To grandmother's house we go....

First plane ride: going to Gippy's

We just returned from our first plane trip with Carter.  We went to Pennsylvania to visit the family.  Carter did a great job on the plane.  We were even delayed an hour once boarded and he was awesome- he was exhausted since we were past nap time by a long shot. But he played and stayed entertained by the passengers boarding.  He didn't seem to struggle with his ears at all.  We've got a rockstar baby! :)
We got to Zach's mom's house and were greeted by Zach's sister, husband, and 4 kiddos along with Tea.  It was off to a whirlwind start!  It was so much fun throughout the week watching the kids interact together.  Alli's 2 girls are older (9 and 4) and the boys are 2 and 10 months.  The girls are very nurturing and wanted to hold, play, help feed, bathe, and love on Carter.  Caleb is 2 and loves running around...and around and around and around.  He is what Carter will be in the near future! :)  Jonathon is slightly older than C and crawls, pulls up, eats anything we eat, sits peacefully.  He is very calm and content.  Carter LOVED observing all the kiddos and wanted to mimick Jonathon in his mobility.  We were convinced he was going to start crawling in PA.  He was close!

The week was very nice!  With 3 kids on nap schedules, we really didn't do much, and it was great.  We hung around the house and chatted, played games, and chased kids.  :)  We had a few outings:  we went to the Norristown Zoo the first full day we were there, but we brought the heat from TX with us, so the zoo was semi short lived.  We also went shopping one of the days with Phoebe for a long, puffy dress for a fancy tea party!  That was a blast.  She must have modeled her outfit with gloves about 4 times.  She looked beautiful.  I went with Mom and the girls to the local farmers market and tasted cheese and bread.  :)  We went to an indoor pool one day, which Carter LOVED!  There were fountains that poured into the pool and he was giddy to play in them and splash around.  Phoebe had Uncle Zach doing dive competitions with her.  She is quite a fish.  We were able to see Zach's 2 best buds in PA who he's been close with since highschool.  Dean and Emily came over to have dinner with us at Mom's house and then we went with them to a bar called Screwballs for a drink afterwards.  It was wonderful catching up with them.  They are such sweet people.  :)  On the day we went to the pool, Matt and his daughter Parker came to play with us.  We were thrilled to meet Parker!  Mom had her friends over one night for dinner so we grilled out and chatted with them. 

Norristown Zoo

Phoebe is soooo sweet with the kids

One of the best things there is the farm by Mom's house.  We walk to it to see the farm animals, but they also have water ice and ice cream, so of course we delighted ourselves with its goodness.  A lot of our trip was based around eating--that's normal though right!   We had Philly cheesesteaks one day- that's an obvious must have in PA, we had ice cream from a local shop, Zwahlen's who only serves 3 flavors a day because they are all freshly made: chocolate, vanilla, and the flavor of the day.  David surprised me with a jar of their to-die-for hot fudge.  I've already put it to use!  :)

Tea and Caleb at the farm

Water ice at the farm

Carter wanted some too :)

Overall, the trip was wonderful and we LOVED getting to spend time with the family.  We're looking forward to going back up in December.

Gippy and her grandkids 2011

Sweet Aunt Alli

Goodbye hugs by Caleb

Love my other mom! :)

Smiles from my big boy

All the kiddos