END OF SUMMER

Since tomorrow is September 1^st and it’s been a few months since we updated our blog, and the grandchildren, Alec, and Brad are back in school, so it’s time to get the deed done.

We’ve had a nice summer here in Pennsylvania. Of course, we had our hot humid days, but not nearly as many of them as last year, and they’ve been nicely interspersed with beautiful clear, not so hot days. Unfortunately, the corn is starting to be cut which means the farm land around us will look a little bare and not quite so green and lush in the coming fall days. We’ve enjoyed the local corn for many weeks now. Steve loves the spring and summer and dreads the long winters. LaRae on the other hand, loves the cool weather and the snow.

Brad flew back to Utah on Wednesday to return to BYU for his junior year there. We all hated to see him leave, but are certain that he was ready to get back to the college scene. We were just a wee bit boring for him, we fear, although he and Alec did a lot of fun things over the summer, i.e. canoeing, tennis, traveling, baseball games, etc. Things at EraMed (where he worked) will be a little less exciting with him gone—sounded like they were having way too much fun having him around! Everyone tells Steve what a great boy he is and how they love having him around. He even got to help the mechanics once in a while which they appreciated and he enjoyed.

Alec had a great baseball season and has just started his fall season. He started back to school—high school, no less—on Monday and seems to be adjusting just fine. Since Seminary is too far to travel to, he’ll be doing home-study and only go to class occasionally. We were looking at an hour and a half round trip on our twisty roads plus waiting time at someone’s home. The time and gas were just too much. In July he went to Youth Conference; this year they went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York. He was gone for three days, visiting church sites and attending the Pageant two nights. It was an awesome experience and he had a great time.

In July, Steve, LaRae, Brad, and Alec headed west to Colorado for Steve’s family’s reunion in Breckenridge. His mom rented two very large, beautiful homes next door to each other right on a river. Six of the seven siblings were there, with most of their families. Jenn and Brian and their families joined us there as well, which was a bonus for us. We went on the ski chair lift to the top of them mountains, rode the train, did some shopping at the outlet malls, went fishing, hiked a bit, played some tennis, ate a lot of great food, but especially enjoyed spending time together visiting and catching up with everyone.

After leaving Breckenridge, we spent an afternoon with our friends, the Evansons and their family. Then we had dinner and saw the 4^th of July fireworks in Highlands Ranch with the Roscoes. Before heading back to Pennsylvania on Saturday night, we caught up with the Haycocks and Herboliches, our neighbors when we lived there.

Steve and LaRae took a couple of short trips—one to Washington D.C.; and the other to New York City. While in NYC, we saw “Wicked” on Broadway. It was good, but not as spectacular as we’d been led to believe. On both trips we took the long back roads home rather than the dreaded I-95 route. All of us went to the annual Fiddler’s Picnic at a local state park, which is always interesting. Fiddlers, banjo players, and guitar pickers of all ages just hang out together and fiddle and sing away.

Brad and LaRae each had a little trip to the ER in August. LaRae tripped up some steps at our local pharmacy and jammed her right hand into the railing. After a few x-rays, it was determined that the fourth metacarpal bone in her hand was fractured. Three different braces later, it seems to be healing OK, although handshakes are still out of the question. (The Bishop shook her hand today before either one thought about it. LaRae grimaced and he felt bad.) Just a couple of weeks ago, Brad slashed open a finger on his right hand from the tip to below the second knuckle, requiring four stitches. We all said he just wanted to have his hand wrapped up like his mother’s. He was disassembling an old desk at work when it slipped and the chrome slashed his finger. It’s healing well and the stitches should come out this week.

That’s a pretty quick summary of a really good summer. Hope you enjoyed yours as much as we did ours.

Two Month Update

Can't believe it's been almost two months since we updated the PA Weinert blog!

Perhaps if we start with the most current goings on, we'll be able to work our way back.

Brad and Alec both spoke in church today--Alec in our ward; Brad in the Spanish twig. Alec did well and he's excited that now he's probably off the hook for at least a year, maybe two.

Yesterday the Dad and I got up and went to pick up truckload of mulch. Brad assisted us with that load and then went for another. We got it all distributed by 11:30. Alec spent that time transferring the stack of wood from around the yard to one major stack behind the house. He didn't mind doing that so much since it meant he got to drive the tractor and pull the trailer behind it.

