So we returned home from our trip to Wisconsin on a Saturday afternoon. Just in time to unpack the van and pick up Cookie from our friends. I spent Sunday doing laundry and we decided to have my Mom over for dinner. We had brought back quite a bit of fish from our trip, so we grilled it for dinner. However, Mom and Tom opted for the natural casing hot dogs we bought at Usingers. It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed dinner on the patio while looking at the photos from our trip. It was also nice to have Allison home with us. She usually is off to Girl Scout camp by Sunday. I asked her to stay home an extra day and stop into her doctor's office for a check up before returning to work.

Frankly, we would have preferred if Allison quit for the summer and spent her time recuperating from her anemia. It really took a lot out of her. But she was determined to finish the summer(and she said they were desperate to have her come back to work). So on Monday morning we dropped into the doctor's office together for a quick check up and bloodwork. Unfortunately, we would have to wait a few weeks for an iron level report. And Allison was feeling up to returning to work, so off she went.
She spent the week visiting Pennsylvania with her travel group. The girls visited several factories including the UTZ and the Herr's Potato Chip plants and the Turkey Hill Ice Cream Factory. They also stopped into an Amish Market. And the trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to Hershey Park. Allison seemed to manage the work load, and she made sure to buy hamburgers whenever she could! Not to mention taking iron supplements twice a day. But I think she was pretty wiped out by Saturday, especially after her trip to Hershey Park. She was happy to come home over the weekend, do laundry and rest up before heading back to camp on Sunday.

Allison's Pennsylvania tour inspired us to take a trip up to the Turkey Hill ice cream factory on our own. Of course we included my mom. We decided Sunday was a good day for a road trip. We purchased tickets for the ice cream making class ahead of time online per Allison's recommendation. Turned out to be a good thing as the tours sell out. We arrived around lunch and sat outside on the patio enjoying a pizza from Pizza Hut before our tour began. We had some time to kill before our class, so we wandered around the 'factory' while enjoying lots of different free ice cream samples. They don't actually have tours of the factory, but a tourist building that covers their ice cream making process and lets you try out their products, including ice cream and ice tea. We did sit in on an ice cream making class though and were given a pint of vanilla ice cream with instructions to add any flavoring we wished. Each of us tried something different with flavoring, toppings and even fillings like gummy bears, chocolate chunks, peanuts, granola, cookie pieces, etc. They had a whole wall of fillings to choose from! It was way too much ice cream to eat, but you really could not take it home! It was quite an experience, but we could have done without the masses of crying kids!

On Saturday, our entire family enjoyed dinner out in Olde Ellicott City. Afterwards, Scott and Allison headed home(Scott was practicing his driving). Tom and I joined our neighbors to watch "The Manchurian Candidate" 1950 version in black and white outside at the Wine Bin. We had a great time sipping our wine and munching popcorn while watching the movie in the store parking lot. And surprisingly I really enjoyed the movie. I know they did a remake, but I never saw that one either.

On Friday, Scott and I spent the morning touring the Uof Maryland Baltimore County campus. They have quite an extensive engineering program and the school is up and coming in the technology field. Scott is still very interested in Western Michigan, but we thought it was a good idea for him to see other campuses and compare other engineering programs. Now he just needs to kick up his ACT score.

By the way, I let July pass me by without wishing Nicholas Bozyk a very Happy Birthday! So Happy Birthday Nick!