Camping at Ohiopyle, PA

We just spent a week camping at Ohiopyle State Park in SouthWest Pennsylvania. We went there last year and loved it so much, we just had to go back and stay for a whole week! The kids were so excited to go camping...while we were filling up the hallway with things packed to go the 2 days before we left, every hour or so, Leah would ask..."Are we going camping?!" The time went by too fast, and before we knew it, it was time to come home, but the memories and experiences are still there and we want to share some of them with you!

The first fun thing we did was ride our bikes on the trail that runs along the Youghigheny River. Dennis rode with Bay in the bike seat, myself with Leah, and Eric pedaled himself the 10.8 miles upriver to the tiny town of Confluence, PA. We stopped at our 2nd annual visit to Sister's Cafe for a $1 scoop of ice cream (a great incentive for the long pedal) and then refueled with water and gatorade for the 10.8 mile pedal back to the car. The route is dotted with evidence of the pioneers and old railroad lifestyle as well as great views of some the rapids.

The next day we drove up to New Centerville, PA to a local festival called the Farmer's Jubilee! As you can probably tell from the name and the picture, it was exactly that...farmers! This was quite a "country bumpkin" festival, but it was really neat too. They had tons of steam engine tractors, races and games for the tractors, lots of other equipment run on steam engines like a cider press, saw mill, hay thresher and baler, etc.

On the way back to the campsite we decided to take some back roads, and they really turned out to be dirt roads. Anyways, we ended up atop Laurel Ridge where there are a bunch of windmills. We always see them when we are traveling to Seven Springs to go skiing, and wonder how you get to them...well, we found out! We kept getting closer and closer until we were right at the windmills. They really are huge when you get right up under them and quite impressive! It was a cool surprise!

The last day we spent hiking some of the trails in the state park. The trail we explored was the Meadow Run Trail...supposedly an easy hike. Dennis had Leah in the back-pack carrier, and Bay and Eric walked the whole way. It was not what we would consider "easy" hiking, for the kids anyways. There were many steep areas that were cut directly into the mountain littered with rocks, boulders, and trees you had to either climb under or over to stay on the path. Nevertheless, we all had a great time seeing many waterfalls, and even had a wet break on a really cool sliding rock. On the way back, we decided to take the plunge, clothes and all, sliding down the river on a really flat rock-the water was freezing and refreshing. The kids thought it was great, and besides the slime that clung to our clothes, we did too! This is a picture of Eric in front of the Cascades waterfalls that were at one end of our 3 mile hike.

Below is some video of a small segment of the bike ride as well as some of the sliding in the water on the rocks. You can also check the link to our webshots page for more pictures of the trip...there are some really great ones!

Leah is Potty-trained!!!

Leah has been working since the 3rd week in August on potty-training, and while she is now officially trained without any accidents, it has been quite an interesting journey to get to this point!

I started her once the busyness of swim team ended but hopefully in plenty of time before school started as well. It all started out very well...lots to drink, more to drink, lots of trips to the potty, once success, and then accident after accident after accident! Poor Leah, she tried so hard, but every time she would have an accident, she would burst into tears and be so devastated, that finally I asked her if she wanted to put her diaper back on and she readily consented :) I thought to myself, "Well, we'll wait a couple of months and try again, she just wasnt' ready."

Much to my surprise, the next morning she wanted to put on her panties and try again first thing in the morning. I had given up, but evidently she hadn't!!! Only on her prompting, all day she went to the potty, but I kept a pull-up on her becasue she was so devastated the day before wtih her accidents. Anyways, all this is to say that she was persistent and it took her a couple of days to be accident free in her panties. Of course, going #2 took a little bit longer, but she is now a big girl all the way, and still loves to add stickers to her chart in her bathroom every time she goes. Needless to say, the chart is overflowing with stickers!