London Trip June 2018 Day One

Our flight on British Airways left Sunday evening. Yeah, no problems with the passports!  As we were standing in line to board, someone said Hello to Scott. Turns out, most of his engineering class was on the same flight to London with their families! Looks like everyone had the same idea on how to celebrate their kids graduation!

We had a wonderful flight over-slept and watched movies, listened to music, played video games and ate! British Airways loves to feed their passengers.  We arrived in London as the sun was rising on Monday morning. Tom had traded in all his travel points for a Double Tree hotel in Kingston on the Thames, a small town south of downtown London. In order to be more frugal on our spending, Tom decided we could take public transportation to get to our hotel from the airport. Lots of people in Europe do it-you see people riding the trains and subways pulling their luggage everywhere. Allison and I had to do it when we traveled with Girl Scouts to Europe. So we were all on board to travel around town via subway and train. And if necessary, take an Uber ride (or two). Unfortunately, I am always the big packer and I was hauling the most stuff. But it was the same suitcase I took to Europe when Allison and I traveled and I had to haul it by myself back then, so I figured, no problem.

Since we have never traveled around London by ourselves before, we really had no idea on distance(or difficulty). Just saying. We did do some planning ahead and purchased a touring card from Costco before we left. It was actually an app on Tom's cell phone. The London Pass allowed us access to over 60 different tourist sights, however, you had to use it within 4 days in a row. We also knew we wanted to use an Oyster card for the public transportation. We purchased that card when we got to the train station at Heathrow airport and then started our adventure! I can only tell you that taking public transportation with all your luggage sounded like a good idea on paper. There were no direct lines to Kingston from the airport, so we had to take a train into downtown London and then switch to the subway to another train line to Kingston. And the train and subway stations have a whole lot of stairs! Elevators are not easily located, and not every station has an escalator, so dragging suitcases up and down steps and through turnstiles turned out to be a whole lot of fun!(Not!).

But we made it to the train station in Kingston and then had to find our hotel. Tom had an address on his phone and a walking App. However, the apps don't actually work in real time and we found ourselves dragging our luggage around town, narrowly avoiding getting run over by cars, taxis, buses and bicycles as we detoured around construction and closed sidewalks. We finally arrived to our hotel and discovered that it was just a block or so away from the train station-we took the scenic route. We dropped off our luggage and headed into downtown Kingston after I picked up a paper map. We headed to the river and walked along the bank through a park into downtown. Tom chose Kingston as he has traveled to the area previously on work and was familiar with the hotel and restaurants in the area. We had a great time walking along the river, watching all the swans and boats floating by as well as stopping in to a local pub for a late lunch. Tom had an agenda to keep-to visit the oldest pubs in London and try all the different beer. And because the drinking age is 18, he wanted to introduce Scott to the different beer flavors. Allison and I also enjoyed peaking into a few shops and relaxing outside in the city center which was an old church turned into an antique store with a statue of Queen Anne.

We were all pretty tired, and Tom was worried if we went to bed too early we would be off schedule for the rest of our busy trip, so he tried to keep us awake back at the hotel. Allison and I decided to walk over to a local pizza shop, Pizza Express and pick up some dinner for carryout. Yum. Turns out, Tom and Scott fell asleep before we got back with our dinner. We also managed to break out hotel room as we attempted to plug in all our electronics. Scott had brought a power strip so we would have plenty of plugs. We know we have to use adapters on the electronics, which Tom added to the power strip, but it did not seem to be enough and we blew the power in the room after Tom got a big shock! So we had to request maintenance to come flip the switch! And the bathroom light never worked right for the whole visit after that. It's amazing that we survived day one of

the trip!

Memorial Day Weekend May 25-June 3


So Allison came home from school on Thursday after graduation in time for a dentist appointment. On Friday we were busy packing for our weekend Memorial trip, dropping off Cookie at the dog kennel, cutting the lawn and visiting with my mom. I took her out for a hair appointment before the long weekend. Tom had to work so we did not get to leave for our Busch Gardens weekend until Saturday morning. The weekend before I had my van at the car dealership, checking on the brakes. They kept slipping and clunking and I was getting really annoyed(and a little nervous). My front rotars needed replaced mostly and new pads for the back wheels. So much better!  I know Tom wanted to keep working on the car to save some money with online parts, but brakes are a bit important and I really wanted to make sure the car was safe for any upcoming road trips. And now I am ready.

