It's Pocono Time

It's the weekend that we wait for every year. My entire family and I head to mountains for a weekend with life-long friends, in their beautiful house on their gorgeous, expansive piece of land. It's insane to think that this is the sixth time I've blogged about it--six years in a row now, and many more to come.

(2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 for a sampling from every year. For ALL Poconos posts 2008-present, click here.)

Growing up, my mom used to take my brothers and I down to the Poconos in Pennsylvania to visit her friend, who had two kids the same ages as we are. It was always a good time, and became an annual tradition, but was one that was hard to keep up with as all of us kids entered our teen and college years. But we picked it up again in 2007 and now I can't imagine letting it fall to the wayside again. All of us enjoy it THAT much. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we plan it months and months in advance and then eagerly anticipate it as it grows closer.

We hit the road on Thursday night after work and arrived shortly before 11:00 p.m. Contrary to past years, my mom was already there--she had been in New Jersey for work all week--and she and Susan were getting ready for bed when we got there. Funny, because typically we're up until 2:00 a.m. that first night, drinking wine/beer and catching up! We got settled and weren't too far behind them to get some rest.

In the morning, we woke up to less than ideal weather. It was very foggy--we could barely see the pond at the bottom of the hill--and damp. But after a pancake breakfast, we let the kids run wild outside, even though it may have resulted in some very dirty pajamas.

Tessa really loves the Poconos, too.

The kids were both up pretty early (Nora was at 6:15--YAWN) due to being in strange surroundings, so they were ready for naps before too long. We found Indie (one of Susan's dogs) in bed with Hunter at one point, which was sweet to see. She just wanted to snuggle!

When they woke up from their naps, we did something that we've never actually done before--we hit up a nearby outlet mall for the Memorial Day weekend sales! It was about 1/2 hour drive each way. Typically, when we're down there, we don't want to be spending time shopping when that's something we can do at home, but the weather was not cooperating and we needed to get out of the house and keep busy.

We spent a couple of hours at the outlets, and by the time we were done, the weather had dramatically improved, so we headed back "home" and soaked in the outdoors while also getting dinner ready (we grilled).

The kids played with the water table--which we had so brilliantly brought from home as a way to keep them busy--while dinner was being prepared and had a ball. Nora WILL NOT stop drinking the water table water, which could be related to our recent sippy cup battles (I'll have to post about that soon!). Oddly enough, though, Hunter was doing it too, so we eventually had to take the cups away. :)

After Nora was in bed, Hunter went down to the pond to fish with the boys. His daddy was sorely missed, that's for sure, but Uncle Ty and Uncle Mike did their best to help fill the void. Tyler brought a kid's fishing pole especially for Hunter and the little guy had a ball "catching fish" with the grown-ups.

It was actually Hunter's THIRD BIRTHDAY, too, so we held a small celebration with a cake that Kara quickly whipped up for him. Susan dug up some sprinkles and a random candle and it was low key, but it was perfection.

I remember having birthday celebrations just like this--at this exact same table--when I was growing up. There were times when I was in the Poconos for my birthday, too!

He was so excited to have everybody singing to him.

I love this pic of Hunter with his mommy. Too cute.

It wasn't long after cake that Hunter was in bed, and we adults sat out on the deck enjoying that wine and beer as we talked for hours. Good times with good (family and) friends.