This is where we've been this week... This is Blackwell, PA, where we rent a little cabin on an offshoot of this bigger creek (Pine Creek). It's at the base of what we call the "PA Grand Canyon". Oh, it's lovely. And sooooooo relaxing. And after all the wedding stuff, that's what we really needed. LOTS of relaxing!

Mission accomplished!

We biked, swam, hiked, grilled, ate out, had friends up, read, watched the wedding video, went to bed early and got up - well, okay, early. But we like that. All so wonderful and regenerating. I think my favorite part, though, is getting up and taking my coffee out to the little porch and listening to all the birdies sing as we watch the creek gurgling in front of us. We just kept saying, "now THIS is the life!".

NOT that we have it bad here at home, mind you! It's pretty darn swell here, too. But up there - people don't know our phone number and there aren't projects and responsibilities calling our names. And there's no creek 20 feet in front of our porch. Or a bike path 50 yards away. That's why they call it a "getaway"!

In other news, we found out last night that we are officially done with Fresh Air in all it's entirety. We retired as chairs last year (this being our first year off), but we said we'd have Dennis (our umpteenth Fresh Air child in 23 years of hosting...) as long as he wanted to come and then that would be it. Well, he couldn't come last year and last night I found out he's moving to ALASKA of all places - with his sister. How she came to that I'll never know, but if he thought PA was culture shock, he better hold on to his hat, socks, whatever, cuz they're gonna get knocked off! Can we say g-r-i-z-z-l-y b-e-a-r? Well, we'll miss Dennis and all his antics. He was like part of the family for sure....

So - our summer is now (with the exception of VBS this coming week) truly FREE. Wow. For the first time since we've had kids! I think I can handle it!