Christian Herr got ripped off--Labor Day Trip Part 2

In case you haven't visited our site in a couple of days, we urge you to check out Part One of our Labor Day Vacation before you read Part Two.



Monday was the last day of our trip. Sunday evening Chris had a migraine so we spent a lot of time in the hotel room. Beckett thought that was great and spent the time lounging on the bed looking adorable and teasing his father by half rolling over, but never quite getting those elbows down. These poses were achieved with help. At least the getting to the belly part. He did those arms himself.

As a result of our early night we really tried to pack in the fun on Monday. Okay, so we did things that were probably more fun for me. Chris is very patient about indulging my interest in museums and historical sites. We're probably the only people who went on vacation to Santo Domingo and somehow missed the beach.

The first thing we did was head to the Hans Herr house. It's the oldest surviving dwelling place of European settlers in Lancaster County. For more information please visit: http://www.hansherr.org/

It was a very neat old house. I'm always so impressed when old buildings have multiple stories. I guess I just can't ever believe that you can get a cellar, first story, attic (not a second floor even though the kids slept up there), and second attic with no concrete or "modern" building materials.

Herr (hee hee) is the house

The first thing that struck me, other than the whole height issue, was the way the real owner of the house got totally ripped off. It was built by Christian Herr. Hans Herr was his father who was in his 70's when they came to America. He just got to live with them. If you can blow this picture up you can see above the door where he carved his initial C.H. and the date 1719.

So what I want to know is why is it called the Hans Herr house? The whole tour is about Christian. He did all the work, and, you know, owned the place. I meant to ask, but I sort of freaked out our obviously volunteer tour guide with lots of other questions. Plus some other people showed up half way through the tour and threw her off a little. So it is a mystery, but more than that it is an injustice. Poor Christian Herr will never get his due with his name posted on little maps of attractions placed in budget motels around the Lancaster area.

Here I am at the lovely garden standing by some hops which if I lived in 1719 I'd use to make whiskey which I'd then feed to my baby.

Mmm smoked meats...

After we finished with the Herr house we went to a few more Amish or Mennonite shops. I think the Mennonite's try to horn in on the cache of the Amish, but I know those floral print dresses and bicycles mean you're not really Amish. Your bonnet and apron can't fool me. We had the most delicious soft pretzels I've ever eaten. And some great home made potato chips. Herr's potato chips come from this area. You know that episode of The Office where Jim is trying to find salt and vinegar Herr's chips for Karen? Well no wonder that's happening in Scranton because Pennsylvania is the home of Herr's chips. In fact, the exhibit in the barn at the Herr House was sponsored by Herr's Potato Chips. I hope Christian Herr chips.

Our tour of Amish-landia at an end we decided to head home via Valley Forge. Ah, more learning. Unfortunately we didn't think too clearly about this one since Labor Day is a national holiday. The visitor's center was closed, but there was a ranger at Washington's Headquarters so it was open and we could look in.

Chris was much impressed that General Washington ate ham. Beckett was not as impressed.

This is the spring house. I think. I just heard a lady behind us saying, "This is the spring house. You know what likes spring houses? Snakes!"

Then we drove home on the surprisingly reasonable New Jersey Turnpike. I don't get how they price it. We drove over half the state on it and paid about $4. We drive a few miles to Jersey Gardens and it's $2. We actually stopped at Jersey Gardens on the way home. We didn't stay long. Too much chaos with Labor Day sales. I did get a new pair of jeans though. That was good. Then we got to rest at home. Ah, home.

Livin' in an Amish Paradise, Literally--Labor Day Trip Part 1

Labor Day weekend we took a trip to gawk at people who are different than we are. Yes, we went out to Lancaster County to stare at the Amish.

Before we got to the plain people we decided to stop in for some gluttonous decadence.

It is indeed a Hershey's Chocolate world.

We took the fake factory tour with the chocolate scented air and this is what I learned:

1. Chocolate in the wild looks like a papaya. Here I am at a plantation learning that.

2. Cocoa looks like gross white nastiness. You'd never look at busted open cocoa pods and think, "Mmm let's process this through like 90 steps and I bet it'll be suuuuuper good." Of course, you'd also never look at it and want to eat it the way it was.

We're happy because it finally started to look like chocolate that you'd want to eat.

3. Hershey Corp is stupid because they discontinued the greatest candy ever--the Almond Joy Bite. Those tiny balls were the perfect ratio of almond to coconut to chocolate. Instead they're making things like special edition Elvis Reese's that have banana cream in them. We tried them. GROSS!

4. The whole world thinks Beckett is super adorable. As we were taking the below pictures we literally stopped the flow of walking traffic around us. One guy told us to send it in to Hershey's because it was so cute and maybe they'd pay us. We'd prefer to be paid in Almond Joy Bites.

5. I'd do it all again for the free candy at the end.

Now for the Amish part

I know this will sound strange, but it's seems a lot easier to be Amish than I thought it was. Now before you go, but wait, how could you live without electricity?! I learned I wouldn't have to. I could have a generator, plus propane and propane accessories are just fine. I couldn't keep running this blog, but electricity is cool, it's just the wires that connect them to the rest of the world that are bad. I guess they like to be off the grid. You can go buy junk food at Wal-mart, and if you're a guy or it's really cold buttons are a-okay. And you only have church every other Sunday. Lightweights.

