Merry Christmas 2014!

It has been 6 months since the last post. I've been really busy and have been posting on Facebook more and more. So join me on Facebook to see what is going on.

Rainbow at Pinch Pond

We arrived back at the campground to find a full rainbow (although it wouldn't show up on the photos) and even a partial second rainbow.

The one end of the rainbow was over the campground office and the other end was behind our motorhome. Pictures just don't do it justice...

Celebrating Oma's 89th birthday

Fun celebrating Oma's 89th birthday! It was another beautiful day so we had a picnic at out motorhome. Oma had her whole clan around her to celebrate. The Phillygabers came up for the afternoon, Vicky and Trev came, and Doug and I.

 I am not sure who had the most fun with the bubbles.... was it Capri and Jesse or was it Trevor?

Oma at the Jigger Shop & 4th of July at Vicky and Trev's

We stopped at the Jigger Shop in Mt. Gretna for sandwiches. It was such a lovely evening to sit on the deck and eat. Doug and his mom are pictured below. Doug loves their homemade birch beer (it is similar in taste to root beer but, in my opinion, even sweeter.

Below you see Trev on his new jungle gym. He has grown so his jungle gym had to grow, too. ;-)

 On the 4th of July, Trev had fun with sparklers after the tanks had their tank warfare. Vicky got some huge "Volcanoes" which really made a lot of show and noise! He really like the poppers - they look like a wad of tissue paper. When you throw them down (which is what he is doing below) they make a popping noise.

Josh and Trev in cowboy hat

 Josh had a favorite western hat for summer wear when he returned from New Mexico in 2003. Every good cowboy knows you wear a straw hat for summer and casual wear and a wool felt hat for dress. So he pretty much lived in this hat for several years. ;-)

 Trev found the hat in their storage stuff and put it on. It is a little big for him. Vicky said he wore it to the grocery store and reluctantly gave it up at bed time. I guess we have another cute cowboy in the family!

Hershey and chasing bubbles

 Hershey is really changing. The chocolate factory is in the process of being torn down. About 8 years ago, they moved a lot of the chocolate manufacture to Mexico and also built a new automated factory on the outskirts of Hershey. The photo above shows  where the factory used to be. The smoke stacks will remain and so will the hedge spelling H E R S H E Y   C O C O A. A new company headquarters is to be built where the factory once stood.

 Trev loves to chase bubbles. Gampa is very good at making bubbles and Trev is very good at chasing them and popping the bubbles.

Flowers on Joshua's grave for his 30th birthday

Tomorrow would have been Joshua's 30th birthday. We put some flowers on his grave today as we have done each year. We miss him so much and so wish he was still with us here on earth. I don't think we will ever get over the hurt of his death. Vicky planted the hostas in front of his grave stone last year from the flower bed of her new house. Hiding behind the hosta on the right is a western scene that makes us think of Devils Tower in Wyoming which Josh climbed when he was 18. Such happy memories of those happy days.

Briar and Trev

 Above you can see Briar begging, with manners, for bones from Doug. Below, gampa is reading the dinosaur book at least 10 times to Trev. ;-)

June happenings - Trev's 3rd birthday

Trev's Third birthday party - We held it at Oma's place at Country Meadows.

 Some scenes from opening presents. Above Vicky helps Trev open a gift. Below Uncle John is playing catch with his velcro ball and mits.

Trev built a "birdhouse" out of his new birthday gift of blocks and he had so much fun getting in and out of it. We adults had so much fun watching him!

Blowing out his candles on his ice cream cake!

Great aunt Ginger helping Trev open his present.

Dinner at TJ Rockwells in E-town

Oma took us out to celebrate our May birthdays. Vicky suggested TJ Rockwells in Elizabethtown. It was a beautiful warm night and they had the garage doors open. The food was great, but best of all was being with our family. ;-)

 Oma, Trev, and Vicky. They had really good iced tea

It looks like I didn't get any photos of the birthday folks (Doug and Nada) but I got lots of photos of the important person, Trev! Ha, ha!

