It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I realize my last post was a little boring, sorry! Fortunately, we've had a pretty fun couple of days so hopefully this one will be more interesting. Wegmans had been advertising a crab fest for a couple of weeks and we thought that would be a fun end of summer activity, so we decided to order some. Wegmans steamed and seasoned them so they were all ready to go when Ryan picked them up after work. Ryan's dad thought we should order a whole bushel instead of a half-bushel.

We also had shrimp, clams, corn, and macaroni 'n cheese. It was way too much food! The crabs are a lot of work for a little amount of meat, but they are delicious! Ryan saved some of the shells and extra claw meat and he's going to make some sort of soup out of them - I vote for crab bisque!

 

Connor dressed the part in celebration of crab fest

 

 

 

Connor and Evy

 

Connor and Evy are really starting to take an interest in each other. It is really cute - Connor was all smiles and staring intently at her. Next week they will get to see a lot of each other while Connor is at Gramma's so it should be fun to see how they interact.

 

Yesterday we had our annual fantasy football draft, and this marks the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year! Bring on the chili, pumpkin coffee (and beer), and jeans and sweaters! Before we headed up to our friends' house, Ryan went up to his dad's to help them with the two bushels of corn they bought to cook, blanch, take off the cob, and freeze for the winter, so Baby Linn and I got to spend the morning hanging out and running some errands.

 

 

As much as I love participating in our fantasy football league, it is quite time consuming - you have to do the research every week to make sure your players aren't injured or on a bye week, and then there's the "need" to watch every game every weekend to see first hand how many points your players are getting! (I think we'll be able to get away with watching football all weekend this year while Connor is still little and not mobile, but next year we might be in for a rude awakening - running after him and watching the Wiggles instead of The Eagles). But without a doubt, the MOST time consuming part about fantasy football is the draft. Our league is 12 people and we get together to do a live draft. In previous years, we picked individual defensive players instead of a team defense. 23 rounds x 12 people = never finishing in less than 5 hours. This year, we finally convinced Nick, the "league manager," to try a team defense approach. This cut the draft down to 15 rounds and we were able to get it finished in a little over 3 hours.

 

Our teams:

 

Jen's Juggernauts                                 Ryno's Wrath

 

Drew Brees, QB                                  Tom Brady, QB

Ryan Matthews, RB                           Frank Gore, RB                           

Victor Cruz, WR                                 Beanie Wells, RB

Marshawn Lynch, RB                         Dwayne Bowe, WR

Vernon Davis, TE                               Hakeem Nicks, WR

Jeremy Maclin, WR                            DeSean Jackson, WR 

Tim Hightower, RB                            Antonio Gates, TE

Philadelphia Defense                          Steelers Defense

Danny Amendola, WR                       Garrett Hartley, K

Joe Flacco, QB                                    Michael Floyd, WR

Danny Woodhead, RB                        C.J. Spiller, RB

Coby Fleener, TE                                Owen Daniels, TE

Chicago Defense                                 Mario Manningham, WR

David Akers, K                                   Andy Dalton, QB

Delone Carter, RB

 

**Ryan also picked Golden Tate, but I think that was in the last round and I'm not sure that his pick was entered in the computer yet. But, I would like to point out for the record that there would be TWO Notre Dame alumni on his team.

 

The rest of today and tomorrow are going to be spent (1) watching the Little League World Series championship game, (2) laundry and packing for our trip to Ireland and Baby Linn's trip to Gramma's, and (3) trying to make the house look presentable for the Open House at our place next Sunday while we're away. Or, maybe just taking a nap with Connor, so I can get as many snuggles in as possible since I won't see him for a week.

 

 

Sorry my blogging bored you, bud. Notice his "lovey" - I hope this Ellie fares better than mine did!

 

Who Wants to Watch a Baby?

With our trip rapidly approaching, it means summer is winding down and, unfortunately, so is my maternity leave. I feel very fortunate that I was able to stay home with Connor for almost 14 weeks, and I am eternally thankful to my husband for assuming the lion's share of our bills for the past several weeks when my money ran out.  As difficult as it will be for me to return to work, all good things must come to an end and, truthfully, I do miss my job and the adult interaction that comes with it. Plus, if I stay home too much longer, I think I'll be really fat and addicted to daytime television.

