Skyview

I was looking forward to taking Ellie to Skyview along with Mimi, Pops, Daniel, and Corinne. I knew it would be chilly so I packed clothes to keep us warm and we left Elverson Tuesday evening at 9:30. Ellie slept for the first hour and a half and was awake for the second hour and a half, when everybody else (except for Pops) were trying to sleep. She was wide awake when I was unpacking and setting up her pack'n'play. I tried to put her to sleep and got into bed myself but she was crying and carrying on. Since others were trying to sleep I brought her into my bed (the first time since the women's retreat in April) and she continued to cry until she finally settled down and slept. She was not easy to sleep with! At 7:15 she was moving all about and I miscalculated the size of the bed and she rolled over me and fell out of bed. Oops.
So we were officially awake. I took her downstairs and we played until Mimi and Pops woke up and joined us. Corinne and Daniel slept in then Dad made us all pancakes. Ellie helped Pops fix the coffee table then took a nap until noon.

All six of us decided to go on a hike and we ended up hiking for an hour long hike up and around the mountain behind the house. We were able to see a nice view of the pipelines from the fracking. Ellie rode in the backpack and Corinne graciously shared the load halfway through. We saw a ruffed grouse and some deer and bear boo but no exciting wildlife. The trip was fairly steep - Mom was wishing KC could have been there to help pull us up.

Ellie's perch

Mountain Man Merle

Mom made hotdogs for lunch then we decided to relax. Although Ellie had only slept six hours during the night and had taken only an hour long nap, she refused to nap in the afternoon. I tried. We stayed at the house all afternoon and then enjoyed a delicious dinner of baked masticholli (I know I butchered that but she kept correcting me when I called it ziti) along with italian bread. Corinne decided we didn't need salad (I agree since we had plenty of leftovers).
We played a couple rousing games of Sequence (Corinne and Daniel ultimately beat Mom and me) then I headed to bed since I had hardly slept the night before.


Thursday morning we had a similar routine, without Ellie falling out of the bed. Dad and Ellie watched some movies from his trip to Uganda on his iPad which kept her in a trance for a while. Then he made pancakes and eggs for breakfast then we went for a hike down below the house for an hour. Once again we didn't see any wildlife but we saw signs - a tree all scratched up and shredded from claws. We ate lunch and Ellie napped while we cleaned the house and packed up. We all loaded in the car and Corinne commented how she keeps looking for bears and then the rest of us all pretended to see a bear in the woods and Corinne was completely fooled. Dad even drove the van forward and backwards to "see the bear better." Mom was laughing so hard she cried. We stopped by the spot where Hunter had his accident about ten years ago so Daniel could see it.

She loved the singing and dancing

Dad checking out the bear's handywork

Our drive home went well for the first hour and a half. Then the transmission was obviously failing (it had given us a little bit of reason to worry on the way up) and we googled a shop and pulled in. Denny, the shop owner, confirmed Dad's fears and said he could fix it in the next week. We decided to rent a van (instead of having Jon come and pick us up in his Mom's van) and we drove the rest of the way in a fifteen passenger Ford. The delay only made us one and a half hours later than we intended and Dad still made it to his meeting on time.

Ellie freestylin' in the car.

I took Ellie home and Jon had dinner on the table (he had ordered from Nuse's Deli) and I put Ellie to bed. Jon went back to work until 10:00 and then we hung out and watched a TV show before heading to bed.

Ellieisms: 

Ellie feels a strong bond with Daniel now that they had their first visit to Skyview together. 

The two Skyview Newbs bonding

Her favorite location for the weekend