Our neighbors Dan and Gloria stopped by during the week to let us know that they had decided to head down to Busch Gardens as well to enjoy the opening of the Food and Wine Festival over Memorial Weekend. They both needed a break since Gloria decided to quit her current nursing manager position. The position was too stressful and she had had enough. She decided she is going to look into a floor position working with psychiatric patients and give up the manager spots for now. I am not sure that that is any less stressful, but it is a change. She'd actually enjoy retiring however their youngest son just got accepted into Grad school for Political Science/Environmental sciences and they can use the income and to plan for retirement. They also could use some furniture for his dorm room in Delaware. Unfortunately they asked us for Allison's condo furniture a bit too late. Allison already promised most of the large furniture to a fellow frisbee teammate. We need to travel back to Salisbury in July to unload the rest of the condo furniture.

So Dan and Gloria left on Friday before the Holiday weekend and got stuck in horrible traffic. We left early Saturday morning and faired better with lighter traffic. We all decided to head to the water park on Saturday afternoon. The weather was predicted to be warmer with no rain on Saturday. We had a lot of fun on the rides and lounging around Hubba Hubba Highway-the lazy river.  And no tstorms. Afterwards we all headed out to dinner at our favorite Chinese buffet.  The rain moved in during the evening hours, but we still enjoyed a fireworks show at Busch Gardens that evening looking out our window of our hotel room.

On Sunday we were headed to Busch Gardens to enjoy some rides and lots of nibbling at all the food booths and sipping some spirits. It was incredibly hot and we got through the park and lots of munching and drinking late in the afternoon. We decided to take a shopping break at the outlet stores looking for work clothes for Allison and then headed to the Movie Tavern for dinner and the new Star Wars Solo movie(which we really enjoyed). Back at the hotel we noticed our phones buzzing non stop with news of Ellicott City and severe floods. Again.  While we were enjoying our blazing hot,  sunny weekend in Virginia, Maryland was getting blasted with 10 inches of rain in one hour. Once again Olde Ellicott City was turned into a raging river as cars were washed away, buildings were destroyed and lives were at risk. A National Guard volunteer was killed trying to assist a resident as she tried to escape the flood waters with her cat. The same flooding destroyed the town in 2016 and before any improvements could be initiated on managing the flood waters, the town was hit again with worse damage. It appeared that a perfect storm came through-a tropical depression Alberto from the south and a rain storm from the north and they met over Ellicott City. Even our own neighborhood suffered areas of flooding with lots of stranded drivers in their cars as they stalled out on flooded streets. Dan and Gloria's son assisted several stranded neighbors as their cars stalled out in the flood waters in front of their house. A young couple had a close call as their pick up truck was washed off the road into our drainage stream and the young girl was sucked out of the vehicle trying to escape. She was sucked through the drainage pipe in the flood waters under the road and pulled out on the other side by a passerby. Thank goodness. Fortunately no flooding or damage to our house.

Ironically, our neighborhood just had a meeting with county officials to continue the discussion(and our fight)against further development in our neighborhood. There is a strong belief that with all the extra building in our area, it allows the flood waters to just come crashing through the neighborhoods with nothing in the way to slow down or collect the extra water. Not so surprisingly, the rest of the scheduled meetings to discuss further building in our neighborhood have been postponed. We are hoping some good will come out of the flooding with better land management ideas and less over building. And now the County and residents are struggling with a decision to rebuild Olde Ellicott City(again) or to condemn the city completely. For now, the fund raisers to help out the shop owners and employees of Olde Ellicott City have begun(again).

Turns out that it was a good thing Dan and Sheila did not come visit over the weekend. I had planned on taking them out to dinner in Olde Ellicott City on the day of the huge storm and flood. They had to fly back to Houston to help their kids move back home from their Universities. And sadly, Scott had been looking forward to celebrating his graduation with dinner at the local mexican restaurant. Looks like we will have to wait on that.

We headed back home on Monday, Memorial Day. We were disappointed that we missed our friend's 60th Birthday party on Sunday, but I am not sure how well their pool party turned out since it was scheduled on the day of the flood. We seemed to do well in our choice to go out of town!  We still had time in the evening to unpack the car, throw some chicken on the new grill rotisserie and pick up Mom for dinner and Cookie from the dog kennel.