So, that being said, it's time to get serious about child care for Connor.I figured we have three options: (1) find a nanny to come to our house and watch him; (2) find someone who babysits a group of children in her home; and (3) daycare. I've been spending a lot of time in the past few weeks researching daycares and looking at ads posted on craigslist and care.com, as well as talking to other working moms about what they do with their children. Ideally, I'd like to have someone come to our house to watch Connor. But, since I haven't been able to trick anyone into spending 8-10 hours a day watching my baby and my dogs, and doing some light housekeeping before making us dinner, for $20-$30/day, I think we will have to eliminate that option for now. 

At first, I was thinking that daycare would be a last resort. I had horrible images in my head of a facility where all the kids have runny noses and just mill around with minimal supervision. And, in my head, the facility smells like pee. There's really only one daycare I was interested in/would consider enrolling him in, and earlier in the week I called to see if they had any openings because I had heard they usually have a waiting list for infants. Turns out, they do have an open slot, so I went to tour it yesterday morning. Here is a link to the website: http://www.bostleyschildcare.com/ I was very impressed! At first I thought I preferred having someone watch Connor (and other) kids in a private home, but my tour really got me thinking. Some positives of daycare:

• They are always open. You don't have to work around their vacations, doctor appointments, etc.
• They have set hours, so you know what is expected of you. As Ryan will tell you, I often underestimate the time it will take for me to "finish up" at work. With daycare, if they say they close at 5:30, I know I HAVE to be there by 5:30 or else I will appear to be the shameful mom who forgot her child. Or, even worse, Connor will be forced to sit on the curb and wait for me. I think if he was at someone's house, I'd tend to think "well, 10 minutes doesn't really make that much of a difference."
• At Bostley's, there are several different rooms, grouped by age. There are no more than 8 babies (under 1 year) and they have a ratio of 1 staff member for every 4 babies. Even though some days I feel overwhelmed with attending to my ONE baby, I like the idea that Connor will have the opportunity to be given plenty of attention and will be in a room solely with other kids his age. I also like that they keep a daily log for parents, indicating what they did all day (in the case of infants, they report naps, # of wet & dirty diapers, times and amounts of feedings, etc.).
• At Bostley's, I know that he will be safe. It is a secure facility, and every staff member is trained in first aid/CPR. They have to adhere to strict standards of cleanliness, staff to children ratio, and safety protocol in order to maintain their license issued by the state. It is on the hospital's campus if there was an emergency, and, as an added bonus, many hospital employees take their children there and are popping over at random times so the staff has to always be on good behavior because they never know when a parent will show up.
• I have concerns about sending him to a private home where he may be the only baby - both in terms of playing and learning. At Bostley's, they start a preschool curriculum at age 3. Since he will be exclusively grouped with other children his age, he will be on the same developmental level as all of them, and will hopefully get a head start on fundamentals before entering kindergarten.
• Bostley's is only 3 blocks from our house and about 1/2 mile from our offices. They encourage moms & dads to visit at any time. I could easily go see him over my lunch break, especially if I'm still breastfeeding.

I still plan to call a woman who watches children in her home in Williamsport and whose name was given to us by Ryan's assistant, but at this point I'm actually leaning towards daycare, even though it is more expensive (although daycare is less expensive than hiring a nanny to come to our house). I'm still struggling with the decision but after talking with some of my professional friends who have enrolled their children in various daycares and are pleased with the decision, I feel better. Looks like Connor can also sleep better knowing that he's not going to be home alone all day when I go back to work.

 

It's really a shame he can't get comfortable.

Busy Weekend

Thank God the Olympics are over so I can resume my normal social life and stop neglecting basic household chores!

We've had a pretty busy last week or so. On Saturday morning we took our weekly trip to the Williamsport farmers' market. It takes all of 5 minutes to make a lap, so we usually take 2 and scope things out on the first lap before making our purchases. The tomatoes, corn, and garlic are so good, and cheap, right now so we try to stock up on as much local stuff as possible before going to Wegmans for the rest of our groceries. On Saturday evening, Ryan, Connor, & I were invited to Adrianne & John's house for a low country boil. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures but it was delicious and fun. Ours had potatoes, corn, 2 kinds of sausage, and shrimp. It reminded me of the first weekend of May in college when Margie's dad would overnight us 50 lbs. of crawfish boil and we would cover tables with newspaper and dump it out and go to town! We were having such a good time that we didn't realize it was after midnight (don't laugh - that IS late for me these days when I'm used to going to bed at 9pm) when finally headed home.

