Trip Recap

My mother in law told me that when you go and visit relatives it's called a trip. When NOT vi sting relatives it's a vacation. I thought that was cute and pretty accurate. I am now posting pictures of our trip. We left early Tuesday morning for our long flight to NY. Usually I am a bit nervous of flying, but having having a beer on the plane at 6:30 AM always does the trick to calm me down. JUST KIDDING! I waited until 9AM. I figured that was 12pm EST and that was appropriate. Asa did great, he sat on the window seat and as we were taking off, he looked over at me, smiled and gave me a thumbs up. Joshua sat next to Asa the entire trip so I was free of questions for the next 5 hours. As we landed in NY, the planed stopped after taxi-ing(?) It was quiet in the cabin and Asa blurts out "I think we ran out of gas". He got a lot of laughs.

At JFK in NY.

oops, this picture isn't in the right order. Mt Hood as we were flying over.

Asa watching Dora the Explorer on the TV.

The view from my in-laws front porch. We were surprised to land in Pittsburgh with snow on the ground. It was FREEZING!

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Asa gets his poses from his father.

Asa broke out the costumes the next day.

The riverfront in Morgantown WV.

Asa's first experience with snow this year. I let him eat the snow above. He had handfuls mixed with mostly leaves and grass. Ah, what's it gonna hurt?

I loved having Joshua for 10 days straight. It felt like the old days. I am in love with my man.

Fun in the FREEZING COLD!

Asa ready to throw a snowball.

Joshua pulling out more toys for Asa. (or for HIM perhaps)

This picture was specifically taken for Mom. She appreciates Asa's bed head.

Playing GI Joe zip line.

Riding the PRT (personal ride transit) in Morgantown. It's just a little car that runs on rails though out downtown Morgantown to shuttle students around campus and downtown. Asa thought is was great. Asa escaping Grandma Darlenes clutches. She was trying to hug him.

My big boy. (with his baby blanket AKA "mm mm")

There were students studying on the PRT while we were riding. I'm sure it was difficult as Asa was talking loudly the entire time...."THERE'S ANOTHER PRT! LOOK, THERE'S 4 MORE PRT'S! LOOK LOOK IT". This lasted about 20 minutes.

"LOOK, LOOK IT! 4 PRT'S! LOOK!"

A campus building. Being in that part of the country, It feels so historical. The buildings are much older than buildings on our part of the county. I loved the architecture.

2 peas in a pod. Walking in downtown Morgantown. Did I mention that it was FREEZING?

Asa sitting in some cool chairs in front of a "hippie" store. You'd never guess with the Tie Dyed shirts would ya?

Asa is into taking pictures of his toys. It keeps him occupied when dining out.

Darlene and I. I had a great time with her. We cooked and ate, and ate. She was a fun eating partner. After some shopping, eating some lunch.

Our trip to Pittsburgh. I thought it was cold in Morgantown. Pittsburgh was beyond cold. Asa was in his cocoon the entire time. This is us in the "strip district". We had come prepared for the cold, with hats and scarves, but we still needed more. We walked one block, saw a clothing store and bought more warm stuff. I'm not complaining about the cold, it was just a shock to us coming from 40 degree weather.

All of this walking around downtown, I was thinking it was beer-thirty. There wasn't a whole lot to choose from along the strip for food or spirits, so I asked a passer by if she know of a brew pub around. She looked at me surprised and said that she had just happened upon a unique brew pub that day and it was only a mile away. She also said that they had great pizza. Asa told her "Oh, pizza sounds GREAT!" As Asa would say, SCORE! It was an old church converted into a brewery. Church Brew Works.

The front of the church is where they do the brewing.

Asa fell asleep before the drinks even came. I guess all that riding around in the stroller did him in. He slept for over an hour.

A quick picture from Mt. Washington overlooking Pittsburgh.

Our main reason for going to Pittsburgh was to visit an old college friend of Joshua's. They met in Seattle and Doug moved back to Pittsburgh. He is hilarious. Josh and he hadn't seen each other in 6 years. His place is very eccentric and interesting. It's like a museum. He is big kid at heart and had Star Wars collections in the book shelves and other interesting things that Asa was just in love with. We had such a fun time laughing and hanging out. Asa cried when we were ready to leave. I told him that we were leaving with out him and he could stay there. He stopped crying and said "OK, I'm staying here". What a stinker. ANYWAY, as I was helping my self to a IRON CITY beer, this was a magnet on the fridge.

