Summer Road Trip

Wow where has the summer gone?  I cannot believe it's September already, I had a very busy month of traveling so this will be very long but worth the read.

I started out going to Erica's in PA for a visit and to go to the scrapbook festival.  The scrapbook festival is in Valley Forge each year.  I heard someone say they are looking to have it in Lancaster or Allentown next year.  If they do that would be wonderful, if you are into scrapbooking or making cards I would recommend for you to go.

Lily needed a nap from all the shopping

My friend Natalie went along and we all had a great time.  Afterwards we went to the cheesecake factory www.thecheesecakefactory.com for lunch.  Then Erica took us to a new store called "Charming Charlies"  www.charmingcharlie.com, love this store.

I spent a week with the grand-kids and had lots of fun.  Lily is just growing so much, Raymond has such a cute personally, Isabella is getting to be so grown-up, we love doing crafts together.

Isabella & Raymond

Isabella was invited to a birthday party at the Build-A-Bear workshop.  Since Erica has a job on weekends I took Isabella to the party.  That was the first time I've been there to see how they are made.  It's a very cute place for kids.

Isabella & Her Bear

Isabella and I also went to the movies to see "Winnie the Pooh".  On Monday we decided to take a road trip to Longwood Gardens.  Erica got a really good deal on Groupon for tickets. This was the first time I have been there and really had a nice time.  "Thanks Erica"

The fountain show with music

This was one of two fountain shows they had to music.  Raymond loves music and really enjoyed watching it.

The flowers were beautiful

They have such a nice children's section with lots of water.  They kids really had a nice time playing in the water, especially since it was so hot out that day.

Isabella & Raymond

Erica, Lily, Raymond, Isabella

We walked around checking out all the beautiful flowers.  I love water lily's and did not know that there were so many different species or colors.  Now I want a lily pond in my back yard.

We had a nice lunch and then watched another water show.  We were there all day and still didn't get to see everything.  Guess we'll have to go back again.

The second fountain show

Isabella

Isabella and I think Grandpa should grow a big bush in the yard and cut it like this one.

Raymond having a good time!

Lily was all smiles!

The next day Erica and I were checking out Bon-Tons clearance sale on shoes.  Isabella decided she also wanted to try on some shoes and had a blast doing so.  All is I can say is watch out mommy and daddy!

I left PA and headed for Knoxville, Tn for a week  The townhouse Greg's mother has up for sale needed some work.  We set it up for Lowe's to install a new stove, microwave and dishwasher.  I also had an electrician replace the outside lights.  The air condition needed fixing so I had that done.  I power washed the patio and driveway, what a difference that made.  I did some cleaning in both bathrooms and the kitchen.  Changed light bulbs, added shower curtains and towels, changed the curtain in the dinning room.  Added a card table in the dinning room with a table cloth and flowers.  I also put some things in the kitchen to make it look nice.  It really turned out nice.  The week was a little rough without the internet, I wanted to blog then but wasn't able.  Tried to get on a neighbor's but they were all secured.

After a week in Knoxville, my friends Michael and Bobbie picked me up on their way to Memphis.  I went to Memphis to help them with their "Images of the King" show.  This was the 25th year for this contest.  I had a blast and really enjoyed helping them out.  We did get to go to the candle light service at Graceland.  Not as many people this year but next year is the big year (35th) so the year before is always a slow one.

Before we came home we drove to Mississippi to the casinos to have dinner at the Paula Deen buffet.  It was a huge buffet with lots of great home cooked foods.  Everything was so good.  They also had a seafood section and a dessert section.  I would definitely go again next year.

On the way home from Memphis we stopped at "The Old Spaghetti Factory" in Nashville for supper.  It was really good and worth the trip.  We just got there in time to order dinner before they closed, I'm glad we made it.  Driving back to the townhouse the transmission went out in Michael's van.  So we spent the next few days in Knoxville while the van was being repaired.  I don't know if it was good or bad for Michael because I put him to work.  We changed out the screens on the windows and one door.  I wanted to change the outside house numbers but had a tough time since they were the sticky kind.  Michael was able to use a hair dryer and get the numbers off to change them to a nicer ones.  I'm so glad he was able to help me. 

We decided to go to the movies one evening.  We went to see the movie "The Help", this was such a great movie.  It was serious, funny but really made you think.  I would definitely go see it again.  Well after we picked up the van Michael and Bobbie headed home.  I packed up the car that night but waited till the next morning to leave.  I had a big adventure and lots of fun but was very glad to be home.

Well it is now the season for festivals and I'm excited.  I will start blogging often and tell you about them all, hopefully I'll find some new ones or get to some I missed last year.

Till next time....

Love,
Jennifer