Then we all headed for Alec's baseball game. It was a gorgeous day--one of a very few warm (almost) days we've had for baseball here in PA this year. His team won--18 to 3 or something like that. Alec walked once, hit a fly (caught), and struck out a couple of times. He's pretty hard on himself--he thinks he's in a slump since his homerun a couple of weeks ago. By the way, it's the only homerun his team has had all season. He's an awesom fielder. Unfortunately, he's probably penalized somewhat because he doesn't play on Sunday. He's got nine days of school left; one of those is a rafting trip.

Brad and Alec will be going to a Rockies/Phillies game Tuesday night. Hopefully, the Phillies fans will be somewhat tolerant of the Rockies fans in their midst.

LaRae flew out to Utah on May 5th. She got to spend some quality time with "the girls". Emma, Jesse, and Sara are great fun and are such good little girls. They thought it was fun to go with Grandma wherever she went--and she enjoyed that as well. We (Brad, Jenn, & LaRae) painted Jenn's living room and rearranged all the artwork. It looked so fresh and new and it sounds like they're all enjoying it. Jenn and LaRae got to go to dinner with LaRean, three of her four daughters-in-law, and Helen as kind of a Mother's Day celebration. We all had fun catching up and sharing memories. Brad was a good sport and helped out with the girls so we could have some "down time".

On Friday, May 9th, Brad and LaRae were able to go to Shane and Darcee's wedding reception. They stayed in a hotel in Woods Cross that night and then flew out early Saturday morning. It was a short but good trip.

We're all enjoying having Brad home. We told Brad the other day that he may have to get a second job to fund all the activities he and Alec would like to do over the summer. Brad seems to enjoy working at EraMed and shares tales of the day every night over dinner (some things his father would probably rather not hear). Some of them are pretty funny and it makes you wonder just how much work they get done.

Pennsylvania is beautiful right now--the fields of hay are green (first crop has been cut already) and the corn is just starting to come up. If anyone would like to visit PA to see it firsthand, we're always open for visitors.

Enough Flack, Already!

OK, so we're not quite up to speed on this blogging stuff--still don't know how to add photos.

We've spent the week trying to get back in the school/work routine here in PA. We returned from Kansas Monday night. We had a lot of fun with Brian, Tricia, Jake and Dave. We kept pretty busy coming and going--mostly going. It was fun to see their new home and get to see Jake play soccer; it's been a FEW years since Brian and Trevor were playing.

We flew into Kansas City on Wednesday. Thursday we split up for the day. Brian and Alec went to a "Basketball Experience" place (they'll have to share the details) and had a great time. The rest of us went to Union Station which has a Science Museum inside. Jacob and David loved it! Brian and Alec joined us and we had lunch in a nifty diner there.

Friday the guys and girls went different directions again--the guys to the Bass Store, the girls to Hobby Lobby, etc. After lunch we headed for downtown Kansas City to the Plaza, which is a neat shopping area along the river. We had dinner at the KA Weinert's favorite barbecue joint, Jack Stack's, followed by picking up dessert at The Cheesecake Factory for later consumption.

After the Easter egg hunt in the basement and Jake's soccer game on Saturday, Brian took us to Independence, Missouri and we went through the Visitor's Center there. Very impressive! Then we headed for the Liberty Jail, which was also very well done. Our guide is just about due to go home and he was a fountain of information (which probably made our tour about twice as long as usual).

Sunday we had a nice brunch and Easter devotional before heading for church, followed by a delicious ham dinner.

We got in some quality reading, wrestling, and game time along with a walk through the neighborhood. The accomodations and food were great and are highly recommended to anyone who is considering a visit to Kansas.

OK. Does that catch us up? Let us know if we left anything out that you all need to know.

Crazy Weather February in PA

Here we are...this is about the 3rd or 4th snow/ice/rain day we've had. We get a couple of inches of snow, then it rains a bit, and finally it freezes. I don't know why we can't just have a good old snow storm and a good dump of six or eight inches. Yep, the snow plow just went by plowing the slush! It's crazy! Alec is at a friend's house, hopefully outside. It's great snowman snow--heavy and wet.

