This post courtesy of "The Post"

Every week the Washington Post publishes a "Road Trip" suggestion that covers different themes all over the area. I usually read these and then cut them out in hopes of attempting them on some free weekend in the future. As it turns out, free weekends are hard to come by. A few weeks ago though, a road trip really caught my eye (See the Forest for the Treehouses in Pennsylvania) and on Friday, we drove a few hours to the Delaware Valley in Pennsylvania to try it out. For anyone who lives around here, I highly recommend this one. One of the great things about this road trip was the lack of crowds in rural PA.

Our first stop was the Tyler Arboretum. There was this fabulous exhibit of 17 unique tree houses that had been designed and built by local architects and artists. The Arboretum itself was beautiful to walk around, and it was an added bonus to climb a few tree houses along the way.

Even Amelia was brave enough to climb into this tree house that was suspended by cables.






Amelia keeping the eggs warm in this giant nest.


This was the "Scared Silly" tree house. Amelia is sitting on a little mouse that scared this elephant right up into a tree.


This tree house was called "Hanging Out" and was a grove of trees strung with hammocks. It was one of our favorites.



The birdhouse tree house.


There was also a beautiful butterfly house full of flowers and, well, butterflies.

Before...

and after.


Our next stop was Linvilla Orchards. They had a great market with lots of delicious fresh fruits and veggies, as well as a bakery with home-made pies that looked so good. You could pick your own fruit and peaches were available when we were there. Amelia was pretty exhausted and it was really hot outside so we decided to just buy some peaches in the market. (We would later learn that Amelia was actually sick and had a fever.)


We made a quick stop at the most fashionable greenhouse I've ever seen. Terrain at Styers is a new garden center/greenhouse cafe/landscaping service owned by Urban Outfitters. It was really beautiful.


Our final stop was Longwood Gardens. We will definitely be making a return trip. These gardens were amazing and much larger than we imagined. We ran out of time and daylight. There are several different gardens and fountains and the largest conservatory I have ever seen containing some amazing flowers and plants. We were just in awe as we wandered through the gardens and the conservatory. There were also some amazing tree houses on display here.




Amelia and camel at the Italian water garden.


On the trail through the meadow.



The topiary garden. Fabulous.


This tree house was made to resemble a Norwegian church. It smelled really good too.




This was an adirondack-style tree house. These massive trees were growing right up through the roof.



The Birdhouse.


This was part of the Children's Garden inside the conservatory which was so great. There were all kinds of water features for kids to play in. (Most of the fountains throughout the main gardens have strategically-placed flower beds surrounding them to keep people out.) We need to take Amelia back when she is feeling better because she loves playing in fountains. She often requests to go to the garden center at Lowes just to play in the display fountains.


Amelia trying so hard to enjoy the fountains despite her sickness.


Inside the conservatory...who knew you could grow flat nectarine trees.


The illuminated fountain show, set to Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony.

Deep fried demolition!

On a whim, we decided to head out to a county fair last night to check out a demolition derby and enjoy some food and various livestock (and food made from livestock). The fair was in Loudon County out in the country and it was so beautiful there.


As soon as we entered the fairgrounds, there was an immediate smell of things being fried. We tried the fried cheesecake and it was exactly as you would imagine. We didn't attempt the fried bologna sandwiches or the fried pickles.


There was a corn on the cob eating contest and a petting zoo and a lot of big trucks.



Amelia was just barely tall enough to ride the little roller coaster and we had a good laugh watching her get whiplash. She was loving it, we swear.


Please note the scary looking ride operator in the background. Most of the ride operators looked like this guy. We were pretty sure they picked them up off the street somewhere.


And who doesn't love a good demolition derby? Good fun for the whole family. They even had a special "heat" with just minivans.

Weekly shout-out.

This week's shout-out goes to my friend Kristilyn for crafting this fabulous gift for Amelia.

Don't blink or you'll miss it. (it being Monticello)

We were able to have one last evening with the Webbs before their move to Monticello, Utah. Amelia and Emma had fun playing while the truck was being loaded. (They insisted they were working.)

You guys will be greatly missed.






p.s. Phil, you truly are the Hope of America...

Emma made this mess.

Sadly, Amelia can no longer attempt to blame her friend Emma for, well, most anything. Our dear friends the Webbs have headed West and are most likely on I-80 somewhere with two happy sleeping children in the back seat. We hope.

Amelia can't seem to keep friends around for too long. Her good friend Ethan moved last summer and then her cousin Anna, and now Emma. Of course, Ben and I have also lost some great friends with each of these moves.

Amelia and Emma became friends instantly and have been inseparable ever since. Sometimes when Amelia would get mad, she would very firmly state "Mom, you need to take me to Emma's house." Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Amelia and Emma...

Some things are best left a mystery.

Last August Ben and I went to Minneapolis for a friend's wedding and I took the opportunity to show Ben around the city and the U of M campus and take him to all my old hangouts. We stopped by my old house (known as the "treehouse" to all my friends) and this is what I found:

I had been expecting to see some version of this:

It was surprising and sad and I wondered what had happened to the treehouse. I had shared the upstairs apartment with two good friends and had some great memories of this place. The ceiling had collapsed one night in my roommate's bedroom so I figured the place wasn't going to last forever.

But my old roommate recently filled me in on the demise of the treehouse. Apparently, it burned to the ground a few years ago and the people that were living in my upstairs apartment didn't make it out. How terrible is that? So yes, some things are probably best left a mystery.

Thoroughly Modern Millie

We put Amelia to bed the other night and she came out about 10 minutes later with a few new accessories. She reminded us of a 1920s flapper. It was hard to send such a cute face back to bed.

The Squirrel of Our Discontent

This is my arch nemesis:


He has taken up residence in our yard for several months now. He is frequently found in my flower beds, eating up all my flowers or digging holes in the dirt and making a huge mess. He is unusually fat and yes, he is missing his tail. I have a theory about this squirrel. I believe he was raised by bunnies and in an effort to fit in, he chewed off his own tail. He hops like a bunny and destroys plants like a bunny. We think he may be taking orders from this guy, who is also a permanent fixture in our yard: