Are you ready for a picture overload?
Well, I’ve got you covered!
When my parents are on home assignment from the mission field, they stay at a lovely place in North Eastern Pennsylvania called Missionary Retreat Fellowship. It’s in the woods, secluded, and so much fun for adults and children!
I decided to head out to my parents place and spend a week there before they go back to Africa. We had this planned on the calendar for months now, and it just so happened that I would be leaving just two days after Heavenly left our home. It was a really emotional time for me, so this little vacation getaway could not have been planned at a better time.
I left at 4 am on Saturday morning, hoping that the kids would sleep for a few hours of the trip. About two miles down the road, I hear a funny noise and then WHAP BAM BAM BAM my front left tire explodes. Thankfully, there was no one else on the highway and I just kind of let the van slow down and guided it over to the side of the road. There are so many things I’m thankful for, and one of them was that I was only two miles from my very own handsome Mr. Fix It, instead of somewhere in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. Theo ended up spending his very few precious hours off changing the tire and taking the van into a mechanic, where they replaced all four tires and did an alignment.
Phew! Off to a very bad and very expensive start, but we decided to try again the next day! This time we had a successful trip, although 9 hours as the only adult in the car is EXHAUSTING.
I’m telling ya, the place that my parents live is just beautiful. It’s like breathing fresh air again. However, it was pretty chilly the whole week I was there and I didn’t bring many pants and sweatshirts for me + the kids!
My kids had so much space to run and jump and play!
We stayed pretty laid back, but took some trips to the pond, to the playground and to the sports field…all of which are right on the property where my parents are living! It’s seriously SO perfect for kids!
We also went on lots of walks! When the driveway itself is nearly a mile long, there is plenty of exercise to be had!
So much to explore and find in the woods!
Tera is at SUCH a fun age- she has enough stamina to go for long walks/hikes and has enough of an attention span to actually spot things and explore things.
Kiah, on the other hand, isn’t quite there! He does really well keeping up but gets super easily distracted š
…and needs someone to carry him home.
My parents were amazing and got up every morning with my early birds. We were all shocked one day when Kiah slept in until 7. I’m telling ya…early bird.
One of the highlights of our trip was our outing to Claws’n’Paws. It was a bit rainy that day, so there was almost no one there. It was cool enough that the animals were out and interactive but not too cold. We all had a blast! If you are ever in the middle of nowhere NE Pennsylvania, you have got to check this place out!!!
When we first walked in, this lion just walked right up to Tera. He rubbed his nose on the glass and then started growling and roaring at Tera! She was so brave, but I was a little frightened!
Even though it’s not technically considered a zoo, there are a lot of animals from all over the world.
They even had a giraffe!
We got to watch the otter show and learn lots and lots about otters. It was so fun when the otters came right up to the glass, too!
Tear was thrilled about taking a picture in this gorilla thing!
They had a small petting zoo area, and it mostly had goats and sheep, along with a few deer!
Next up, we got to feed the giraffe! This was an additional fee, and was a bit anticlimactic.
I was so proud of my boy for feeding the giraffe his carrot! He was a little confused as to why he didn’t get to eat it himself.
I thought this picture was so funny. Tera performing for Memaw and Pepaw.
We brought a picnic lunch and ate that in the park, and we knew we were pushing the nap time thing. My kids do fairly well with just getting through the day, but tired is tired and almost no animals can cure that.
Except the Lori’s. We got to go inside the cage and feed these gorgeous birds, and it was the highlight of the day!
These birds were so loud and loved eating the apples that we were holding.
Tera LOVED the birds and did such a good job holding them!
One last photo opp before heading home!
The next day we drove the 40 minutes to my old stomping grounds…Camp Ladore. I worked at this camp for three summers during college, and Theo also worked there for two summers. We loved our summers at Ladore.
I mean…breathtaking. Unless you have a group of 12 girls who are fighting and squabbling and running in eight different directions (yes, that happened.)
Oh, Seneca! How crazy that I’m back with my own children and I baby belly!
This serene looking amphitheater also holds a lot of memories of my camp days!
My kids were not interested in reminiscing and were more interested in throwing things in the water.
We finished up our time in Pennsylvania by heading to a little small-town carnival! As soon as I stepped out of the car in the parking lot and saw all the spinning rides I knew I wasn’t going to last long there. There were just so many sights and sounds and smells and did I mention the spinning rides? Tera could have stayed all night long and LOVED every single ride- spinning, bouncing, roller coastering, jumping. She’s certainly not my daughter haha!
We crashed for the night and got up early the next day to drive back to Ohio! It was a long drive (10 hours), but my kids were pretty much champions in the car!
We sure are thankful to be home, but we are also so glad for the time that we had there with my parents.
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