On Tuesday I took off work to attend Scott's high school graduation ceremony in the morning. I brought Allison and Scott to the ceremony at our local outdoor theater and Tom met us after putting in a few hours of work in the morning. We enjoyed a wonderful ceremony and lunch out together at BJs Tavern before heading home.

Scott was done with school having finished his finals the week before. He picked up an all A's report card along with his diploma. He is so excited to be done with high school and on the road to college. And both kids were very excited for our upcoming trip to London!  Tom sat down Tuesday night to organize all our paperwork for our international visit, including organizing our passports. We obtained passports for the kids several years ago since it was recommended that everyone have a passport after 9-11. Tom and I both had passports prior since Tom did quite a bit of traveling for work and at times I would join him. So we figured we were all set and proud of ourselves for thinking ahead. Turns out that when Scott had his 18th Birthday last November, his passport became null and void even though it wasn't expired. Apparently there are kids passports and adult passports and you need one after turning 18. So we had 5 days to get him a new passport!  First things first-I ran him up to the Walgreen's to get a passport photo Tuesday night, 1 hour before they closed. I also gathered up all his personal paperwork while Tom went online to figure out how to obtain a passport as soon as possible. There is a service that can walk your paperwork through for a fee, but they thought we would have better luck taking our forms right down to the immigration office in DC. So guess what Tom and Scott did on Weds! They got up very early and took a train down to the office in DC. They were the first ones in the door and able to drop off their paperwork which was a miracle since most everyone has a scheduled appointment. The office rarely can handle walk ins, but since they arrived first thing in the morning, they had an open slot. However, the passport would not be ready until Thursday afternoon, so they spent some time exploring the area and headed home.

On Thursday, Tom needed to head back to work so Allison headed down to DC with Scott to pick up the finished passport. It would not be ready until after 2pm, so they headed down early to visit some of the museums and monuments. They had a great time exploring DC and stopping into a few Smithsonian museums before picking up his passport. Yeah! Our trip was still on! That was a close one.

On Friday we were all busy packing, cleaning and doing laundry. I also took Cookie in to get a hair cut before dropping her off to our friends house for the week. We dropped her off on Saturday so we would have more time to pack and leave for the airport on Sunday. The weekend was basically spent getting ready for our big trip and cleaning up the house, doing yard work. I also picked up Mom B for a hair appointment and dinner at our house on Saturday since it was going to be awhile before we would

see her again. 

As soon as we get back from London we will be heading to Michigan for Scott's college orientation at Western!

Cheers!

May 14-May 25

So I was still not feeling well come Monday morning and I decided to take a sick day and go to the doctor. We had a lot of activities planned in the coming months and I did not want to be sick. Plus several people I work with all had strep throat and this was looking mighty suspicious.

I also did not feel bad about taking a sick day since I am trying to use up some of my paid time off at work. Unfortunately(or fortunately), my nursing home was bought out by a company out of Ohio. Everyone in the building has a guaranteed job, with no changes in benefits or their accrued time off. Except for rehab. Our department is going to be run by a contract company. I have always tried to avoid contract companies since they can ask you to go anywhere they want and the facility can always dump the contract company(it happened to me once while working at St Agnes). So I decided since I can keep the same work hours and pay that I would go ahead and apply for the job. However, I lose my benefits and all my paid time off. So all of us are trying to use some up since it will not all be paid out.

Unfortunately it was really busy at work but I could not get an appointment until late in the afternoon. I was happy sitting on the couch filling out Scott's graduation announcements. And after my appointment, I started on the 10 day antibiotics. So now I feel great, but everyone else in the family is fighting allergies this spring. And they have been pretty bad. At least I was feeling better by Weds evening. I was scheduled to sing with the GS choir at the annual GS Board Meeting. We usually start the program off with a few GS songs and the flag ceremony. This year our director asked me and another mom to sing a duet, leading the congregation along in our song(several hundred people!). No pressure. I was just happy my voice did not crack from the strep throat!

Allison was busy getting through her finals. Mostly projects and papers, but a few written exams as well. Fortunately, in the class that they had the horrible failure with the presentation that apparently offended everyone on the planet, they were able to turn it around and get an A on the second go round. Allison was so relieved. Turned out she managed to earn two more As in the other two classes and ended up graduating from the MBA program with a perfect 4.0! She was ecstatic! And so were we!

