We've Arrived in Pennsylvania

We managed to leave at 6:45 a.m. on Sunday. Mapquest said that it would take at least 11 hours from Olin, Iowa to Erie, so we wanted to get a good start. We stopped to get donuts at Casey's when Josh got a call from his mom informing us that we had left our garment bag hanging up in David's closet. They have to leave for church by 7 on Sundays so they were able to meet us halfway back, which allowed us to still be well on our way by 7. What a blessing. (Alia had said incredulously before we left, "You have to leave THIS early for church???" She couldn't believe it because it was still dark out!) LOL Dillon was still sleeping when we left so we were able to give him more hugs and kisses, and that was a blessing, but he was so excited to go to a "different church"!

I was a little stressed out about having to drive through the big cities to get here, but it turned out to be much better than we expected. There was very little construction, and most amazing of all, no delay in Chicago. It seemed like nearly every highway patrolman we saw had a car pulled over all the way here. That made me nervous. But, even though Josh was going faster than I would have liked, we didn't get a ticket. I did all that I could about that through prayer. It worked, of course. : D Once I did say something though because I was sure Josh had missed the changed speed limit sign, and I was right. Whew!

We were all so excited when we finally got to Pennsylvania! Especially the kids! It is so incredibly beautiful out here. The trees are so dense and tall. It reminds me of Tennessee, but there is a difference. I can't really put my finger on what it is yet. I'll have to think about it some more.

Erie isn't very far from the state line, and it was weird that you couldn't even tell there was a town nearby because of all the trees. MUCH different from Montana. The motel has a waterpark attached to it. It's a large complex, and part of a big city, but seems isolated due to the trees. I love it! Both Josh and I would like to live here someday. It will probably never happen, but we can dream. :)

Monday morning the kids were awake bright and early ready to go play at the waterpark. It is HUGE. I was able to find a long dressy top that normally goes with jeans to put over a regular swimming suit so I was looking forward to being able to swim as well! The Lord was so good to help me to think creatively and find something that would work! It was stressful to keep an eye on Jordan and Alia while I was holding Isaac, but we managed. Alia is such a scaredy cat, and Jordan is completely fearless. They both drove me nuts. I couldn't even get Alia to go down the baby waterslides until the very last few minutes we were there, and Jordan was off on his own going down some big waterslides most of the time. I was able to get in with Isaac and Jordan and Alia in the Endless River. That was fun for awhile just 'cause I was in the water for a change, but got boring in a hurry. :) Isaac didn't really like it very much for some reason even though I thought he would enjoy it more than being hauled around everywhere.

The kids finally got hungry enough to want to leave. I wasn't about to pay $8 for a hamburger so we came back to our room, got changed, and walked to a nearby restaurant. We got it to go, and brought it back to our room. After that "Tammy And The Millionaire" was on the Classic Movie channel. So I got to watch that while the kids took naps. I love that movie! It's been 15 years since I last saw it! I'm getting so old. LOL

Josh got back to the motel at 5:00, and we all got ready to go swimming again. There were a lot of people there in the morning, but last night there were only a handful of others! It was so nice. Alia wouldn't even go down the baby waterslide for me again, but Josh managed to get her to go down the really big ones with him. He just kept telling her, "You have to trust Daddy. Don't be afraid; Daddy wouldn't let you do anything that was dangerous. It will be really fun, I promise." After the first run down she was hooked. :) I was able to go down a few of the tamer slides before Isaac decided he wanted to marathon nurse, so we came back to the room.
I ordered pizza in and called Stephanie to confirm our plans to get together later in the week. When Josh got done eating, he decided to go get ice cream for everyone at a little ice cream parlor down the street. It was so good! He got cotton candy flavored for Alia and it had those little candies in it that explode in your mouth. We all had fun with that. : D It was a very enjoyable day.

Today it is just pouring rain. Josh decided to have me take him to the classes so I could have the van to go get lunch, and maybe to the store later on. It never rains like this in Montana. I'm enjoying every moment.