On the road again. . .Marley CAN wait to get On the road again . . .

So...we figured out on our drive to Pennsylvania (and had it confirmed on the return trip) that Marley is not really into road trips. She doesn't sleep well in the car, so after maybe a 20 minute cat nap, she feels the need to cry for about an hour. Thank goodness the boys eat up the screen time they get on long trips--they zoned out on the DVD while Marley bellowed her woes. This was only her second road trip with us, and probably her third ever in her life (the first being the 4 hour drive from her orphanage to Nanjing the day we met her). The first trip with us was back in February when she'd only been with us for a little over a month and was still pulling the wool over our eyes by playing the sweet, docile baby role. She is more than comfortable with us now, and there is no doubt she feels 'safe' enough to let her temper flare and show us a little high drama when she's in the mood.

Other than the actual drive, the trip to PA was great. The kids got to spend time with grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. They swam in Gram & Pap's (FREEZING) pool twice, played on playgrounds, ate yummy Fox's pizza and watched entirely too many episodes of the Sponge Bob Sponge Bath marathon on TV.



We got to visit with one of my nearest and dearest friends and her family, which included jumping on their trampoline, drinking some brewski (adults only, of course!), and making s'mores over the gas stove in the kitchen (which is my new favorite alternative when rain prohibits campfires). We watched fireworks with them, too, and Marley kept yelling "Ha-Ma, Ha-Ma" over and over in response to my yelling "bang-bang, bang-bang." It was pretty cute!


We went to a brand new children's museum that opened in June. It was really nice and very high-tech. The museum is housed in the Heritage Discovery Center which opened a few years ago and gives visitors a chance to explore the history of the area, including the immigration that occurred when the steel mills were booming in the 1800s and people came from Europe to live and work in Johnstown. I was totally impressed by the museum, and hope to see more of it the next time we're home--this time we concentrated on the children's museum. My hometown and the surrounding areas have suffered economically for a long time, really since the steel mills starting closing over 20 years ago. It was refreshing and promising to see the pride that is obvious in the museum, and also an awesome possibility for keeping the kids busy on future visits.






We took the kids to Idlewild Amusement Park where we handled late afternoon rain and chilly temps pretty well (although Dave & I both felt like we were being pelted with bullets everytime we went on a fast ride with the boys). Marley rode her first rides and then took a nap in the stroller while Grammy kept her company.




In other news . . .

We had a second shark tooth/fossil-hunting adventure last week that I don't want to leave off the blog. We had such a good time and I think anyone local to the area here should give the place a try. The area is called Fairview Beach and it is in King George, VA. There is a restaurant right on the water called Tim's II ('sequel' to Tim's Rivershore which is in a different part of VA). The kids and I met up with my sister, my two nephews, and her niece and nephew at the restaurant for lunch last Thursday. After lunch, we spent about three hours in this little section of private beach by the restaurant. We found soooo many turret fossils that the kids started becoming more selective and throwing things back if they weren't ultra-cool. We also found 4 fossilized shark teeth, which was pretty exciting once we realized what they were. We finished the afternoon with a stop for ice cream at Carl's in Fredericksburg (thanks, Aunt Heather for treating us all to yummy goodness) and were home by dinner time. There are three more fossil/shark teeth sites that we are planning to hit before the end of the summer, so if anyone wants to join us, shoot me an email!












Next adventure. . . the boys and I are leaving tomorrow for a weekend camping trip in Maryland, about 2 1/2 hours away. We are all really excited for it. It is funny how my perspective has changed---a year ago, I would have felt like tent-camping alone with the boys would've been a challenge. . .after almost 7 months of having Marley here, I am looking forward to this weekend as a mini-vacation! Having three kids, including a very stubborn two-year old, is not for wussies. I was tossing around the idea of taking all three kids back home to Johnstown for a night, up to Presque Isle in Erie for a night, to Niagara Falls for a night, back to Erie, back to J-town, and then back here. But . . .after Marley's performance on our trip, I don't have the guts (or enough sedatives) to handle 5 nights on the road without Dave to keep me sane or at least protect me from the children ;)