On May 23rd, Weds,  I was  off work so we could drive to Salisbury to attend Allison's MBA graduation ceremony. I decided to work on Sunday to take off Weds. I wish I had known our company was sold before then. I would have taken off another day. Of course I had to squeeze in several more activities in the morning before heading out to Salisbury. I scheduled a Care Plan meeting for my mom in the morning. The team only meets on Weds mornings, so the timing was good. I sat and chatted with the nursing staff for 1 hr to cover some basic needs for mom. So far we are very happy with her living situation and she seems to enjoy it too. Lots of activities. If I could just get her on a regular schedule for hair appointments. Their salon is too busy, so I have been trying to take mom out to get her hair done each week which can be tricky with the timing and my busy schedule. I also requested for transportation from the facility to take mom to the Sr Center program again on Thursdays. And it is FREE!

Besides meeting with the staff for mom, I had to drop Cookie off at the doggy day care for a play date! We decided to go down to Busch Gardens for the Memorial Day Weekend at the last minute since we were all going to be available and home. We had planned on staying home and having visitors for the holiday. My brother Dan and his wife Sheila were going to visit from Pittsburgh. Dan has relocated for work and both are living in an apartment in Pittsburgh for the next few years. However, they had a change of plans as Dan needed to help his two kids move out of college. His daughter Caroline graduated this Spring as well with a Psychology degree from Oklahoma. Congrats Caroline! Her brother Clayton still has another semester at Texas A and M in Mechanical Engineering. Caroline is now off to Scotland for international classes. We actually looked into Scott taking a freshman engineering class in Scotland this summer as well, but the cost was a bit much on top of regular tuition. And Tom is so happy to have finally finished his recent online class. This one kept him very busy every night writing papers and having online discussions. But he plans on taking the summer off of school since we will be traveling quite a bit.

And speaking of travel, we planned on heading to  Busch Gardens for Memorial Day weekend to enjoy the opening of the Food and Wine festival. We did not want to bother our neighbors with puppy sitting since Cookie will be with them for a few weeks while we travel this summer, so Tom thought we should drop her off at Camp Bow Wow dog kennel. However, she has not been there in awhile, so I had to send in all her veterinary paperwork and bring her in for a play date to get reacquainted with the place and the staff. So I dropped her off Weds morning, went to Mom's care plan with a quick visit and then back to pick up Cookie before going home and changing, getting lunch and heading to Salisbury for Allison's graduation. Scott decided to stay home since he was finishing up his high school finals and had mandatory graduation practice. He was also spending some extra time with his friends with lunch and dinner outings as they neared the end of their high school careers!

We arrived in Salisbury late in the afternoon and took Allison shopping at the bookstore and onto campus for some graduation photos. Then we headed over to their local arena for the early evening Masters and PhD graduation ceremony. It was a very nice ceremony(and air conditioned!). We enjoyed watching them place their Master's stole over their heads when they were called onto stage. Since there are a bit less people at this ceremony than the undergrad program, we finished in 1.5 hrs as opposed to 2.5 hrs and went out to dinner afterwards at Longhorn Steakhouse. Then we headed back to Allison's condo to load up the van with some of her things. She had been bringing back lots of clothes on trips home, but now we were moving kitchen items and furniture. Turns out her roommate Helena from Venezuala was hosting a graduation party of her own at the condo. Her family was in town and her father insisted that everyone have champagne! He bought a bottle for Allison, shook it up and made her open it! Fortunately outside on the deck. We had a wonderful time visiting with Helena's family and all their friends, but really needed to get going since it was after 10pm and we had about a 2.5 hr drive home. Plus Tom and I were working the next day. Allison stayed and they kept her at the party until 1am and then she crashed. She had to get up early the next morning and pack up some more items in her car and get home for a dentist appointment! 

One Graduation ceremony down, one to go!  Also sending out a Belated Happy Birthday to Stacey(Seitz)Draper. The Big 3-0! Can't be!

And another Belated Happy Birthday to Christopher Bozyk who celebrated his 21st Bday!