The best thing about Lancaster county is, of course, the awesome town names. Those Amish think they're the plain people living a simple life, but behind closed doors....

Disclaimer: I know these jokes have been made a zillion times before. I also know that I am completely incapable of refraining from making them again.

My favorite thing is that it used to have a different name. They changed it TO intercourse. That's like being named Adam Smith and changing your name to Johnny Hildo. (Ah, such an old Saturday Night Live Reference.)

Here is a county map with a couple of other awesome, real town names added in. Have fun playing, "Spot the town you can't say you live in with a straight face."

We went to an "authentic" Amish farm. Okay, the house was built in the early 1800's by some Quakers, but Amish people lived in it after that. Regardless, it was fun to tour the house and grounds.

Here we are with a tiny Amish horse. Large horses are considered vulgar and ostentatious. :-)


We tackled the corn maze....

And were ultimately triumphant!

Then we hit the school for a little book learnin'. All the grades are together so Beckett and Chris enjoyed being able to attend classes together.


But once school was out it was time for some chores.

I'm not Amish, but I'm pretty sure that's not a real sheep.

Beckett thought he'd masquerade as an Amish kid.

He obviously doesn't have the hang of it just yet.

Coming soon--Day 3 and the not quite visit to Valley Forge.

Jersey Garden Beckett

Taking full advantage of our car we decided to drive to the big outlet mall, Jersey Gardens last weekend. I went crazy and bought Beckett tons of new clothes. But when the Children's Place has 4 racks of $1.99 items how can you go wrong? (By the way it was totally biased towards girls. Way cuter stuff and way more girl stuff. But I still managed to stock up my guy. Blue cammo shorts, so cute.)

Here is happy shopping mommy sporting her new headband from Claires.

Beckett is loving the airplane move now.

Here he is reposing on the rocks around the food court. The first look is Ferrari, the second, Le Tigre, obviously.

I know I'm biased, but seriously, is this not one of the cutest babies in the universe? His little face is so sweet in this close up.

Rollin with the Homies Part Deux

Today Beckett rolled from his back to his tummy. He was happy for a while and now he's screaming and pivoting in a circle because some jerk put him on his tummy. Dude, roll the other way.

Verbalization

Chris and I are getting a little worried about Beckett's vocalization and language skills.



The problem? He won't be quiet!

P.S. Sorry about the weird background noise.

4 Months Old

Today was Beckett's 4 month appointment. I'm sure you're all eagerly awaiting the new stats.

He did not want to stretch his leg out to be measured, but we finally wrestled him down.

64.5cm or for those of us in America, 25.4 inches. That's the 75%.

He was also pretty wiggly on the scale. Despite what it says here, they locked him in at 7.775 kg.

In American that's 17 lbs 2.2 oz. That's the 75-90%. Surprise, surprise.

He got more immunizations too after waiting only 3 hours at the doctors office. Mommy was NOT pleased. Beckett was almost as pissed off as I was when he got his shots. Here he is trembling in anticipation.

(Yes, that's a burp cloth he's holding and loving. He's taken to rubbing things on his face when he goes to sleep. When we check on him in the night he usually has the blanket over his face and his feet hanging out. He fell asleep before the shots, but since I was lucky enough to wait in the waiting room for an hour he got a good nap.)

He didn't even cry when he got the first one and he only let out a big wail on the last two that sting a lot. But he didn't cry very long and calmed down enough that I could get some Chipotle as a reward for not killing a nurse or some unruly urchin or his negligent parent.

Bumbo Beckett

The bumbo finally arrived and Beckett has been taking advantage of his new perch. He's particularly happy that he can get the horse on his playmat that he's had it in for ever since the early days of kicking it on command.

Daddy's pretty excited about its arrival as well.

Just a bunch of pictures of cute Beckett

Chris caught this ball at the Real Salt Lake game he went to. I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but Beckett lifted up the ball and is holding all on his own. Obviously he's working towards playing goalie, or "goal keeper" as Chris just told me.

Beckett is learning to hold his own bottle. Mommy is learning to sleep in. Pretty soon he'll be cleaning the house for me.

I know this picture isn't that great quality, but I love his happy little face.

Beckett is bathing in the big grown up bath tub now. He loves it! His legs are up because he realized he can make big splashes and lots of noise when he thumps his feet down.

Here he is post bath in his froggy towel. Evidently it's delicious.

The slim chance I had of remote domination is gone

Already at the tender age of 3 1/2 months, Chris is teaching our son the art of remote hogging.

Bumbo Dreams

Went to Target this Saturday. Used one of their Bumbos to see if Becks liked sitting in it. He loved it, but we decided against the immediate purchase due to the only colors being light purple and light pink. Picked a green one up on Amazon today because it was four bucks cheaper than the blue and the yellow ones. The chances of us putting pictures up here of Bumbo Beckett is just about 100%. So await in breathless anticipation and I'll see if I can't find some cute pictures from over the weekend to tide you over.

p.s. - Update: In response to the request for more Bumbo information, I would ask you to click the word Bumbos above, which is a link to the product page at Amazon. Original post had the link in it.

p.p.s. Here's a picture of Beckett trying out the Bumbo and realizing he loved it.