On Sunday we had the annual Wheel Inn clam steam. It is a private club about 45 minutes away and every year they put on this HUGE event. I think they sold over 600 tickets this year. I think it doesn't really start until 1pm, but everyone seems to get there earlier and earlier each year to claim prime table space. With the exception of one year when we boycotted, we have gone every year since Ryan and I started dating. Not only do they have all you can eat clams, but also all you can drink beer, as well as hot sausage, chicken, BBQ, and all sorts of sides and desserts.

It was a little bittersweet this year, as in previous years all of Ryan's siblings have attended but this year it was only Ryan and Courtney who were able to represent the Linn kids. It was fun, however, because we were able to introduce the next generation, Connor & Evy, to the annual tradition.



On Monday morning (only 1 hr. 15 mins after the time I had hoped to leave - we're making progress) I packed the car and Connor & I headed home to Wyomissing for a few days. My parents hadn't seen Connor for a month and Lisa & AJ were home for a few days. Connor was an angel in the car - I'm so glad that he likes to ride/sleep in the car. On Monday afternoon we walked over to the Ciabattonis to introduce Connor to them. He slept the whole time Lisa & AJ were holding him. I'm hoping his good behavior tricked them into having baby fever so that they will be ready for their third by the time we are ready for our second...simply because more kids means more hands to grab candy for the adults while watching the 4th of July parade!

On Monday night a bunch of us got together for some drinks. I am so lucky to have had the same group of friends since elementary school. It amazes me how, even if we don't all talk frequently, when we get together it is like we never left. No one else holds a candle to these girls' in terms of being funny and no one else appreciates how funny I think I am as much as they do. And this group includes dentists, lawyers, professors, nurses, etc! So far there are 8 kids amongst our friends (we are working on an arranged marriage for Connor & Anna, Sarah's youngest daughter who was born about 2 weeks before him) and I can't wait to force them to all be friends just so we can continue to drink beer and reminisce about things like Miss Tulley's haircut, field hockey preseason, and the Ham & Cheese Incident (which later was proven to be a lie!).

Lisa, Jen, Sarah, Becky, and Ann. Just missing Jess and Laura!



Special thanks to my mom who babysat so we could go out and have a good time. No thanks goes to Connor who woke up 10 minutes after I closed my eyes to go to sleep and approximately every hour and a half afterwards!

On Tuesday morning we went out to breakfast and then my mom & I took a walk around the mall. It was pouring rain and not a good day to sit around the pool so there wasn't much else to do. When we got back, my dad gave Connor a tour of the garage. He's a little young for his own tool set, but it is never too early to start learning!

He missed the air compressor demonstration, but that's okay. I'm sure he will require a few more sessions before everything sinks in. After all that excitement, I was hoping that Connor would be ready for a loooong nap (I know I was, since I didn't get much sleep the night before), but when I took him upstairs, he had no interest in sleeping:

Good thing we didn't have any plans that night - too tired! We left to come home to Williamsport yesterday mid-morning. We had such a nice visit but we knew that Ryan and the dogs missed us and we were happy to be home.
It's Little League World Series time in Williamsport. Can't wait to take Connor to some games in a couple years!

Olympics

I can't believe I forgot to discuss my addiction to the Olympics in my last post! I have been really enjoying the summer games this year. I'm really fortunate to still be on maternity leave so I'm home during the day AND that we have a ridiculously expensive cable package, which gives us no less than 4 channels of Olympic coverage. Otherwise, I would still be oblivious to the wonders of the lesser known Olympic sports, such as synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline (any sport where a gentleman named Dong Dong wins a gold medal is a winner in my book), team handball (I don't know whether to be amazed or horrified that this activity that looks straight out of a high school gym class qualifies as an olympic sport. With medals.), and my personal favoirte, dressage (a/k/a horse dancing).

That's not to say that we haven't been enjoying the more mainstream sports, too. Ryan & I like the swimming, track & field, and beach volleyball. Baby Linn, for some reason, seemed to enjoy watching the rowing.

Watching the Olympics. He originally had on the red & white "Team USA" onesie that my mom got him for the 4th of July, which I thought was cute and patriotic, but he peed on it. Oops!