May 7-May 13

Happy Mother's Day!  I had big plans for Mother's Day. Allison was busy getting through her projects as she neared the end of her semester. She worked ahead to clear her schedule so we could plan on visiting her at Salisbury. She purchased tickets to the Salisbury Orchestra performance of Video Game theme music Saturday night. We were all looking forward to visiting with her at school. Unfortunately, I was not feeling very well on Saturday morning. I did stop into Scott's Engineering Expo at school in the morning.. All the kids in the engineering program presented their year long projects. Scott presented his handicap planter. We stopped into Home Depot during the week to pick up some more plants. He had planted veggies which he started from seed, but they did not fair well inside the school for several months. So we picked up some fresh pepper plants and flowers, tomato plants to spruce it up. Early in the morning, one of his classmates helped Scott load the planter on the back of his pick up truck and drive it to the hosting school. All of the projects were voted on and only one was picked as overall winner in design and technical difficulty. Scott's project was not chosen in the top 10, but non of the projects from his school were chosen as winners. It was still a lot of fun to see all the different projects the kids came up with. Afterwards, Scott's classmate helped deliver it back home. When I got home, I took a nap before heading out to Salisbury. We took Allison out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse(lots of leftovers for her!) and then enjoyed the evening concert on campus. Although Tom and Scott would have preferred to watch the video games while they played the music.

On Sunday I still was not feeling well, but I did not want to spend Mother's Day at the urgent care clinic.  I noticed that I was getting some white stuff on the back of my sore throat and had a bit of a fever. But I muddled through and put together a Mother's Day dinner at our house for my Mom. I dropped her off at the hairdresser while I picked up the groceries. I also put together a photo postcard online with her new address(that I still have to mail out). After dinner, Tom drove my mom home so we could hook up her phone system. I have never been so frustrated with hooking up a phone! Now that Mom B is in a new apartment, the phone bills are separate from rent. Everything was included in her last building.  So when I called to have Verizon installed, they sent me a phone box, just like the cable. I called to hook it up and they asked if I would like to keep Mom's old phone number. I figured that would be easier and was waiting 2 weeks for it to be activated. When nothing happened, I called the service number and they told me they could not transfer the old number without a copy of the previous phone bill. However, I did not have a phone bill from Mom's last facility since the phone was included in the overall charges. So we set up a new number. I had to visit the Verizon store during the week to get it all straightened out. So I just wanted Tom to make sure it was running. Which it now is doing!  I also dropped off some flowers and new shirts for mom for mother's day.

Meanwhile, Tom was so excited about his toaster oven birthday present, he decided to get me an even bigger, digital toaster oven for Mother's Day and put his birthday toaster oven away for Allison. I also got a bracelet from Allison and Solo tshirt from Tom. Now I am set for the upcoming film!  And Scott was busy cutting the grass.

Spring finally rolled in and everything was in bloom. Our cherry and magnolia trees were beautiful, but the blooms did not last too long. Neither did the daffodils. But we enjoyed them while we had them, and the warm weather. Mom really enjoys riding through our neighborhood to see all the blooming trees, flowers and shrubs. Next came the tulips, azaleas and rhodedendrons. And the blue birds moved into my bird house and are busy raising a new family. The bird house and feeder also attracted a few wrens. Since the blue birds chased them away from the bird house, they had to settle on nesting in a flower pot and a small pine tree nearby. Usually the wrens nest in a Tiki bar on our deck, but it was starting to fall apart so Tom hauled it off to the dump. So they had to resettle elsewhere. A very busy nature center in our back yard! And time for allergies and ear infections in dogs. I had Cookie back to the vet for another ear infection. She needed more ear drops and this time we tried antibiotics. Anything to keep her from shaking her head all the time!

Tom has also been eyeing a new Weber grill. I kept telling him to bite the bullet and buy an upgraded version because our current grill was falling apart. He did not believe me until he tried to move it off the deck to make room for his new grill. The bottom fell out, but someone still took it when he dropped it off by the curb. So he upgraded his Weber grill for the new grilling season and both Scott and Tom have become pros trying it out. Or at least feel like pros on the new grill!

April 30-May 6

Early Monday morning we were all up and out the door. Mark and Linda were headed back to Indy. Allison and Scott  headed  to school and Tom and I headed to work. It was a very busy month!  And now we finally made it to May. But things have not been slowing down.

