Enjoying our Hometown Visit

We just finished our second month of this summer’s visit to Pittsburgh, our hometown. It is great to be home and spend time with our family and friends. We are keeping very busy this summer and have been able to catch up with many more people than we did last year. I thought I would share a few of the activities we have been up too.

We finished up all of our routine healthcare, dental and eye appointments early in our second month here except that Tim was still having some issues with his foot. He was dealing with quite a bit of pain from Plantar Fasciitis. He wanted to return to his foot doctor in Zanesville that he really liked, but traveling that far aggravated the foot pain. So initially he tried handling it himself with a brace he bought on Amazon and doing stretching exercises at home but it was still very painful so he found a local Podiatrist and has had appointments every week for the past month. After a series of shots he is starting to feel better. That is really good because it really hurt when driving which would not be good when we start traveling again. He has one more appointment this week for the last shot and then hopefully with wearing the boot and continual stretching, he will be fine when we leave next month. So those appointments took up a bit of our time.

While Tim has been recuperating, I was busy planning a baby shower for our daughter Katie. Our first grandchild is due December 27 so I wanted to do the shower before we left. Kim and Whitney helped me with the shower planning and we had a beautiful day this past Sunday for the event. Since the weather was so nice, we were able to be outside at the venue, Tree Pittsburgh. It is a beautiful space along the Allegheny River in the Lawerenceville section of Pittsburgh. We had the shower late morning so served breakfast, had a mimosa bar and even had a Coffee Trailer there for specialty coffees. Everything turned out perfectly and the specialty coffee’s were a hit.

I found this great paper that had access to online templates so made the invitations on my computer. The books were a great idea. She loved all of the books that she got.

I was pretty busy for a couple of weeks making these Bassinets for shower favors. Yes, it is a girl!

Coffee from Latte Lane. Love the vintage trailer she uses.

The event space all decorated for the party.

Whitney made the cupcakes and muffins. Beautiful and delicious!

Food and drink set up. The mimosa’s were fantastic. I never had it with cranberry juice before but I liked it better than with orange juice.

Kim, Me, Katie (Mama to be), Laurie (Jon’s Mom) and Whitney.

Jon surprised Katie with flowers at the end of the shower. Great shot of the expectant parents.

In between doctor appointments and shower planning, I managed to get in a couple visits to my hometown, North Apollo, PA. I met up with my friend Susan for a few visits. Our father’s went to school together and our mother’s became friends so we have known each other since we were babies. It is amazing that even though her family moved away when she was in grade school, we kept in touch our entire lives. It helped that she came back to town to stay with her grandfather every summer as we were growing up. It was great catching up and enjoying lunch from some of our favorite childhood places.

During one visit, we took a walk along the Roaring Run Trail in Apollo. It is part of the Rails to Trails system and provides a great place to walk under the trees along the river. We highly enjoyed the walk and I am hoping we can find time to do it again before I leave. It is convenient that the cemetery where my parents are buried is on the way back from Apollo to the campground so I stop there on my way home.

A veteran’s memorial near the start of the trail.

Susan taking a picture of me along the trail.

My brother and sister in law do a great job with the flowers at the cemetery.

It is hard to believe that they have been gone this long.

Mountain Top Campground has a Blue Grass Band once a month so we have been enjoying those shows from our campsite. We face the field and stage area so can stay on our site around the campfire and enjoy the music. This past month, our friends Kevin and MaryAnn joined us for dinner and then stayed for the show. It was a warm day with a cool evening so great for a campfire, catching up and enjoying music. In addition to the music, Mountain Top is known for great sunrises and sunsets. Tim got a couple shots of both recently. So beautiful!

When we aren’t relaxing at the campground, we go into Pittsburgh a few times a week and spend time with family and friends. We have had enjoyable gatherings at a few restaurants that weren’t crowded; once even felt like we had a private room. Definitely a good way to catch up with everyone. I hope we can see a few more people over the next month before we leave. We do have a few more events over the next couple weekends so look for updates on those in the next blog.

Lunch at Cheesecake Factory with Whitney, Ian and Katie in our private room. Tim doesn’t like to be in the pictures so he is hiding:)

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