A few months ago my sister asked us to go with her family to visit her daughter (my niece) in Pennsylvania. My niece whom we affectionately call "Toydles" has been living there for the summer at a farm that is a haven for girls from troubled homes. She has been acting as a mentor/mother to the girls while they stay there. As there are horses at this farm, Toydles is in her element. She's good at the whole mentor/mother thing. I admire her greatly. I couldn't do what she does.
We started off the trip by an overnight stop in my homeland where we picked up my other nice whom we have nicknamed "Pie". She was such a blessing because she helped me with the girls and drove most of the way to PA.
Our first stop was to my brother-in-law's sister who lives in PA. What an encouraging and fun time! I thoroughly enjoyed our stop there. It was fun to get reaquainted with them. We attended their church on Sunday and I was so encouraged and blessed by the worship service and the sermon!
On Monday we drove the 2 hours to the farm where my neice was stationed. What a beautiful drive! I had no idea that PA was that gorgeous! I enjoyed looking at the old homes made of stone. They are so quaint and old fashioned. I don't know as I'd want to live in one, but they are neat to look at.
This is the house that Toydles lives in. It is enormous! It has four levels and I don't know how many bedrooms. Some have fireplaces in them! The only drawback for me was that there wasn't air conditioning. It was so humid that the air dripped water. It wasn't raining, but every once in a while you'd feel a drop out of nowhere.
The pond you see here is actually fed by a spring on the other side of the house. The water bubbles up from the ground, flows through the basement of the house and out into this pond. The water is ice cold. I'm told that before the frig was invented, they used to put the food stuff that they needed to keep cool in the water that pooled in the basement. Pretty smart eh!
I personally fell in love with the upper porch deck. I sat out there for a while and read a book. You can catch a nice breeze there and it was so relaxing!
This is the view from that upper porch. I couldn't quite capture the whole view, but it was spectacular! As you can see, there were two ponds. An upper one and a bigger lower one.
One evening, my girls decided to go wading with my sister. I knew that the potential for it to end in disaster was huge, but I agreed anyway. Just as long as I didn't have to get in the water. The silt on the bottom was pretty deep and I'm kinda girly when it comes to stepping into something where I can't actually see what is underneath. As you can see, my little girl tried to give my big girl a hug and it ended in disaster. My big girl was NOT happy.
My big girl got in on a "horsey" ride. She loved it! She didn't want to leave the farm. I'm thinking that she is going to start working on her Daddy to get her a pony.
This is my nephew who abhors anything resembling cowboyishness. He was pretty proud of his cheesy hat.
Sister lovin's. This is pretty much the look that Pie gets whenever threatened with being made to ride a horse. It's painful to her. Toydles and her mother are the only two who actually enjoy the beasts.
This beast was my 1 year old's nemesis. She was visiting the goat when it had the audacity to bleat right in her face. From then on, they were decidedly NOT friends.
We had a fun time, but we were ready to come home again. My big girl got sick on the way home. Took her to the doctor and found out that she had tonsilitis. Soon after my little girl got it too. So, they are on antibiotics and are quickly getting better.
The previous post about corn day actually happened the day after we arrived home, so it really was a busy week. Good, but tiresome.
It's good to be home!
Brought back memories! My house, growing up, had a spring that started in the basement. Loved the pictures!
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