I went in to work for a couple of hours this morning to help out. A lot of people call off on these kinds of days. Tried to get Alec to come along, but he informed me that he worked his last snow day and wanted to just chill. Dad, of course, is at work.

We had planned to leave this afternoon and go down to DC, spend the night, go to the temple in the morning, hit Chipolte (sp), possibly the Spy Museum, and head home. But I don't think that's going to happen. Perhaps next weekend.

I don't know how to change the music and add photos, so I'll try to get the guys to handle that. We have a couple of photos of Alec's birthday. We took him and Matt to Grand Slam and then out to lunch at Friendly's last Saturday. Matt's family came over for birthday cake on Sunday.

Nothing else very exciting going on here; we're pretty boring folk, you know. Hope everyone is doing well and healthy and happy. I know Jenn's girls have had a less that wonderful week, but hopefully are on the mend.

So long from PA.

January in Pennsylvania. . . .

has been pretty uneventful. After very two busy fun-filled months of November and December with everyone coming and going, January settled into a very slow, quiet routine. Not even the weather could give us a little excitement! The weather has been very disappointing, creating no sledding opportunities, and more importantly, no weather days or even late starts for school! Just cold, crisp days. Alec is still hoping that February and March will come through for him.

We spent fourteen hours yesterday on a Youth Temple Trip to the Washington DC Temple. It was a very long day, but turned out pretty well. After baptizing a small ward, 31 of us got on the metro and went into DC. Most of us went to the Natural History Museum; a few rebels went elsewhere. You all know how much I love museums...but I was a good sport and didn't grumble too much, at least not in public. We only got (had) to stay for a couple of hours, before boarding the Metro for our return trip to our cars and dinner at Hunan City...another favorite of mine, you all know. Actually, it was very small so Dad, Alec, and a few other non-Chinese food lovers went next door to a small Peruvian restaurant. Not all that much more exciting for me, but they were all pretty happy. I truly believe the majority of the group would have been happier to stop somewhere where McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and Arby's were the normal fare. We had two chatty girls join us for the trip home (in lieu of going all the way back to the church before coming home) which Alec was so excited about! Not!!! We returned home and were all snuggled in our beds by about 9:30 pm.

There really is not much more to report from this side of the country/world. Dad and I survived our birthdays....thank you to everyone for wishing us a Happy Birthday! We both would be just as happy to skip them next year, thank you very much.

Dad and Alec just left for General Priesthood Meeting; so I'm home alone for several hours. I have YW lessons to prepare and this will be a good chance to get those going.

Hope everyone is healthy, happy, and doing well wherever you are.

OK...so Alec has gotten us up and running and says I have to do the writing...blogging?!?

After almost two months of people coming and going, it's just a bit quiet around here. We're happy that you you stopped by to visit (long or short), and enjoyed having you, and hope you'll come again soon.

Yesterday we slept until 10:00 (Dad took Brad to the airport at 5:00) and then had a nice slow kind of a day. Dad and Alec spent a little time at the shooting range and I caught up on visiting my two little sisters in the nursing home.

Today was our first day on the new church schedule...Dad loves it, I'm not quite so sure. But we did get in a nice Sunday nap and it's still light outside.

Dad is planning a trip to Chicago/Wisconsin this week. Alec and I will hold down the home front. I'm hoping for a nice month of de-junking. Brad, Neto, Jenn, and Alec finally got the garage sale stuff that's been accumulating for a year and a half out of the basement and to Goodwill. What a difference that made! Now I want to hit the rest of the house and see what we can say goodbye to.

The weather here is BORING! It did get pretty cold this past week and we might as well have had snow, but now it's nice and warm again...is supposed to be near 60 degrees tomorrow.

Hope everyone is healthy and happy wherever in the world you are. It should be fun keeping up with everyone on our BLOGS. I'll try to learn what I'm supposed to do--I don't even download photos off the camera yet. Why bother when I have a couple of guys who take care of that (even though we have a hard time locating them thereafter)? Oh, and I think Dad should take has turn as well, don't you?

Love to Everyone!
Mom/Grandma, Dad/Grandpa, & Alec

Welcome

Merry Christmas!