Fun Fall Visits

The last couple of weekends we've been really lucky to have people come out to visit. Two weekends ago, Jeremy's mom, Phyllis came out for the weekend. On Saturday, we enjoyed a beautiful fall day in New York City. We went to the French Culinary Institute for brunch, and saw Mama Mia on broadway and took the elevator up to the top of the Rockefeller Center

The view from the top is pretty amazing! That afternoon we went for a carriage through central park. That's something I've always wanted to do. Along the way, our driver pointed out where various scenes from Home Alone II were filmed. I think we all left there feeling a little bit more complete as human beings.

That night we went to Serendipity for dessert, and it definitely lived up to the hype. The desserts were delicious and HUGE! We got the broadway blackout cake, the ultimate creme and the frozen hot chocolate.

We were tempted, but decided not to go with the $1,000 dollar golden opulence sundae.

Last weekend, my good friend, Brooke, came to visit from Boise. On Saturday we went on a double date out to Amish country. We went to Cherry Crest Adventure farm for the annual potato festival. I love little places like this. They had a petting zoo with little baby chicks that you can hold.

They also had a potato sack slide, a corn maze, potato slings, potato sack races, and potato eating contests. We got in on the action during the potato sack races, but the potato eating contests were more fun just to watch and bet on who was going to win each heat. Another favorite from the day was this blow up bubble thing you could bounce on. All the little kids loved it when Jeremy got on, we could hear them all saying to each other, "Get ready, here he comes!"

It was really great to spend some quality girl time together!

Avoiding the Swine Flu

I came home from work on Monday to what seemed like an empty house. Instead, something I can only characterize as an undead Ben Franklin jumped out of the closet to greet me. Melo said that my reaction was half scream, half hysterical laughter. I guess this was Melo's way of encouraging me to get into the Halloween spirit!

We are definitely in full Halloween mode this time of year. This was always in contention with Christmas as my favorite holiday as a child. We had a great night decorating halloween cookies with some of our friends in the area last week. Here are some sample cookies:


As you can see Melody made some jack-o-lantern and manatee shaped cookies. We're planning on going to a pick-your-own-pumpkin pumpkin patch tomorrow. We'll see how they turn out.

Swine flu hit home this week as some of the members of our church congregation came down with it. On another note, Melody and I had a good time walking along the Perkiomen creek trail this afternoon. It's really incredible how vivid the trees become in the fall up here:



I'm settling into my new position as an 11 year old scout leader. I've really enjoyed it so far. My old scout shirt even fit! Apparently I still need to make some modifications to my old shirt for it to be suitable for a scout leader (i.e. removing some badges, changing epaulet color, etc.). I guess I could still pass as a Boy Scout however, because one of the scouts asked me if I had "received any of my eagle palms yet". I laughed and could only reply that I was still working on them. (For those not in the know, eagle palms are an award available only to scouts 18 years of age and younger).

We had a lot of fun baby-sitting for a couple we know recently. One of the children referred to Melody as "Jeremy's mommy" haha. This coming on the tail of the comment from the scout was just too much! At least Melody knows that I'm a full-grown adult... Right Melo?