Allison was back at school for a few days. She headed back home however at the end of the week for our GS camping trip. Both of us have been busy the past couple of months participating in a planning committee for the annual Spring GS jamboree at the Conowingo GS campsite just north of Baltimore. Allison volunteered to run the Archery station and I was assigned to Arts and Crafts. We did not come up with the theme or the activities, so we just had to show up and work. The jamboree theme was Maryland, My Maryland. So food and activities all centered around our state theme. Allison and I packed up and arrived at camp around dinner on Friday the first weekend in May. Allison made me a great name tag with my camp name-Petoskey. Still working on training the staff on how to pronounce it and what it is. So far I just get called "Michigan fossil".

We did not have to help with registration, so we set up our sleeping arrangements in a big cabin-air mattresses on the floor and enjoyed some pizza and salad for dinner. I was pretty pooped out and took a nap on a couch until the Volunteer meeting. The committee goes over everyone's weekend chores, including the parents that attend with their girls. Then I was actually ready for bed. But first I spent some time proofreading one of Allison's final papers.

On Saturday morning we were up bright and early to help serve breakfast. After we ate we headed to our stations. I was the supporting staff for the Arts and Crafts activity leader along with a younger scout, but I felt that I did all the set up and organizing. I laid out our station outside the Arts and Crafts station on a few picnic tables and ran around collecting all the supplies. I was so happy I packed my portable wagon. Allison used the wagon at scout camp last summer and it was dubbed "The Dragon Wagon" since Allison's camp name is Dragon.

For our Arts and Crafts station we made up small screens for the girls to paint on. In Baltimore, screen painting was very popular as there was no air conditioning in the row houses. In order to maintain some privacy while keeping the windows open, owners used to paint their screens. Now it is considered a Folk Art form. The girls had a wonderful time painting all day. We rotated 7 sessions throughout our day with 12+ girls in each group and a break for lunch. We started at 9am and finished at 5pm for dinner after clean up. I was so glad I brought my portable wagon. It came in handy transporting items back and forth from the main dining hall like the paint and water jugs. After the girls painted their screens, we hung them on a clothesline to dry. It was a bit rainy all weekend, but we managed to get through the day's activities without a big rainstorm.

The girls rotated through a whole day of Maryland themed activities like jousting with pool noodles(jousting is the Maryland state sport!). They played Maryland BINGO, did a gardening service project and learned about native Maryland plants, went on a nature hike, as well as participating in a few fun activities like archery(Allison's station), rock wall climbing and playing dodge ball(GAGA ball). Our food was Maryland themed as well, including Berger cookies and lots of snacks covered with Old Bay Seasoning. Our camp cook even took a shot at making Smith Island cake-a 7 layered cake with fudge frosting. Yum. We certainly had more than enough food to eat.

The rain picked up in the evening, so the bonfire was moved inside. The girls had the opportunity to put on skits and make s'mores before bedding down. Allison and I were pooped out and skipped the bonfire. Instead we played cards and I did some more proof reading on her school paper. We both called it quits(we should have brought a puzzle!). Allison was worn out from a full day of archery-she ran the station all by herself. On Sunday morning we stopped in for breakfast, packed up our camping gear, cleaned up the cabin and headed home. It was so nice to take a shower!

That evening the kids asked if we could go see the new Avenger's Movie. Tom had to skip the outing since he was also working on his last paper for his class. We were just happy to get into the movie. Lately all the shows have been sold out, especially on opening weekends. And we really enjoyed the show, but as usual, we have to wait for part 2. There is always a part 2!

Allison and I were sorry we missed the Mexican food for Cinco De Mayo however. But Scott and Tom had the opportunity to wear their May the 4th Be With You shirts they got in their Easter baskets that weekend. And Scott had Friday off work since the catholic schools were closed that day.

April 23-29

Finally the big weekend for Scott's Eagle Court of Honor. I had spent countless hours beforehand researching Eagle ceremonies, typing up the program, recruiting readers for the ceremony, sending out invitations and assembling decorations including photo collages of Scott's lengthy scout career starting with Cub Scouts in the 1st grade! It was quite the project! But I really think it paid off.

We were so excited to share the experience with Tom's brother Mark and wife Linda. They arrived on Friday afternoon. I made a ham dinner for Friday night-a belated Easter meal for us. I was planning on a full house for dinner, but turns out Scott was working on a television taping with his classmates and went out to dinner. Allison was not coming home until Saturday morning to join us. She had an end of the season Ultimate frisbee potluck on Friday night. But she was able to join us for the weekend.

