Love Ya Lions!

The day after my awesome reunion was Daddy's birthday and we planned on a FUN day in State College and on campus! We started our adventure off at The Arboretum at Penn State. The Arboretum was opened about three years ago on the north end of campus and it's my new favorites spot on campus. Gorgeous and peaceful. And great for kids with lots of energy.

Daddy got some nice pictures of plants. Starting with these awesome gourds growing over a metal arch. There must have been a dozen hanging down. At least. Colin kept calling them big pears.




And the water lilies were just lovely this visit.




I will say, Gillian was quite a piece of work most of the day. She was obviously very tired from the day before. She didn't have major screaming breakdowns, but she consistently went right when the rest of us went left. ALL DAY LONG. Finally we threatened to throw her in the car and GO HOME. WITH NO ICE CREAM. That worked just enough to make the rest of the day bearable. Just.

Next up. LION! Colin had been desperate to visit the Lion since we had left our house on Saturday morning. He kept telling us he'd sit UP ON TOP. Yeah, once we got there, he realized how tall the Lion is and told us no WAY. He did stand next to him though.




Then we had some Lion fun.





G, on the other hand, loved it up on top of the fellow!

I have a feeling she's going to rule that campus someday.

Then we headed down campus to check out Old Main and head toward town for lunch. Playing chase with Daddy was first up....with ubiquitous construction in the background.


We heard the bells chime and checked out the elm (and squirrels).



Little Man on Campus.


Some love for the birthday boy too!


We picked up some t-shirts for the kiddos at Family Clothesline and made some mental birthday lists at the local toy store. Then it was time for lunch. Daddy picked The Corner Room (of course). And we lucked into a window booth!


Colin discovered a fun game of grinning and waving at everyone walking past and keeping score of if they waved back. He got the most waves out of lovely, young ladies. Of course.

To wind down our day we made a quick stop at The Creamery. That is some seriously good ice cream. And HUGE portions. So we made the kids share. It only took a few tears on BOTH kids' parts to settle on strawberry with sprinkles. Good grief.

Blue and white sprinkles. Obviously.





Ok, I admit it, I stole some. Although Daddy and I had shared a yummy chocolate flavor too.



Ok, and another one...


We had such a fun weekend. The visit may have been a little bittersweet, given the events of the year, but State College and Penn State will always feel like home.

Hello Nittany Lion!

Ugg, I'm currently a week behind on blogging. Blah. I love to blog, but I hate it when I get behind!

Anyway, the kids and I spent all last week up north, splitting our week between Grammy and Papa Frank's house and GraGra and Papa Greg's house. It was, thankfully, a beautiful week (no one up there has central air conditioning for this princess to be spoiled in!). It was sunny and warm, but no humidity. The perfect week to spend outside visiting and playing! Most of the week we just played in various backyards and blow-up pools. We went for a big swim at Dickiedoo's house one night too; Gillian had a blast wearing a life jacket and swimming "all by myself!"

The big event of the week though was a visit to State College on Thursday to check out the Arts Fest and meet the Nittany Lion! Shockingly enough, we hadn't had the kids to State College to check out Penn State yet, and it was time to remedy that! Grammy and I loaded up the kids right after breakfast and zipped right over. The kids were very persistent with their questioning of, "Is it Penn State yet?" And very good at pointing out electric towers and bridges the whole way there.

Our first stop was the "People's Choice Arts Fest" in Boalsburg. I have several friends from college who now live in State College (I'm very, very jealous) and I had made plans to meet up with two of them, Natalie and Gwen. I hadn't seen Natalie since my wedding...TEN YEARS AGO! And you know what, she hadn't changed a bit. Well, except for the four kiddos!

It was hard to chat very much with seven kids between three adults, but we did get to catch up a bit!

(Natalie's oldest, Nicholas, had his friend along for the day, hence the extra kiddo!)

Gwen sent us a text that she and her girls weren't going to make it though. They had just gotten back from Montana the day before, so they were just all out of sorts! We missed them, but it was TOTALLY understandable! Next time!

So, at the Boalsburg Arts Fest they had a petting zoo, bounce house, train ride, and science tents for the kids. The petting zoo and bird seed bin were total hits with Colin and Gillian. Well, the petting zoo was more Colin's favorite, but I think Gillian enjoyed it too!

Colin and Grammy enjoyed feeding the (slightly pushy) goats.


But Colin's favorite were these pigs that Gillian is smiling at!


Bean liked the tortoise. It wasn't in her face, like the goats!


See? Pushy goat.


Both kids loved, loved, loved this bin of bird seed in the science center tent. They had all sort of machines that you could pour the seed through and watch them spin. They must have spent 30 minutes in the seed.



Gillian also had her face painted by some lovely high school thespians. Really, she was much more pleased with it than this picture would lead you to believe!

When Colin saw what they were doing to Gillian, he got all panicked and started saying, "I no have to do that. I no want to get paint!" over and over. Poor kid. I did NOT make him paint his face!

Of course, it was mandatory that we ride the train. No escaping that. It was actually quite a bumpy ride!

It was nice though, Natalie and I agreed, since it drove us past most of the art booths. That was the only way I was going to get to look at the art!

We had a quick lunch with Natalie's family and packed up. We were headed into downtown State College for the "official" Arts Fest. Although, I have to say, if you have little kids, Boalsburg is the place to visit. Much more kid friendly.

By this point it was 1:00 and our usual nap time. The kids did really well though. Grammy and I pushed them around the streets for a while, looking in booths and chatting. I think the kids enjoyed the breather. We checked out the annual sand sculpture (kids were not impressed).

We grabbed a lemonade, a potty break, and walked through the misters on the street. Then it was on to campus!

The kids were STILL asking where the Nittany Lion was! I think they were also a little confused by the multi-building, campus-style "school." Didn't quite fit their definition of "school." And Gillian asked if she could go into a frat house. NO. NEVER. EVER. It was also quite an eye opener to push a double stroller on campus. First of all, it's so STEEP! Second of all, all of my usual "shortcuts" are not so quick with a stroller!

Finally, we found Mr. Lion!

And again, the kids were less than impressed, I think. Grammy and I tried to get them to sit on his back for a nice (traditional) photo, but, no go. They told us the lion was "too slippery." So, we let them play around the lion and I got a few shots of them.

Not sure what that face is about!

They did like his tail!


Almost the picture I wanted!


Soon there were other people wanting a turn with the lion, so we were off. Off to find Creamery Ice Cream. Yum.


And find it, we did! Thankfully we had the sense to only get two (huge) cones and shared them. The kids always ask for strawberry and Grammy ordered Death by Chocolate.

After ice cream it was time to head home. We were all tired, hot, and sticky. The kiddos did NOT fall asleep in the car on the way home. They hardly ever sleep in the car! So, they were in bed at 6:50 pm. And were out like lights!

Oh, and as we were leaving campus, Colin said to us, "I want to go to PENN STATE!" Oh, music to my ears!

We really did have a very fun week visiting with all of our family. I think it will be on our agenda for next summer too!