Pennsylvania Part 2

On to the next part of our PA trip! After we left Lewisburg, we moved on to Hershey... which proved to have a lot more to offer than just chocolate. Here are a few pictures of us visiting the Hershey Gardens.

Vince got lost in the rose garden

He sprouted some wings on the way to the butterfly pavilion

Vince kept trying to grab the butterfly wings

A little part of the Garden dedicated to the book Wind in the Willows, Dad and son having a tea break

Resting on a toad stool

Hershey also has a great little zoo which dedicates itself to showing only animals found in North America. We we are visiting the American Alligator

A super close up view of the North American Black Bear!!

You can't go through Hershey, PA without seeing the Hershey kiss street lamps

We took a trolley tour around Hershey, foolishly thinking it would be a good idea to do with a 14 month old. Well, Vince dropped a deuce in his diapers about 10 minutes into the tour... and there were no windows to "role down". He was also bouncing off the walls because we had given him his first taste of chocolate. That combined with him wanting to be in any other seat on the trolley other than the one he was in, made the 30 minute long tour seem like eternity. Luckily everyone on the trolley was cordial with us!! We high tailed off the bus as soon as it was over.

Our one picture we took in Gettysburg, PA

Pennsylvania Part 1

During our first couple of days in PA, we were hosted by Laura in Lewisburg... who opened her house to make the backyard look like the old Peace Corps Transit House in Lilongwe, complete with tents... and friends sitting around drinking beers and laughing. Vince was inducted as an honorary Peace Corps Malawi member

Laura plans on doing this again next year!! Hopefully the group will be bigger!

While in Lewisburg we couldn't pass up the super luxury kids play park that they have

And then of course getting Laura to cut Vince's hair brought on nostalgia.... she was all our hairdressers back in Malawi

Milk break

I also discovered the pretzel cone while in Lewisburg. I had no idea how much of a pretzel loving state that PA was. I guess I've always liked pretzels, there's something about a warm soft pretzel dipped in mustard or cheese... but this State takes it to the next level. We went to the local Lewisburg soft serve. There they had the pretzel cone that Matt and Laura described to us. It was delightful, and I spent the rest of our trip in PA trying to figure out where I could buy some to take home. I ended up dragging us all over Philly to no avail. I had to mail order them! Well.. I received them... and they're GOOD.

Beth-Ann and Jason's Wedding

Hello blogger buddies! Sorry we've been missing for so long from the world of posting our lives.... we've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. From weddings, to sick kid, to vacationing in Pennsylvania.... I have a lot of blog posts to catch up with! I'll start with the wedding of our good friends Beth-Ann and Jason that was held 8/22/09 out at a spectacular honey farm in Central Mass. It was a whole weekend of warm weather and sunny skies (minus the torrential storm hours before the ceremony)

I just have to share some of the amazing work that the bride and groom put into this wedding, and some of the beautiful craftsmanship that Jason has. It was an outdoor wedding, very woodsy and rustic setting, with corn fields all around as well. We stayed in the farmhouse on the property, which was so fun!

Here is a little sample of how much work Beth-Ann and Jason put into the wedding. All of the wedding tables had the names of native trees of the State of Massachusetts. So in order to figure out what table you were sitting at, you would find this little wooden card with your name burned into it, and the tree name up in the corner. All this was hand made by Jason, who also spent the time to make sure that the leaf in the upper corner was modeled after the actual leaf of the tree. Our table was Maple, so we had our wooden cards with maple leaves at the upper corner. The table with Birch had the same, Ginkgo, and so on. Each leaf being a small replica of what the actual tree leaf looks like. Amazing!


And here's the centerpiece, a beautiful and simple wooden trunk piece (of which I now own 8), with candles and a vase of lavender and baby's breath. All the tables looked so pretty!

Getting our hair done as the torrential rains were pouring outside. Here's the flower girl getting dolled up.

Beth-Ann's hair after the finishing touches.

Me after my hair was done, messing around with what has to be the worlds biggest brush

Having fun with a sunflower

Although there was the down pour shortly before the wedding, the weather for the actual ceremony and reception after wards was great, with lots of warmth and sun. There were lots of games going on for the wedding guests to partake in... including Croquet, Frisbee, and the bean bag tossing. Vince along with a couple of other children quickly took over the bean bag tossing, not allowing many others to toss the bags without them getting in the way and grabbing the bags.

The Maple Table

Sorry, no photos of the actual ceremony because I was busy being one of the bride's maids... and Mike was busy trying to keep Vince happy. We had a nice time though and are so happy for our newlywed friends!