decided to spend a few days before and after, making it a full week there. Eric and I were just driving out Saturday, and back home today. A lot of driving for a short period of time, but considering I knew this may be our only chance, I thought it was a good idea. We had no big plans for the 4th of July weekend, anyway. So there's your background.

We had great weather driving out on Saturday. And most of the day was spent driving, with us getting into the area around 5pm or so. The family was already done at the house for the day, and we decided to meet them out at Knoebel's Grove. Oh, the memories I have from that place. Even with my sister's kids, Kris and Darian - it's been about 13 years, but none the less, memories were made. Eric and I had just a couple of hours here a few years back, as well... but most of the memories are from my summers up in PA. I wish Knoebel's was a little closer for me to try to get there once a year or so - it's such an awesome park! They were actually celebrating 90 years this year! We spent the last few hours they were open, trying to catch all the new rides, and of course, ride a couple of the old favorite coasters. I so wish I had the entire day there - I always feel like I leave and realize later I wanted to go on another ride.

Sunday was a day of work. And wow, what a task ahead of us. I feel like we only scraped the surface, and that frustrated the hell out of Eric. I think he thought we'd be leaving with the house cleared out and ready for the next step (whatever that is). Unfortunately, cleaning out the house will be a multi-trip, LONG process for the family to tackle. I think my family would be happy to just have it done by the end of the year! But after a day of sorting and throwing some things out, we managed to leave with our car packed with some things to keep. My main goal was to get the old metal porch glider, which I did, but it's going to take some work to get it ready for our own porch. But I'm up for it.

Finally, today was all driving. We tried to leave early, but didn't get on the road nearly as early as we had hoped. We made a short lunch stop in Columbus, OH (which was actually well past 'lunchtime' for us), and we were lucky enough to NOT have rain up until there. But then those last few hours on I-70 had a light rain. No big deal, since we were about done with our long weekend. We got home, unloaded, and then Eric had to run to the office.

There always seems to be some crisis for him there. But alas, until we got home, things stayed calm for him on the work front. We did manage to catch the fireworks here. It was a little foggy and/or low clouds, though, so we only could see about half of them. And then more drizzle started. But at least we can say we DID see fireworks on the 4th of July.