Pennsylvania for Jamie's birthday

We took off early from work on Thursday and went out to PA to see Jon, Celeste, Izabella, Caleb, Joshua, and Johnny. Bella and Joshua had been diagnosed with strep by the time we got there, but I think we got away un-infected, although I did keep feeling slightly off today...probably more a symptom of hypochondria than strep.

Anyway, it was definitely a good trip...we got to see our godson looking like a boy again, discuss camera options (Jamie wants a better one for his birthday), and spend more time than normal with Joshua and Bella because they were both home from school due to possible contagiousness.

Johnny is now communicating a lot, but really not stringing any words together except a very rare "light on" or some such thing. He knows that he is "two", and can almost get his fingers to show you that. He says "up" for up or down and likes to repeat the last word you say...which makes him always right when you ask him difficult math questions like 10-5 or 4/2.

We slept in Joshua's room, while Joshua bedded down in his mom and dad's closet. In the morning we played with the karaoke machine in his room.

That's Johnny with the microphone.

We drove into Pittsburgh with Celeste, Bella, Joshua and Johnny to shop for Jon's birthday and just go out together. We also went to  what is apparently a Pittsburgh classic, Pamela's diner, for lunch.

Oh yes, she definitely looks too sick to be in school!

Johnny hiding from the camera on the shelves of Banana Republic.

Poor sick kids and their sprite. :)

Should I get the banana chocolate chip stuffed pancakes or the grilled chicken, spinach, and feta pita?

A real dog in a store full of fake dogs.

I forgot to mention that Johnny LOVES school busses, so when we saw this really cool one in the variety store, we had to get it.

 

On the way back we stopped by Ambridge to take a picture of the place where Jamie's Oompa grew up.

We made dinner for them that night. That gross looking white stuff is cook-in-the-bag rice, the REALLY lazy way of making rice.

Studious girl.

"Studious" dad.

The next morning we spent some quality time watching Hannah Montana on Jamie's phone. Johnny LOVES Hannah Montana. Like, he knows the last word of all the lines in her songs and immediately shouts "Hannah" and grins when he hears the opening beats of her songs, or even her picture on a package at the grocery store.

We went for a walk and Celeste told Johnny that if he took his gloves off he would have to come right home. He was SO careful about his gloves. If one seemed to be slipping off, he said "uh oh" and tried to get it back on, or have me help him.

 

And then it was back home again, which also held some joy as we had lunch yesterday with some families from church and had a great time! CUTE kids and adults who I really want to be friends with!