Flatrock 2012

So we finally made it home after 9 adventure filled days in Central Pennsylvania.  Our internal clocks are super out of whack so forgive me if I have to come back and revise this post when it’s not four minutes until midnight, east coast time.

Some of the highlights from our trip:

• Watching Nate’s cheeks bounce as he spent hours running up and down the “not so” flat rock in front of the cabin.
• Jake and a bucket of minnows.  Hopefully he has forgotten the part where Uncle Geoff threw “his friend” into the pond and its immediate dinner demise.
• The unbeatable “warshers” team of Bill and Jaimie: We Are.  Billaimie.
• Texas Sheet Cake.  Aunt Rox is my hero.  Next time let’s make the pieces bigger and/or don’t give me grief if I eat four.
• Coffee and bacon breakfast apps… every morning.  You snooze, you lose.
• “Oh, my name is Skippito Friskito, [clap-clap]
  And I’m off to the school for perritos, [clap clap]
  ‘Cuz I’ve got a good hunch
  That I’m going to have lunch
  With a grande ol’ bunch of poochitos.” [clap clap]
• Shelley gently persuading the rattlesnake to leave camp.
• The wonderful service at the Gamble Mill and real wine from Paso Robles.
• The duck that from 200 yards away, bee-lined it straight for Jacob when we arrived at the Bellefonte park… only to find out he wasn’t a local and instead of bearing gifts of bread, he chased after it like a rabid lion.
• The second consecutive day of duck visiting at Bellefonte park when a particularly pushy duck bit me in the bottom when I wasn’t looking and then Jake protected me by chasing it so fiercely it had to take flight and land across the river.
• Jacksonville Road.
• The baby fawn, baby turkeys, baby duckies, a baby horse, and Baby Devon.
• Jake grabbing a spastic mouse by its tail as it tried to escape from the confines of the canoe.  The good news?  He asked before he did it.  The bad news?  Granddad said sure.
• The late night cooler-eating bear incident.
• Natesy clapping enthusiastically after every act of the traditional pond dock firework extravaganza.
• Gas-grilled s’mores made with marshmallows the size of beer cans.
• The serendipitous State College Fourth of July parade.
• 90 minutes of alone time and fishing at 2-mile.  Further alone time included my daily 4 minute shower.
• As Jake described it to Miss Dulce, “Our plane broke in Denburg.”