A new painting! This is of a candle we bought at a garage sale.
Found at Goodwill – a purse made of cleverly folded chip bags.
I really wanted to put some potato chips inside it, but Chloe wouldn’t let me.
And here we see the first day of 8th grade. This is the last year of the Swallowtail Waldorf School. We’re hoping to get Chloe into an arts high school in Beaverton for 9th. Stay tuned!
Before we headed off to PA, Chloe and her chums went to perennial kid favorite:
The Enchanted Forest!
The Enchanted Forest is a fairy tale themed amusement park just south of Portland.
Airplane! Headed to Pennsylvania!
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton International Airport serves Bethlehem – where Peeps are made!
(Can you tell?)
Hi Mom! It is great to be back. Chloe hasn’t been here since she was too small to stand.
Grandpa Hausman, the cabinet maker and high school wood shop teacher built this house.
Pretty great to this day!
We got a bit Dutchy – visiting the old neighborhood with its covered bridge and 1860’s mill dam.
Chloe’s first encounter with Easy Cheese. It is easy, but is it really cheese?
Peck’s Pond! (Actually, it is a lake)
It’s his lake, we just visit it.
Pre-muck photo, as we start our hike down the crick.
Oddly enough, the kids at the camp Chloe went to this summer weren’t allowed to do stuff like this.
We mucked our way all the way to the lake!
Post-muck victory shots! Look at those big smiles!
Mark came to visit!
Arnold has never met a cheeseball he didn’t like. To eat.
Another day at Peck’s Pond!
But first, breakfast.
Meanwhile, we uncovered the stone stairs leading to the lakefront and trimmed back the overgrown plants.
While we were at Pecks Pond in the Poconos we filmed a few soon-to-be-classic horror videos. Special guest star!
Arnold Ziffel!
Directed, filmed and edited by Chloe. Voice actors: Chloe, Dad & Mark Yeck
Directed and filmed by Chloe. Additional voices by Dad.
Directed by Dad. Filmed and edited by Chloe. Voice actors: Dad & Mark Yeck
We went to the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center in Kutztown. I goofed up on my research and it turned out to be closed that day. But we got photos!
Since we’re Fancy Dutch, not Plain Dutch we don’t know how to actually farm anything these days, but it is part of our story. The last operating farms in the family date back to Chloe’s great-grandmother’s era. Most of that is now suburban housing around Allentown. For those of you who don’t know there were so many of us German settlers that the first newspaper in Allentown was printed in German. In living memory are people born here in the US but didn’t learn English until they were sent to school.
Get aught, nah!
We went up to the Trexler Nature Preserve to frolic in the Jordan River for a bit. Chloe learned how to skip rocks. We got to see some bison and also were pretty close to three wild deer who had come down to the river. Chloe’s great-great grandmother Verna Peters used to talk about being hired by General Trexler to bring water to the people working at the nature preserve.
So, that’s what waves do…
Thar be Boogars…
After years of trying, I finally discovered how to get Chloe to wear a hat.
You give her $20 for food and tell her she can get anything she wants.
Frog.
It’s not breakfast without Arnold Ziffel.
Star Damage – yes, Chloe got some sunburn. And French toast.
Of the two, which would she get again?
While at Ocean City, New Jersey we stayed at The Tahiti Inn.
As you can see, this helped feed Dad’s Tiki obsession.
The big win for us was being just a half-block off the beach and boardwalk.
The waterfall feature is blocked by my hat. Dang!
If any tiki fans are reading this, at the south end of the boardwalk you can find Dole Whip!
Shady Cat continues to find his turkey costume oddly comforting.
Garage sale!
I seem to be the only one in the family who actually likes to wear hats.
Not pictured is ball cap from the Valdez Pipeline I picked up.
Not the worst one dollar I’ve ever spent at a garage sale.
That’s another story altogether.
Chloe takes her cake baking very seriously.
Presenting… A raccoon cake!
And it is delicious!