Of course, if you know Ryan and I at all, you know that we like to eat, and we especially like to eat in front of the TV while watching a big game. The Olympics are no different. I think I have proclaimed my love for The Pioneer Woman in a previous post. Her name is Ree Drummand, and basically she is a city (okay, suburbanite) woman who fell in love with a cowboy and now lives in the middle of nowhere on a working cattle ranch. She has a website - http://thepioneerwoman.com/ - and a show on the Food Network. Anyway, we made her Spicy Pop Pulled Pork recipe yesterday...it is so delicious and easy (even I could make it, even though I didn't):

INGREDIENTS:

2 onions, peeled and quartered

1 whole pork shoulder roast

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

11 ounce can chipolte peppers in adobo sauce

2 cans of soda (we used Dr. Pepper)

4 packed tablespoons brown sugar

A few cloves of garlic

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees

Start by placing the onion quarters in the bottom of a pot. Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper, and then place on top of the onions. Pour the chipotle peppers over the top, and then crack open the cans of pop and pour them over the whole thing. Add the brown sugar to the liquid and stir.

Cover the pot, put in the oven and cook for at least 6 hours, flipping the roast 2 or 3 times during the cooking process. When it's done, the pork will be dark and weird and wonderful. It'll also be fork-tender. That's when you know it's done.

Remove the meat from the pot and shred completely. Then return the meat to the pot and keep in the juice until you need it. Divine!

Ryan's assistant brought him several cucumbers grown by her father, and he didn't want them to go to waste, so he made homemade garlic/dill pickles!



They are delicious - where was the pickle recipe when I was pregnant?!?!?

Anyway, we made sandwiches out of the pulled pork, coleslaw, and pickles last night. Amazing - I am so glad to have leftovers for lunch for the next couple days!

Making the pulled pork in the oven made me excited for fall, and the soups and chili and other comfort foods that I so much enjoy eating while watching football all weekend. I know it is only preseason, but the Eagles and Steelers play tonight and our fantasy football draft has been scheduled, so it's almost time!!!

10 Weeks Old

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Truth is, we've been pretty boring lately!

Connor is as sweet as ever - still growing like a weed. Hard to believe in ten short weeks he went from this:

to this:

In the past week or so, Connor has started sleeping MUCH better at night. I have been giving him a bath every other night, and he really loves it - always smiling and laughing (but part of that may be laughing AT me after he gets out of the bath when I sing dumb songs I make up about him being wrapped up like a little burrito) and most nights I have him fed and put to bed between 9 and 930. Like I said, this has only been happening for the past week or so, but he has been sleeping straight through until between 330 and 430am!!! The first night it happened, I assumed that it was around 100am when I heard him crying and was shocked to look at the clock and see it was 334! The second night, I woke up around the time he had normally been getting up for the first time and pretty much waited for him to cry. When it didn't happen, I debated going to check on him to make sure he was still breathing (I didn't, does that make me a bad mom?) because this new sleeping pattern came on so suddenly - it seems like overnight he went from sleeping only 3 or 4 hours at a time to sleeping 6 or 7! I'm hoping that I didn't jynx anything and that this will continue - not only for myself - I feel like a much better (happier/more patient) mom now that I'm getting a little bit more sleep, but also for my mother-in-law, who will be less likely to drop Connor off at the orphanage mid-week while we're in Ireland if she is able to get a good night's sleep!

Yesterday I met Adrianne for breakfast, as she wanted to discuss some work stuff (which really means we spent 1 hr. 45 mins. shooting the breeze and 15 mins talking about work) so Ryan and Baby Linn got to spend some quality time together. Ryan decided to have a little photo shoot, and these are two of my favorites:

Good thing he got my good looks (just kidding) and not his father's late high-school/early college look (although I'm sure Connor will develop a natural affinity for camo too - I can deal with that. The Amish/Unabomber beard...not so much):

That's about all I have for Connor updates this week. I told you we were boring! We have a busy weekend coming up though, so hopefully my next post will be more exciting!

Shots and Smiles

Connor turned 2 months old on Sunday - I can hardly believe it! He's always been really pleasant, but in the past week or so, he has really started to smile and "talk," and he can definitely distinguish Ryan & I from other people. He's "found" his hands and stares at them like they are the most interesting things in the world. Gone are the days of him sleeping all day - he's very alert and likes to be held. There are worse things in the world than spending the day cuddling with a cute baby, but some days I feel like I don't get anything done - especially now that the house is on the market since I am trying to keep it clean in case a showing is scheduled. So far there have been 3 showings since it went on the market last week. I'm waiting to hear feedback from the realtor and hoping that there will continue to be interest in it.

Connor is also starting to sleep a little better. In fact, he slept for 5 1/2 hours at a time in two out of the past four nights! I don't want to jynx it, but I'm hoping that this pattern continues - that extra hour or two makes a world of difference for me!

