Author: Paula Pare

and they love their friends too.
Even though we call them cousins – they are very good friends.  I hope they always have each other.

Side Note:  After I took this pic with Garret and Emily.  Garret leaned over to Tony and said “I think she likes me”,  We called him Chill Will after this.  LOL

I love these pictures.  They sure do love their family.

This was taken at Tanner’s 11th bday party.  ‘The boys made him a Minecraft cake.

He has decided that he is old enough to NOT order from the kids menu.  Except, when he does order from the adult menu…he eats about a quarter of it.  :/  I told him if he falls in the age group for the restaurant’s kid menu….then he has to order from the kids menu.  I wish he would stop trying to grow up so fast.  🙁

I would like to point out that we don’t eat out often and he has only eaten from the adult menu once.  All other times he has been told no.

and it was a good one!

My sister and I took the boys to Tree Trekkers in Frederick to do some ariel adventures and some zip lines.

We had a blast.  Michelle and I kept up with the boys for a few of the courses and then I guess we were too slow and they took off for the higher and much harder ones.  While they did the really hard blue course (they had to do this one before they would let the boys do the double black diamond), Michelle and I did the zip line course again….which we loved!

I would def. go back again and do more of the harder ones.  The boys are already asking when can they go back.

Day 3 was an all day nasty cold downpour!  Secretly we loved it.  I think everyone was happy to have a little down time before we headed out to meet Bob, Ky and Nicholas at Escape This in Frederick.  We did the Mob Boss and I guess 3rd time was the charm for me and we actually got out with 11 mins to spare.  The boys and I did one last year for their 10th bday, but missed getting out by just a few mins, so they were very excited this time and can’t wait to do more!  Afterwards we all met Grand-maman, Julie and MAC for dinner.  It was a GREAT day.  🙂

Day 4 was another slow start, but Tony and I were able to get a few things done around the house and then the boys were able to catch up on their school work.  In the afternoon we took the boys to Tilt at the Valley Mall and pretty much had the place to ourselves.  We had a BLAST.  I love that place almost as much as the boys.  We had  great time and Broc even managed to win 5K tickets in the Claw game.  Afterwards we headed to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Hagerstown, House of Kobe.  We ate too much sushi and not enough steak.  🙂

Tomorrow is a big day and our last day of Pare Staycation.

Today we went to a place I have been wanting to check out for a very long time.  Now it was not the one I was thinking of, but it was still pretty cool!  The one I wanted to see has some really cool graffiti.  This one did too, but only at the actual tunnel.  The road leading up was pretty boring and way too many graphic (teenager) type stuff.  I had to explain a few things to the boys.  :/

Below is a little information on them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandoned_Pennsylvania_Turnpike

The boys and I climbed the hill next to the entrance and went inside to take a look around.  The big turbines were some of the stuff we found while exploring.  Afterwards, we walked through the tunnel and then back.  It gets very dark inside once you get to the middle!!!

Hopefully this will be another adventure we get to do soon!

http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/Visiting-Centralia.htm

 

Since our 2nd try at going to Florida was foiled again (this time by Hurricane Eta), we decided to cancel the trip to Florida all together and doing a family staycation.

Day one was spent in Harper’s Ferry.  The boys loved it!  While we did not get to see everything; we did manage to cover a good 90% of it.  I wanted to cover some more of the trails, but we only made it as far as the foot bridge.  I was excited though about seeing Jefferson Rock and the cemetery at the top of the hill.  It was really neat and so was St. Peter’s Roman Catholic church.

The boys and I were in awe of the cemetery and we literally fell in love with the love locks on the bridge.  So neat.  But I think the boys favorite thing was the John Brown Wax Museum.  It was actually really good and the girl at the front counter knew who Ever Rise was.  🙂

Stay tuned for more pics from our vacation this week.

   

I love Halloween.  Besides Christmas, it is my favorite.  I love the decorations, dressing up with the boys, trick or treating and celebrating!!

The boys decided to go as Slappy and Pumpkin Head from Goosebumps, so I went as one of the witches from GB2.

I spent a good 2 week or so working on Broc’s costume and Tony worked really hard all week to finish Broc’s Pumpkin head.  He made it by using a balloon and paper mache.  Finishing it off with some airbrushing.

I made my witch’s head out of a dog cone!  Ran string along the widest part, cut some slits and then pulled it tight to give it more of a circular shape.  Then threw in some green glow sticks.

We were a HIT!  A lot of people knew who we were and even took our picture!

and we have another one! Gman has decided to give the trumpet a try.  He has his 1st class on Monday!!