Vacation

We left September 2nd to go to Pennsylvania. We made a few stops along the way. First, we stopped in Texas to attend my newest nieces baby blessing. We stayed there for a couple of days and had a great time visiting with my brother Dean and his wife Amanda. My kids loved playing with their cousins. After we left Texas we headed for North Carolina to visit my brother Mathew. We stayed there for a couple of days and enjoyed catching up with them and meeting their little daughter that was born in June. My kids also enjoyed playing with their little boy. Next we went to Clarion, PA where we stayed for three weeks with my parents with a 3-day trip in the middle to visit Joe's grandparents. We had a great time with my parents. We went to a petting zoo, corn maize, autumn leaf festival, and did lots of geo-caching. My kids had a lot of fun and loved staying with Grandma and Grandpa for so long. While we were there I was also able to drive down to Westmoreland county one day while my mom had a meeting and do some genealogy research for a friend. I was excited that I was actually able to find the person she was looking for. My mom and I also drove to Indiana County to do some genealogy for the Mefford side of the family. We were able to find some information that I think will help us in our search for the Henry family. While I was up in Erie, I was able to find about 50 obituaries for Joe's side of the family as well as some wills and marriage records. There was more information that I could have found but I didn't have enough time. I like reading the obituaries because some of them help you to get to know who the person was and makes them more than just a name on the page.
On Sept 30th Joe flew into Pittsburgh and we stayed that night at my parents house and then drove up to Erie to visit his grandparents again. Friday night we were able to go to dinner with the Neratko side of the family. It was the first time I had met his aunts and uncles on that side of the family and it was great getting to meet them. They are a lot of fun and we enjoyed our time with them. The kids loved it too, especially since they kept giving them gummy bears from the dessert cart at Golden Corral. :) The next evening Joe's aunts and uncles (and great) came to his grandparent's house for a dinner. I was able to meet some I hadn't met yet as well as some cousins. We enjoyed our time with them as well. We were also able to interview his grandma and find out some fun things that we didnt' know. We were going to interview his grandpa, but time ran out and it was time to head back to Clarion. We stayed in Clarion Saturday night and left Sunday morning for Findlay, OH to visit Joe's step-dad and Sister as well as Step-brothers and their wife and fiance. We enjoyed eating dinner with them and going to ice cream at Joe's favorite ice cream place. The next morning we had breakfast with Kurt (Joe's step-dad) and then headed on our way to St. Louis. We stayed there one night with my aunt and had lots of fun playing Settler's of Catan. We were also able to stop at a cemetery where Joe's relatives are buried and see the family burial plot. The next day we headed to Denver to visit my cousins. We didn't get there until late and left early the next morning, but we were able to visit a little. We arrived home on Wednesday, October 6th. We had a wonderful time and we are so grateful to everyone who allowed us to stay with them and also helped us make the trip. We were worried about money when we headed out, but the entire way we would receive random money and we were able to arrive home without going into debt. We could see the hand of the Lord blessing us all along the way.