Tickled Pink on Vacation

I'm surprised when I find people have been visiting my blog, since I never seem to get here very often anymore.  I am thankful for those who do stop by and love to see the comments you leave.  Thanks for not giving up on me!

This summer has just flown by, much to my amazement and chagrin.  Time is flying by way too fast and I don't seem to be accomplishing much.  DS has kept us hopping this summer, not to mention DH taking off for two weeks on a business trip (hence getting lost in Alabama one night while out for a short evening drive in Florida...LOL)  I swear that man can't find his way out of a paper bag!!  DS traveled to Florida, Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York this summer.  Whew!  No grass grows under his feet!  But he'll have to settle down now, as his senior year in high school is fast approaching.  We've had exciting news the past two weeks as we discovered Ben was accepted into the internship program through his high school AND he passed his driver's test yesterday making him a provisionally licensed driver.  I'm so very proud of him, and yet just a tad sad as I think ahead to him leaving next year for college.  Now that I won't have those long rides in the car while we talked of all sorts of things, I'm afraid I'll lose touch with my buddy.  DH and I were married 11 years before we had our son, yet I can't remember a time when he wasn't living with us.  Hopefully he's prepared to meet the world, even if his Mom would love to have him home just a tad longer.

Ok, enough of that...LOL  On to the fun stuff!  We've been busy!  We were able to squeeze in another baseball game before heading off on vacation this year.  It was an outstanding game, even if the O's did lose.  It was a beautiful night!  My favorite part of going to the park is watching the crab shuffle...can you find the ball?  Gotta love the way Showalter watches out for his team...reminiscent of the old Earl Weaver arguing with the ump!  LOL

This vacation was full of visits with relatives we haven't seen in a while.  First stop was to see DH's sister in NY state.  We haven't seen them in a long time, not since DS was a little guy.  We had a wonderful visit and I hope we can get together again soon. 

Next we visited DH's Mom in the Adirondacks.  It's a lovely ride through the mountains of New York, with twisty narrow roads and hills upon hills upon hills.  I love the Adirondacks because of the green trees and the blue mountain lakes, it truly is heaven on earth!  The sunsets are amazing, there are none like them anywhere else on earth!

 

Traveling south we headed for my old home town where it was once known as the Marble City.  When I was young, the sidewalks, buildings and monuments were made of marble.  A lot of the buildings have been restructured and the sidewalks remade of cement (the marble sidewalks were truly treacherous in wet weather and in the snow and ice...so maybe that's not such a bad thing).  There are many buildings remaining that are made of marble, including the church I was married in 28 years ago.  (We celebrated our anniversary while on vacation...we've had our ups and downs, but we are still going strong after 28 years!)  I love this quaint town that is nearly 300 years old now.  I must admit, I wouldn't want to live there now, as it is a small population and there are a lot more things going on where we live now.  Still it's a beautiful little town.  I had a wonderful visit with my Mom and Sister and her family.

We took a drive out of my home town to see a natural sight where in 1820 a preacher named Oliver Leavite preached from "Pulpit Rock".  Of course the guys had to run up there and pretend to sermonize, and the natural curve of the rock helped project their voices.  Word to the wise, never climb rocks in flip flops....they had a difficult time climbing down.  LOL  

We ran over to the "burg" to visit the Remington Museum.  What a wonderful old house full of this man's artwork.  I could have stayed for hours and listened to the docent tell about his castings and paintings, the process used to make and cast the molds etc.  It's truly fascinating!  I loved the little lighthouse visible from the front porch of this old house too.  

 
We stopped in Watertown one night to visit another former college friend and her family.  I haven't seen this lady since our kids were tiny, and she still has the same sense of humor.  It was like revisiting college, she really hasn't changed a bit!  Our families are connecting on facebook now and I was amazed to hear how much we have in common.  I hope we get to visit again soon!

We were on our way home through Pennsylvania when we got tired and decided to stop for the night.  Looking on the Garmin we discovered we were only 30 minutes from my cousin's house.  We called her, she was home, so we decided to run over and see her.  I hope we didn't overstay our welcome.  What was supposed to be a one hour visit turned into a three and a half hour visit...LOL  What a great time we had though.  Usually when we head back to NY we only get to visit our Moms.  This time we visited a whole bunch of people and we had a blast wherever we went.  Life is good!

So...I've given myself a new "job".  My Pastor's wife asked me to make bookmarks for Baptisms, Baby Dedications and Weddings.  I tried to find easy bookmarks but the one we both liked is very time consuming to stitch.  I'll do my best to get them done, but I've found some crocheted crosses that are pretty neat too.  I can crochet much faster than I can stitch.  I'll have to see what I'm able to get done...so if you don't see any progress on my crazies, you'll know why.  Life is out of control at the moment.  I haven't worked in 5 weeks, and with the appointments I have to keep, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to the shop.  I'll let you know! 

So...that's all the news that's fit to print.  I was up at 4 AM this morning, and my eye lids are getting heavy...I may have to take a nap before too long.  Hope you all enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by....please don't leave without saying hello!  *Hugs*