Falling into Fall + A Visit to PA

Well, it seems like fall is finally upon us! The crisp air is here and the leaves are a'changin. We had such a fun weekend visiting Marylea and Gary, my aunt and uncle in PA. Oh, but it wasn't just the two of them....they also have two border collies and about four cats (maybe five?! I can't keep up....). I survived our trip to Camp Hemlock (fortunately, the kiddos did too), and CP and I hit the road around 10pm so that we could wake up in PA Saturday morning instead of getting up at the crack of dawn and driving. We arrived to a sleeping house, and while the dogs continued to snooze soundly, the cats were a different story. Sloan had the bejeebers scared out of her when one of the cats pounced out of the dark, hissed wildly, and scampered away. Okay, I might have been a tad bit scared, too....

I swear, there is not a human or animal that this puppy doesn't latch onto

Saturday morning was spent getting the pups acclimated with one another, which was surprisingly easy. Emie was more or less afraid of Sloan and didn't want much to do with her, and Domino took on the role of a somewhat grumpy, but mainly playful old man :)  Sloan wasted no time getting up in his face and taunting him to play with her. After a couple hours of romping around, we took all three dogs on a long loop.

Saturday afternoon we left Emie and Domino at home and ventured over to a fall festival in Jim Thorpe.  Although we've been traveling to see family in Pennsylvania for nearly 27 years, I'd never been to Jim Thorpe even though it's fairly close by. Have we been missing out! The town reminded me of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, but with many more shops and restaurants.  There's also an old train track there where you can take an hour long tour down the river, which we did (they even let us take Sloan on).  Between the festival's corn dogs/pretzel braids/fudge, the vendor shopping, and the window browsing we had an awesome time and definitely want to return soon! I think it took having Sloan out in public for Marylea and Gary to realize just how popular the little runt is with the crowds. :)

 

 

Saturday night was spent lazing around and enjoying an incredible meal that Marylea cooked for us (scallops over spinach with bacon and cannolini beans). We always have so much fun with the Cease family, and the only thing missing was my cousin Garrett! He's moved out to Boulder and I can't wait to get out there to visit him.  M&G, thank you for your warm hospitality!

The scene on the ride home- someone looooves to sleep in the car

The scene at home. Sidenote: Sloan yelped/jumped herself out of her sleep several times last night....I swear she was having doggie fights in her dreams.

PS. I've declared November a first annual Pike Home Improvement month. Each weekend we'll be tackling a handful of small(ish) projects around the house. We'll see if I'm brave enough to post our progress on here, ha. We actually started early last weekend by devoting Sunday night to a clothing swapout, and it felt ever so wonderful!