On Saturday after Allison got home, we all decided to take a day trip up to Gettysburg. Tom purchased bus tour tickets of the area. The tour company spent two hours driving around the park and explained the multiple day Civil War battle. We have all visited the park a few times, but this was the first time we had the event so well laid out and explained. I would still like to go back and spend time touring the new Visitor's Center. It is huge and they recommend a few hours to explore the place. We really ran out of time and energy to take it all in! And it had just starting raining hard after our bus tour wrapped up.

We drove back home and went out to dinner. It started sprinkling a bit in the afternoon, but it did not really interrupt our tour as we hopped on and off the bus to tour the park firsthand. So we made it through our tour before any heavy downpours. As usual, our local restaurants back home were packed on Saturday night along with kids out for Prom night,  and we had to wait awhile for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. That night, Scott was off to celebrate After Prom with his classmates! After Prom runs from midnite to 430am. Just a little busy this weekend. Scott was happy to drive himself to After Prom at our YMCA(and so were we!).  He really enjoyed spending the night participating in Bounce House obstacle courses and Dodge ball, as well as attempting to eat all the free food! Scott actually designed a Don't Drink and Drive poster for the event that won second place in a county wide contest that provided $500 towards the event! Sadly he did not even get a free tshirt or gift card for his efforts from the event. But he still had a great time and came home and slept in preparation for our Eagle event in the afternoon.

Tom, Scott and Allison meanwhile spent Sunday morning with Mark at our local park. Allison and Tom took Cookie for a long walk around the lake while Mark got in a run. I had to pack up my van with items I was taking to the Glory Days restaurant for the event in the afternoon. I had some more running around to do before the big day too. On Friday I had to drive about 40 mins to pick up a special cake from a coworkers sister. Faith is a baker and over the years we enjoyed some of her cakes and cupcakes brought in by her sister at work. So I thought it would be fun to have a custom Eagle cake. I also picked up some cookies and cupcakes from Sams Club just in case. So Friday I was off to pick up the cake, along with a quick visit to check on my Mom. On Saturday morning I was picking up the cupcakes from Sams Club before our trip to Gettysburg. On Sunday afternoon  I had to pick up my Mom. She has been living in her new apartment now for 1 week. She still had not been given a shower, and her laundry was piling up, and I had not been successful in getting her into the onsite hair salon. I spoke to the nurse and she immediately got up and gave Mom a shower and washed her hair while I picked out some clothes. I got mom dressed, curled her hair a bit, put on her makeup and away we went! We had to arrive early to set up the room.

Glory Days restaurant has a banquet room with tables and large screen tvs. They were able to turn off the music and tvs during the event. Although the guys asked that the tvs go back on during dinner so they could catch up the NHL! We set up a podium and a display table, dessert table. Glory Days set up a buffet table with chicken tenders, chicken pasta, burgers and fries, and steamed broccoli along with a soda bar. Everyone on our guest list arrived, about 30 people which included neighbors and scout members.  We had the ceremony before dinner and everyone did a great job. The food was very good and plentiful, and I thought the cannoli Eagle cake was especially tasty. Although some people were happy with the cupcakes and cookies. Turns out the Scoutmaster and Asst Scoutmaster got a sneak peak at Scott's cake since they are friends with Faith's dad. He was asking about the Eagle ceremony since he knew the men were involved in scouting, and turns out he had a photo of Scott's Eagle cake. Small world! Special thanks go out to Mark and Allison for participating in the readings and taking photos!  I had Allison read a poem about Eagles for the ending. The poem talks about the fact that when storms are near, eagles rise above them. I thought it was very appropriate for our event. And so now Scott joins a special group of Eagle scouts. (He would have been approved as an eagle scout without the ceremony, but I thought it was a nice way to celebrate the event). Most members just have their ceremonies at the church. But I heard it was hard to find an available date there to book the room, as well as the added issue of getting the food delivered or picked up and served. It was so much nicer to have someone else do all the food prep and most of the clean up. Thanks also to Linda who helped set up and clean up our decorations!  I think everyone had a good time. I just wish I could have had more time to chat with everyone, but Mom was getting ansy so I dropped her

back off to her apt and got her ready for bed. Then I was ready for bed! It was a very activity packed weekend. We just could not squeeze in the new Avengers Movie. As if!