Apple Picking with a Surprise Ending!

Other than having a horrible case of poison ivy, (first time ever, by the way, in my entire life), the day was delightful... (well, sort of)

P.S. Is there such a thing as an itching orgasm? You know what I mean, right?-- when it feels so darn good to scratch that you almost go out of your mind. I've had several of those lately.

We went with the Atkinsons to Solebury Orchards...

to pick my most favorite apples of all time....

Look at the size of this guy! I can't even get my whole hand around it's girth...

The best part of the trip was the fresh apple cider at the end...

and cider donuts...

We said our goodbyes, and headed home for a laid back Friday night...

Brian and I were relaxing in the living room while the kids played with the neighbors when all of a sudden, I started feeling pulling pains in my lower abdomen and then sharp stabbing pains on my right side...

I thought that it might be a side effect from the prednisone that I had started taking for the poison ivy...

The pain continued to increase until I had no choice but to have Brian take me into the emergency room...

Fortunately, my neighbor, Michelle, was able to come stay with the kids...

NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I EXPERIENCED SUCH PAIN!!!

I'm talking NOT EVEN WITH LABOR!!!!

I seriously thought I was going to die! I started saying my goodbyes to Brian, and crazy talking from the morphine drip. I'm sure I gave those nurses a lot of good material to discuss...

After a cat scan, the mystery was solved!

I had a kidney stone and it was almost ready to come out...

At 1:15am, we finally left the hospital, (still vomitting I might add), but thankfully, homeward bound. After I got home, Brian spent the next hour and a half searching for an all night pharmacy.

And then, the next morning, this little *&%$# was delivered...(the dark one) caught in a strainer...

weighing less than a gram...

We're naming him either "Stony" or "Bastard"...

I decided to compare it in size to a mustard seed and a grain of rice...

It's almost the same size as a mustard seed...

I can't believe that something so small could bring on so much pain...

And there you have it...

One more thing to chalk up on my list of things I've done in my life...

P.S. I could have done without this one!

***Can you empathize or sympathize with my kidney stone?

Summer recap

I just never had the time to blog over the summer.

It seems that I bit off more than I could chew...

(lawn care, garden care, canning, cleaning, hosting of playdates and rarely receiving reciprocation, chickens, ducks, rats, cats, dinners, etc.)

I recently read a post from Jill that mentioned how pleasing it was to her to have been such a diligent documenter...I'm very envious and it frustrates me to no end that I got behind--again!

I'm feeling the need to quickly recap some of the summer's happenings...(for posterity's sake)

So here it goes...

Jake's team, the Rivercats, won the Warrington township 10 year old baseball championship ...

We went to Hershey Park


Ellie turned 6 and we celebrated by taking Reilly, Emalee and Ellie to Build-a-Bear (AKA "drain-your-bank-account")



We dressed up as cows for a free dinner at Chik-fil-A...
(does this seem slightly desperate and pitiful to you)
(Brian is anti anything costume, so he had to actually pay for his meal...! I can't believe he wouldn't just strap on a tail or a cow nose just to be a team player)

Reilly had her end of the year dance recital...(Here she is along with Michelle Pond)

Reilly crossed the bridge into Brownies!

A big surprise was delivered...

...and it was our new chicken coop! This might have been one of the biggest events of the whole summer...

We said goodbye to our dear friends, Rob and Heather...

(They moved to Utah)

I am crushed.

We went to Palmyra, New York to see the Hill Comorah pageant...

Friends from our ward, the Neilsons, participated in it...Here the kids are posing with Craig, er...I mean "King Noah"...

It was such a wonderful production...

We went to the visitors center while we were there...

and went to the Sacred Grove the next morning...

then it was on to Niagara Falls...(the only down side was that we stayed on the New York side which was very run down)

The next time we go, we'll make sure we have passports and stay on the Canada side...)

Check out this rainbow!

a view from the boat tour we took (Maid of the Mist)

we were soaked after taking a walking tour under some of the falls...

a view from our garden BEFORE the drought hit...(and before the *#! groundhog ate every morsel of our corn!)

Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to Butler, Pa to my mom's house...

while we were there, we got to visit with my great aunt Evelyn...

We met up with her, my second cousins Jan and Debbie for a picnic in Prescaile (near Erie)...

Paul, and my sisters Katie and Nella and I (along with Reilly, Ellie and Josie) went to a regatta at Moraine State Park to see a hot air balloon launch...

It was so interesting to watch the process of how these enormous balloons are inflated!

And then it was on to King Cone where there was much rejoicing in the land!

The Butler Farm Show was another highlight of our trip!

It was so much fun having everyone there together...

My sister, Joanna and her husband Stephan were visiting from Denmark...

We all gorged ourselves on fried veggies, fried pickles, steak sandwiches, fries and good old fashioned lemonade....

tea parties were had...

and sprinklers were out in full force..

Joanna and Stephan hosted a danish dinner one night...

Recipe for an authentic danish dog...

1 toasted hot dog bun, and a hot dog with remoulade sauce, spicy brown mustard, onions, fried onions, and pickles...

Yum!

Reilly "assisted" in the vet office with Papa Paul and Katie...

We managed to have a family picture taken...

My mom made an icecream sandwich cake to celebrate the summer birthdays--

(Ellie, Stephan, Jojo, and Seth all have birthdays in the summer)

The last night we were there, we had a big bonfire...

I'm pretty sure this was not environmentally safe as my brother was throwing huge pieces of furniture, metal and plastics into the flames...

The heat was so intense, I thought at one point our faces were going to burn off!

My siblings...

(top middle--Seth; top right--Joanna; bottom left--Nella; and bottom right--Katie)

It was good to have everyone together again...It's always a little chaotic, but we always have a lot of laughs...

I'm glad the summer just about over...I'm ready to be in a routine again and to have a few hours to myself each day. I experienced a whole lot of "Smotherhood" this summer and just never really felt like I could catch my breath.