Home from Paradise . . . Nemacolin Woodlands!


This weekend, Greg and I were able to enjoy a trip to Nemacolin Woodlands in south, central Pennsylvania to get away from the stress and pressures. Our stay was Friday night to Sunday, and we really enjoyed the great food and relaxing atmosphere. It was great to walk on the beautiful grounds and indulge in a few simple pleasures like a pedicure. The color is called "Flirt." What do you think? This picture was taken from the balcony of our room in the lodge. It overlooked the front entrance and the spa and was a relaxing place to drink our coffee and read the newspaper on Saturday morning.




Nemacolin has a beautiful art collection all over the grounds including glass works, sculpture, prints, oil paintings, and so on. I had attended a business meeting at Nemacolin a while ago, and I was impressed with the fact that they have an actual section of the Berlin Wall on display on the grounds. So this time, Greg took my picture with the wall this morning on our walk so that you can share in my amazement. It just astounds me that this was such a symbol of the cold war that is now nothing but a curiousity that kids study about in history in school. I already feel old, but this makes it worse! Maybe I am really older than dirt like the kids say that I am.


Greg was a charming companion all weekend. He even indulged me while I shopped for almost an hour in the trendy shops that are always around a resort. And when I kept going back to this one purse but hesitating to buy it, he just took it down and paid for it and put me out of my misery. Now THAT is true love! Or maybe he was just tortured by the shopping and wanted it to end . . . . But I think it was true love. :-)



Greg checked out the many statues of musicians around the grounds, but he also appreciated some of the whimsical things like the toy firetruck for the kids to pretend they were firemen. So I took his picture driving the firetruck. What this picture doesn't show is Greg trying to get OUT of the truck after the picture. That was truly a masterpiece.



Anyway, it is good to be home after a great weekend. The weather is absolutely perfect, and I need to go sit on the porch!

Oma's Girl is the Best!

This past weekend I got to spend three whole days and nights with Katy and Melanie while Brian and Emily went on a much-deserved anniversary trip. We had a lot of important things to do, and it was hard to fit them all into the three days. I went to Columbus on Friday and "took the reins" of Katy care on that afternoon. When we got up on Saturday morning, Melanie and I decided to go to First Watch for breakfast. Even though Katy had a little breakfast when she got up at 7 a.m., she went with us at 8 and ate some French toast and bananas while we chatted and Oma drank her coffee. After her nap, Katy helped me clean up the kitchen and run the electric broom. This is a picture of "Cinder Katy" helping with the housework. She really likes the sweeper, but she has a tendency to clean the same spot over and over again. I had to help get the crumbs that weren't in the center of the room. But, hey, it's a start!

Saturday afternoon, we went to New Carlisle to visit Granny and Grandpa and eat dinner with them. Grandpa got out the green swing and hung it from the ceiling. Katy had fun catching the silly old bear that we dug out of the toy box as she swung back and forth. After supper, we headed back home and made it into bed after that last relaxing bottle of the day. Melanie and I watched a movie . . . "The Queen" . . . which was actually pretty good.

Sunday morning we were lazy. We took it easy and went out for a walk on the Clintonville route after Katy's morning nap. We took some money along and stopped at Alladdin's on High Street for a little lunch. It was a nice little break; and Katy captured the heart of our extremely cute waiter (Melanie observed this), who brought Katy a plastic spoon to play with and a cup of water with a lid and a straw. Once we got home, Aunt Mel and Oma decided to make a quick run out to Easton to get two quick items. So we went to The Container Store and Williams Sonoma and then stopped at Dairy Queen on the way back to the house for some dessert. Back for nap number two and a chance to try to figure out how to fold up that blasted jogging stroller. These contraptions are much more complicated than the strollers I used to have! Good thing Emily called or it would still be sitting in the middle of the living room.

On Monday, Aunt Mel went off to work, and Katy and I once again put on our sunscreen and did the Clintonville route in the morning sun. We stopped at Giant Eagle on the way home to get more milk because Katy had been really thirsty and drank it all for breakfast. We also played in the yard with Amelia and Arcadia next door, and Katy is learning to pull weeds like Oma . . . but she likes the flowers best so you have to watch her.

All in all, I really had a wonderful time with our baby and my baby. It has brought me many smiles in the last few days to remember cute things Katy did and her small but effective vocabularly. Any yes, she does grow almost every morning when you get her out of her crib.

I'm glad Emily and Brian had a nice time, because Oma certainly had fun, too.