Into the woods

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This was written the first week of November, but I never hit publish. Better late than never]

On Sunday (November8), we all took a hike. HA! That just sounds funny.

Since we haven't seen Aunt Ann since hiking our way around Maine in August, it was only natural that we headed outdoors the next chance we get.

Finally checked out Black Moshannon State Park. Did a quick hike (1 mile, but the kids make it a 2 hour trek). The day was a balmy 70 degrees on November 8th and the hike's payoff was the Ralph's Majestic Overlook. Definitely recommend the easy hike (with a little rock scrambling) to any of the locals!




Those are lollipops in their mouths.... although they look like smokes!

Football Food, Field, and Fans

Okay, the PSU v. Ohio State game was a horrible show of Nittany Lion football. They got spanked. Total bummer.

But I had a GREAT time at the game! And frankly.... that's all that really matters. ;-)

Aunt Ann came up for the weekend to spend some quality time with the kids and finally got to go to a Penn State football game in nice weather. The last game she attended, was back in 1993 when it pissed rain all day and night and her seats were the top row of the overhang. So, I am not surprised it took a good 16 years to come to her next game.





Zack, although working every game, had a bit of fun too! His coworker, Mike, and he went down on the field to check out the pre-game warm up. We were already up in the seats and got this snapshot of them. Pretty cool!

Zack is on the right of the inset zoom. They are standing at the 13 yard line.


The kids watched intently to the band entrance and the teams running onto the field. Then, for the next 2 hours it was a buffet, food fest. I am not sure, but I think the complete list of food that CJ ate goes like this:
1. cookie
2. peach
3. 4 pretzel rods
4. bag of sun chips
5. pear
6. half a cheesebuger
7. another cookie
8. 3 small pickles
9. olive
10. cake
11. strawberry ice cream
Quite the accomplishment from kick-off to the end of the 3rd quarter. HA!

Sometime after half-time, Zack's coworker (Maggie) found out that there was a special guest in the suite next door. Quickly, I grabbed my camera and headed next store with her. If you remember the post last year, "You Betcha!" (http://nittanyhome.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-betcha.html), Maggie and I introduced ourselves to Todd Palin. I think that we are moving up on the celebrity meter. Here we are with Ryan Seacrest:


Very man-pretty, nice guy. We asked him why he was at this game and he said that his father is an Alumni and since he was in Philly for the weekend, they came to the game. Then another woman asked if it was "REALLY him". He grabbed her hand to touch his face and said, "Yes, real. No surgery, No botox." To which I replied.... "REALLY?"

Then he scrunched his forehead wrinkles and squinted his eyes to point to the crows feet and said, "Yup. Really."

For those fans of Joel McHale on "The Soup".... YES. He is that small.

JoePa's replacement

This past Saturday Alexander and I got a "backstage" tour of Beaver Stadium (home to the Penn State Nittany Lion Football team). We were both VERY excited.

I knew that we would see the locker room, recruiting offices, and the tunnel the team uses to go out on the field --- but not sure if we would be going onto the field. Much to my delight and Alexander's we did! His first word after walking out the tunnel to the end zone grass... "AMAZING."




Then we got to see the press room where the coach, Joe Pa, holds his media conferences. I am thinking that we have a contender for the job when Joe retires... since Alexander will probably be an adult by that time!


The Present.


The Future.

Back to the Summer, For a Moment

Another video! This time, our entire summer, condensed down into two minutes and fifteen seconds. Enjoy!