A Shippy Weekend.

Shippensburg, PA is a charming little town in the South Central PA - the best part about it? It's our closest source of family! We spent a weekend in Ship recently, and I snapped a few pictures of our adventures there.

 We visited the Goates! And... the goats.

Enjoyed the dark blue hills.

 Covered bridge!

A trip to BB's, "Bents, Bumps & Bunch of Bargins". 

Seriously! Hair/skin products for dollars! 

Homemade Honey.

 Buggie parking - it's an Minnonite run store.

 Home-made pretzels out front were prime.

 The evening there were Just Dance competitions...

 And a Reuben being defeated at bedtime (funniest part is that he was totally acting - I took this picture and showed it to him and it made him laugh really hard at how sad he was pretending to be.)

A bit of accordion time...

 After church the next day - we went bug catching. Reuben was all ready for the adventure, but he fell asleep on the car ride there and totally missed the whole event. Next time?

We were looking for aquatic insect larva - a specific mayfly species Paul needed.

Marian was ready to go - but got a little bored, so she took over iPhone camera duties...

And apparently while she was playing a game, she got herself locked out of the phone - and not only tried a bunch of different passwords, but happened to take this screen shot when she was trying to get it unlocked, hahahahaha.

Paul was the hero of the day, and carried us across the stream so we didn't have to get wet.

Then he provided Marian a nice little perch on which to read.

I enjoyed some good snuggle time with Reu while Marian played with my hair. Being an aunt is really the best.

And the next days, I stepped my aunt duties up a notch, and took Marian and Audrey to the mall - their favorite spot? Claire's of course!

Then Paul took us three girls on a lunch date to Shippensburg hottest spot - The Treat!

While we were waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for our meals - an old man came up to us and asked where we were from - because we must not be from around there if we were taking pictures of the sign. He loved talking about how he used to live in New Jersey but had to escape because they would bring in police helicopters every time he had a BBQ in his backyard and yaddayaddayadda the government is his worst enemy or something? It was weird.

 But we had a great old time. Best news, the Goates family is coming to NJ this weekend! Hooray!

Happy Birthday to my main man.

Happy Birthday to my favorite dude.

I've realized lately that Paul is top-notch. I guess I have always thought that, but lately it's just confirmed. In every aspect of his life he is succeeding. And on his birthday today, I just want everyone to know it.

He is supportive, kind, and helpful. He is strong and ambitious and dedicated. He is brilliant, intuitive and above-average. And he is thoughtful, cheerful and caring.

I am so glad he was born. I'm so glad we get to share our lives together.

February Photo A Day

Here are my February photos. Although I really enjoyed January's, this month kind of wore me out. Still enjoyed documenting a moment of each day (but the prompts were sometimes weird, and sometimes I just lacked creativity/effort). With that grand introduction, here they are!

Feb 1. Your view today. (Superbowl loving at the grocery store and 11-year old scouts)

Feb 2. Words. A great book I'm loving, but that also makes me quite homesick for Southern Utah.

Feb 3. Hands. Nothing better than baby hands, or stealing your co-workers baby for a few minutes.

Feb 4. Stranger. Strangers no more! Friends in New York!

Feb 5. 10 am. Hymns at church.

Feb 6. Dinner. I always treat myself to a bit of Indian Curry when Paul is out of town.

Feb 7. Buttons. yep - buttons.

Feb 8. Sun. Nope! Not today! (Who knows where the Instagram version of this photo went off with? I also included that days hourly forecast, and that was pretty exciting stuff Rain Rain RAIAAIAIAIN!)

Feb 9. Front door. Come by sometime!

Feb 10. Self portrait. By cutest niece Amari.

Feb 11. Make me happy. Best VDay cookie.

Feb 12. Inside your closet. I wish!

Feb 13. Blue. Handmade quilt from my nicest Grandma Carruth.

Feb 14. Heart. More coooookies!

Feb 15. Phone. Paul taking a nice shot at the Nets game.

Feb 16. Something new.

Feb 17. Time. Sunset time. Dad don't judge my waterspotted windshield.

Day 18. Drink!

Day 19. Something you hate, which I changed to Something I love - watching Marian read atop Uncle Paul's shoulders after a bug catching trip.

Day 20. Handwriting. Nephew Zander's handwriting on our family reunion tees, modeled by Paul here.

Day 21. A favorite photo of you. Young and newly in love.

Feb 22. Where you work. Hi Talksoft! And end-of-day smoothie. (PS if you need automated appointment reminders, just let me know)

Feb 23. Your shoes. On my favorite lunch break, warm days = wall ball!

Feb 24. Inside your bathroom cabinet. Or actually, inside Paul's lab and these great cabinets therein.

Feb 24. Green!

Feb 26. Night.

Feb 27. Something you ate. (Quinoa cakes!)

Feb 28. Money. And watching people win it on Jeopardy!

Feb 29. Something you're listening to. Rain falling and cars driving through it made for a cozy leap day at the office.