Raptor Experience - Jonathan Wood @ Cabelas

Yesterday, we went to Cabelas for some items Doug needed and to check out a possible speaker for the CHAP Convention. Jonathan Wood travels the country with his rescued raptors. We had seen him at the Birding Festival in the Rio Grande Valley in 2009. Here is a link to our previous post from back then: http://rothgabertravels.blogspot.com/2009/11/rio-grande-bird-festival-raptor-project.html

 One young gal from the audience got to feed Uncle Sam, the bald eagle. He took the meat so tenderly out of her hand.

Another gal got to feed the vulture.

This is Tiger an eagle owl. We had our photo taken with him in 2009. http://rothgabertravels.blogspot.com/2009/11/rio-grande-bird-festival-raptor-project.html
Her feathers feel like silk.

Homer died

On May 22, just one day before my birthday, our beloved Homer died during surgery.

Ever since being sick this past winter in Texas, we had been noticing his rear legs collapsing on him at times. We took him to a second vet here in PA in order to get a second opinion and she found a large tumor on his spleen. Usually large tumors mean it is benign because cancerous tumors usually kill before they get so large so we elected to have surgery and have it removed. His surgery was scheduled for 5/22. He threw a blood clot during the surgery and it stopped his heart and the vets could not revive him. Needless to say, we are devastated at loosing him but we have been blessed by the outpouring of love and messages from our friends, family, our Tiffin motorhome friends, our Facebook friends, and our campground friends here at Pinch Pond Campground in Manheim PA. We loved Homer so much just as we had loved our other dogs and it is always so hard to say goodbye to them. He is probably up in heaven playing with Phoka and Canauk (our Siberian Huskies) and with our son Josh.

Fun with our grandson, Trevor

 

 We gave Trev his daddy's Brio train set that we had saved. He really started to get the hang of it after a short while. He built this oval all by himself with a tunnel on one side and an overpass on the other while we adults were eating lunch. Just like his dad had been, Trev wanted no parts of eating when there was a new toy to play with. ;-)

 On another day in May, we had fun blowing bubbles and Trev would run after the bursting as many as he could.

 Then, the "boys" started playing with his daddy's Tonka equipment and trucks in the stones.

New car

April 23 we traded our trusty Lexus 330 in on a 2014 Lincoln MKZ. Unfortunately, Lexus changed all their transmissions and they cannot be towed 4 wheels down. So we started looking at other brands and models and found we liked the Lincoln MKZ. This photo show Doug and our salesman, Joe Gianetti.

Northern Virginia

We stopped in northern Virginia to visit my (Nada's) brother. It was good to see everyone, enjoy some delicious food, and see some DC sites.

 In the above photo, Doug and Homer are meeting a Labrdoodle parked across from us at Lake Fairfax. I took the picture through our front windshield sunscreen so it isn't the clearest photo! You can also see it was a muddy rainy day for our first day in Virginia. ;-(

 Sam and Ginger took us to the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria. It is now a collection of artist studios and shops and it has really changed since we were last there. It sits right on the Potomac River in Alexandria. Sam and I had a great aunt who lived in Alexandria and worked in the torpedo factory during World War II so it has a special interest to us. They still have displays of the torpedoes and the photos tell the story of wartime manufacture.

 Above, you can see Doug checking out one of the displays. In the photo below Sam and Ginger are with one of the torpedoes.

Above is a view of the waterfront from the Torpedo Factory. The large brown roof is the Charter House, a restaurant where we ate lunch. Below is the view from our lunch table looking up stream. You can see one of the "one-every-minute" airplanes coming into Reagan Airport in downtown. Since 9/11, there approach must always be over the river.

The photo below shows the river side of the Torpedo Factory.

The next day we headed west from Reston, VA to investigate the little quaint town of The Plains, VA. We ate lunch at the Tea House and enjoyed their tea and scones plus we had delicious sandwiches. Yum! Below is a photo of Doug and Ginger putting some of our purchases into their car with some of the turn of the century town shops in the background.

Above, Doug is feeding Homer some doggie bacon. Below, great Uncle Doug is checking out what Chase is watching on his iPad while the rest of us are waiting for our dinner at Ozzie's. Good food!

As always, our good times must come to an end sometime. Tomorrow, Friday, we are headed to Hershey PA where we will begin intensive work on the CHAP Homeschool Convention for May 9 & 10th and we'll resume our Good Sam/Camping World Ambassadors job for the summer. We also get to see Doug's mom, Aurie, and also Vicky and Trevor, our d-i-l and grandson. We are excited to see them all!