The guys

One of the cool items at the "childrens museum".

Another Asa original picture. Doug gave Asa an un-opened Chewbacca toy before we left. Doug informed us that he had worked at Toys R Us for a while. Asa thought that was the coolest job ever. Why didn't I work at Toy's R Us he asked.

After leaving Dougs house, we stopped by the overlook for another picture of Pittsburgh. It was 17 degrees.

It was 17 degrees.

Every so often, our Asa (turtle) would pop his head out of his cocoon. He kept repeating under that blanket "cold....cold...cold....cold". We walked quite a bit just to see the view and Asa never complained to go back to the car, or go in anywhere warm...he just enjoyed. He is a great traveler.

Joshua's best friend growing up across the street, came from Virginia to see Joshua. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of him. This was Asa's first visit to a "bar and grill". Mostly bar. Once the"not age appropriate" music started and the college girls started dancing on their chairs, we figured it was time to leave. It was a very new bar, it had opened up the week before and it just a mile from Joshuas house. Not joking, but everyone that walked in while we were there, knew Joshua. It was like a reunion. None of them had very "age appropriate" language and Asa had never seen anyone smoking cigarettes before. It was entertaining to see Joshua tell his friends to step away from our table when they would smoke and to tell them to watch their language. Asa was pretty spoiled and they made a child friendly lunch plate. They didn't have dessert at the bar, but the owner owns the quick mart next door and let us go and get some ice cream for Asa to eat in the bar. Fun times. Only in Morgantown. As we were driving away, Josh turned to me and said "I'm glad I have the life I have. I would be just like those guys if it wasn't for you and Asa".

The best view of Joshua's childhood home that I could get from the warm car. It was cold.

Joshua was watching me cook and we saw a flash of light. Asa was taking random photos.

"smile Mum and Daddy" Poor kid, from his point of view, we look like mean giants.

One of my favorite shots.

Self portrait. I'm laughing because as I download pictures, I have no idea he has taken these pictures.

Asa takes great surprise shots. He comes out of nowhere and starts snapping with very bright flashes.

"SMILE DADDY!"

couch potatos

Sunday before leaving, we had a Thanksgiving dinner with Joshua's brother and their family. Darlene has a turkey roaster, however the turkey was 4 lbs bigger than the roaster capacity. I laughed when it came out and it had a varigated color. This is why one doesn't put a 22 lb turkey in an 19 lb turkey roaster. I dislike turkey. I made it once, and just rinsing it out and smelling the turkey poultry smell made me ill. Not to mention that after doing all that work, it came out raw. That was years ago, but I can still smell that horrible stench when I even look at turkey.

Asa with his cousin Laura. She is one year older and they loved spending time together. Asa is her only cousin.

Laura is a girly girl and to see that she caved and put on a Star Wars costume was pretty cute. Asa compromised (you know, Asa compromises). If she wore the costume, he would learn one of her dance routines. I walked in on them practicing in a bedroom, but Asa wouldn't perform it for us.

Joshua with his Dad Barry and brother Michael.

The kids.

I wonder who took this picture?

"I don't want to go to bed...stop ASKING ME THAT! I just want to drink my choco soy milk. His words.

I got to meet up with a fellow blogger. Mandy from Ohio. She lives a couple of hours away, but has a friend in Morgantown so we were able to schedule a time to meet before we left for Washington. I loved our visit. Asa was great and was well behaved. He took a liking to her right away. Mandy is a great girl and knowing that I was going to meet her for the first time in person was a little scary for me. I even had my little family with me and I was still a little nervous and anxious. I wasn't sure if we would have much to talk about and I didn't want to seem boring. After giving her a hug and seeing her smile I felt like I had known her for years and the conversation just flowed freely. We talked about each other's families and our lives. We have a lot in common and I guess thats why our blogs interest each other. It was a highlight of our trip and I have made a friend for life. Thank you Mandy! You are a great girl!

On the flight home. Asa fell asleep before take off.

We had a great trip, but there's no place like home. Now I'm looking forward to planning a VACATION with my Sissy, Uncle Norm, Mom, Papa, Joshua, Valentina and Asa.

We had the best Thanksgiving this year. We were all together, all of us are healthy and I got to see the kids running around the house squealing and laughing....it was perfect.