Visiting family and friends

We've been spending quite a bit of time lately trying to visit with our family and friends- near and far. Last week we went to Utah so Charlotte could meet everyone there.

Plane tickets have been SOOO expensive lately, so we ended up flying out of Reagan instead of BWI. It was a really long trip with a layover in Denver each way. Charlotte was a good traveler- for a toddler. She pointed out every plane she saw... in this picture she set up her pony to show him the planes too. We flew on Frontier- they have animals on the tails and wings of their planes- our first plane had a cougar on it and every time Charlotte looked out the window she'd point and say "meow." That got pretty old after 4 hours. ;)

Charlotte has so many people who love her! Here she is with her great great aunt Elizabeth. That's part of where Charlotte got her middle name. (It is also my mom's middle name.)

Charlotte worked on this puzzle with Daddy while visiting great grandma Nichols. Charlotte loved all of the socializing- but she did not like all of the riding in the car!

This is a view from the Alpine Loop. It's a scenic drive between Provo and Alpine that goes behind Mt. Timpanogos. Rob and I had both kinda forgotten how gorgeous Utah's mountains are. Charlotte would point out the window and describe the features for us, "rock. tree. rock. water." Oh yeah, she's an observant one!

Rob took this picture near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon north of Salt Lake City. It had been snowing and the clouds were still really low, although this was in the afternoon.

Well, I will post more pictures from our trip when I get them from friends. Our camera batteries died after the first day or so and we kept forgetting to pick up some new ones!

Also, I had a check-up today and our baby boy is doing very well. :) He loves to kick the microphone when they listen to his heartbeat. According to our baby widget to the right of this post we have 99 days to go! Woo-hoo!!

Journey to World's End

As promised, here is a little recap of our weekend camping at World's End State Park in PA.


We had a beautiful drive north on PA-15... for a long time we were right next to the Susquehanna River and got to see some Amish buggies, a man plowing with a team of horses, and gorgeous handmade quilts for sale. We got to World's End and set up camp. The sites were pretty small, but also very wooded and felt secluded- which we liked. :) Also, the bathrooms and showers were clean and had hot water- way to go PA State Parks!

Charlotte couldn't get enough of collecting gravel. She was pretty much filthy all weekend. She also thinks that cousin Connor is the most fascinating person. If he was doing it, then it must be cool.

Just down the hill from our campsites was the Loyalsock Creek. The water was cold, but kids never care, do they?

On Saturday we went hiking. We hiked up the Canyon Vista trail (and I mean UP) to a beautiful scenic overlook and a massive rock garden. This is Rob, Charlotte, and I with Mark and Connor in the back there.

One of many break times. Leah and Connor were both good hikers, but the trail was harder than we had imagined it would be... we headed out around 10 am and thought we'd be out about 2 hours and it was more like 5 or 6!! Leah (a girl after my own heart) and I both had our cranky moments toward the end of the afternoon.

This is the view from the top. I have photos that my grandparents took from this same spot and my mom remembers coming here with her father when he was a travelling salesman. I believe they drove to the top though!

I've decided to call this picture "pregnant lady on the rocks."

Charlotte had a nice comfy ride for the hike (and Rob got a serious workout) but even she was pretty tired of hiking by this point on the way back down.

Allen and Robin joined us on Saturday afternoon.

And of course there were hot dogs and s'mores by the campfire and telling of stories and singing of songs. When we got back home on Sunday, Charlotte didn't want to come back in the house! I think she's a fan of this whole camping thing. ;)

Thank you Pam for the photos- although I've noticed that you're not IN any of the ones you sent me. hmmm.