On Sunday I realized that in one month we will be in Ireland for the Notre Dame/Navy game! Right around this time every year I begin to get antsy for football season. I'm especially excited this year because (1) the Phillies stink and they just traded my favorite player so it's no fun to watch them, (2) we are going to Ireland to see the first game, and (3) I have lots of adorable ND outfits to put Connor in to torture Ryan Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame! We had a little trial run this week to make sure he's a true Irish fan:

Ready to Wake Up the Echoes!

Connor had his two month doctor's appointment today. He's a big, healthy boy! His stats:

• 13 lbs. 2 oz. (gained 4 lbs. 3 oz. since his 1 week appt.)
• 25" long (grew 4 inches since his 1 week appt.)
• 15 3/4" head circumference (I have no idea what this means but I like to think it means he has a big, smart brain!)

He's in the 75% for weight and 97%(!!) for height so he's going to be a tall boy! Dr. Pagana was very happy with his progress. Connor got his first round of vaccines today as well. He had one oral vaccine and three shots. I have heard horror stories about babies getting shots, and meant to get some infant tylenol to give him a dose before his appointment, but I forgot (bad mom!). It was a busy day at Dr. Pagana's office and I could hear two other babies/kids screaming bloody murder while we were there. But, Baby Linn took his shots like a man - he got bright red and PISSED and cried while they were giving them, but after they said I could pick him up he only cried for about 30 seconds and then calmed right down. He fell asleep almost immediately and slept the whole time we were at the grocery store. He also took a long nap this afternoon. He's been wimpering off and on, but really hasn't been any more fussy than normal, so hopefully we survived the first round of shots relatively unscathed!

Two band aids on the left leg and one on the right leg

Still has that sweet smile even when he doesn't feel well!

Hopefully the shots will make him sleep well again tonight! I stopped by my office yesterday and committed to returning to work on September 10th (the Monday after we get back from Ireland), so he better be sleeping through the night by then (I have no doubt that if he isn't by the time we leave for Ireland, Debbie will have him doing it by the time we get back!) or else Ryan's going to get very proficient at warming a bottle in the middle of the night!!!

Road Trip!

Ryan's birthday is June 3rd, which was only a few days after we brought Connor home from the hospital. We had previously talked about our desire to visit Cooperstown, New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and, more importantly, Brewery Ommegang, so I decided that I would surprise him by arranging for us to take an overnight trip there at the end of July. My plans didn't get get off to a great start:

1. Most hotels in Cooperstown require a two night minimum to stay on the weekend in the summer. Because I didn't think it was necessary to go for two nights (not to mention it was very expensive), I needed to have his receptionist reschedule his patients on a Thursday so we could go up on Wednesday (his day off) and come home Thursday. I thought I was being sneaky by calling his office and leaving her a message until the next morning I got a text message from Ryan saying "I got your message, what did you want?" What dentist checks his own messages at the office?!?! He swears he didn't listen to the whole message (should I be offended?) so he didn't know my plan and a few days later I called back and got everything arranged with the receptionist.
2. While my mom was here the day before Ryan's birthday, I asked her to sit with Connor for 15 minutes while I ran to Wegmans, as I wanted to get him a couple bottles of various Ommegang beer for his birthday to include with a note that we were going to tour the brewery. I made my selection and went to pay for it, only to be rejected because my license was expired (I think there should be a rule that if you are 9 months pregnant at the time your license expires, you get an automatic extension until you lose the baby weight so you are not stuck with a fat picture for four years)! Because I was overly hormonal from giving birth 4 days earlier, my chin quivered and my eyes welled up with tears as I ran out of the store empty handed, a scene which was repeated the next day when I gave Ryan his birthday card with a pathetic note that his birthday present was going to Cooperstown at the end of July. Luckily, Ryan does not have my "only-child-who-favors-quantity-over-quality-when-it-comes-to-presents" syndrome and didn't really care that he had "nothing to open" on his birthday.

We did some research before embarking on our little adventure, and discovered that Cooperstown has a "beverage trail" consisting of Bear Pond Winery, Fly Creek Cider Mill, Cooperstown Brewery, and Brewery Ommegang. We ambitiously thought we could hit all of them in one afternoon. Ryan's mom was gracious enough to volunteer to watch Connor overnight so we could enjoy ourselves so we dropped him off at her office around 9am and we were off. Ryan's dad allowed us to borrow his Jaguar convertible and we could not have gotten luckier with the weather.

Thankfully, I remembered to bring a hat. I did not, however, remember to apply suntan lotion and therefore had a very nice seatbelt tan line across my chest.

It took about three and a half hours to get to Cooperstown. Bear Pond Winery was on the way in to town, so we stopped there first.

As with most wines from New York, we were less than impressed and not willing to pay $24.99 for a bottle of red wine. Let's just say the best part about this stop was the crackers they give you between tastings. We hopped back in the car and made our way to Cooperstown. We parked and took a lap around the main street, grabbing a slice of New York pizza from Sals and some cookies from a local bakery. We knew we were going to save the Hall of Fame for Thursday morning so we didn't spend too much time browsing the souvenir shops. We decided to hit up the Fly Creek Cider Mill before checking in to the hotel.

This place was really neat. They make hard cider (not much more appetizing than the Bear Pond wines) but the real draw is the fact that they have a huge store with all sorts of gourmet dips, cheeses, breads, etc. and you can sample them all (including homemade fudge, as much as you want!). Normally I am a little bit like Reuben Pfeffer in Along Came Polly about samples where everyone puts their grubby hands in the pretzels/crackers/other vehicle for sampling dips, but this place was so glorious I didn't care. We bought a couple of goodies to take home before heading to the hotel.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we called a cab to take us to Ommegang. We discovered Ommegang beers when we were living in Philly but have recently really gotten into them. The brewery was built in 1997 on 136 acres that used to be a hop farm. Their beers are mostly Belgian style.

I stole this picture from the website.

We took a brief tour and then did a tasting of all 6 of their current beers. They are all delicious. Then we went into their cafe and had some more (full size) beers and snacks. We shut the place down (at 6pm. Clue #1 that Cooperstown is not exactly a party-all-night kind of place, especially on a Wednesday) so we called our cab driver friend to take us downtown. We quickly learned that there are exactly two bars in Cooperstown and they are right across the street from one another. We first went to Sherman's Tavern, and ran into our tour guide from the Brewery who was doing a promotional event there, and she gave us samples of one of the specialty beers that was not offered during the tasting. Once we ran out of $1 bills to dump into the juke box, we decided to check out Cooley's Tavern across the street.

We hadn't planned to eat here, but it was getting late so we ended up ordering food at the bar. It was okay, but nothing memorable. After a few drinks we decided to try to find the Hawkeye Bar, which is in the Otesaga Resort on the lake (thought about booking us a room there, until I saw that it was $600/night, at which time the Holiday Inn Express looked pretty darn good). We went down the wrong street and ended up at another hotel bar on the lake. At 1130 they were mopping the floors around us and turning off the lights, so we called our cab driver friend to take us back to the hotel. I was missing Connor and was glad to receive a text from Courtney with an update and this picture of Baby Linn:



On Thursday morning we headed back to the main street of Cooperstown and had a quick breakfast before the Hall of Fame opened. The Hall of Fame was really impressive.

My cell phone camera doesn't do this place justice - it was a beautiful building!

So much to see, it would take days to really get through everything. We got there right when it opened and it was crowded. When we left two hours later it was PACKED. I can't even imagine trying to go on a Saturday during the summer. Of course, the most obnoxious and pushy visitors were all wearing either Yankees or Red Sox jerseys! After we finished at the HOF, we took one last lap around town. We didn't buy any souvenirs because everything was so expensive and I'm sure in a few short years we'll be taking Connor there so we decided to wait until then to spend $40 on a t-shirt! 

As we were heading home, we heard weather reports of severe storms in New York/Pennsylvania. We were hoping we would beat the weather, especially since we had the top down, and we almost did...but when we were about 20 minutes outside Hughesville, the skies opened up. We had to drive through the rain until we could find a spot to pull over to put the top up. And it didn't work the first time so we were soaked! It stopped raining until we got to Hughesville where my car was parked, but as soon as I started to drive back to Williamsport, the skies turned black and the wind picked up. There was a tornado warning and it was raining so hard I had to pull in to a parking lot until the rain/wind subsided a little. That was a very scary drive home, and I was so happy to get back to Debbie's and pick up Connor. Thankfully, she said he did great for her (only woke up once during the night) and she didn't back out of babysitting for him next month while we are in Ireland!

Overall, it was a great trip. Even though it was difficult to leave Baby Linn, I was ready for a little break and I think it is important to be able to get away sans kids once in a while. It is necessary to preserve sanity!