Oh Little Town

The funny thing about moving around when you are a kid is that people sort of lose track of where you are from and where you go.  I know this is hard to believe for my nieces generation when everyone has a cell phone and facebook, but there really was a time when someone moved that was the last you would see or hear of them forever.  For me there was Riverview, Apollo Beach, Boyette Springs, Boyertown, Topton and Little Rock all before heading to college.
My Florida friends thought that I disappeared, my Pennsylvania friends didn't know where I came from and Little Rock, well they hardly knew the girl who showed up for a year and then ran off to another state for college.
My point in all of this is the time I spent in Topton, PA spanning 7th - half of 11th grade.  With a few thousand people and I mean less than 2,000 and one building that housed the middle school and high school I could not get out of town fast enough.  Plain and simple Topton was not the place that I was meant to be.  The town was so small and everyone knew one another that I would literally be grounded for something that I had done before I got home from that said activity.
With all of that being said I stayed away from Topton for a long time, but Grant and I decided that when we had children we would make our way back to friends and family.  We have spent the last few years living our promise and traveling back to PA time and again.  Grant says that Topton is like a little Norman Rockwell painting and I can't argue about the views.
We try to go north in the Fall when possible because the truth is there is no place like the north when the Fall foliage is nothing short of spectacular when timed right of course, activities involving pumpkins can be found on every corner and everyone just seems happy to be sipping their hot cider.
Don't worry, I'm not packing my boxes to move north anytime soon as this Floridian doesn't want to live anywhere that there isn't a palm tree within sight or the beach being more than an hour away, but I did want to share the beauty that I didn't realize I was living amongst for my teenage years.

Late...

There are a few things that I have learned over my years of being a part of the Adam family and one of them is to not be late for church.  In my last post I mentioned Penelope sleeping all day Saturday when we arrived to PA.  What I didn't mention was that P then didn't sleep at all on Saturday night which meant Sunday morning come real early.  We did it though, got up early and headed over the mountain to New Gosh for early church and breakfast with Nana.  We literally pulled into the lot with three minutes to spare, ran up the stairs and WAIT they are already talking...
We file into the pew behind Nana and hope that she hasn't noticed that we are late.  We get through the service, head to breakfast and finally get the news that they started 5 minutes early this morning.  Are you kidding me?  I spent the last hour sweating over the fact that I was late and I really wasn't.  Ha, Ha better get up earlier next time.
We had a good breakfast and then headed back to Nana's house for funny cake and some family time.  P found the one person who was allowed to hold her which was Aunt Delores and I devoured some cake.

It's Topton Time

Most of you know that we take an annual trip to PA.  We like to take our trip in the Fall, but that doesn't always work out for us schedule wise, this year it did.  We spend an entire week hopping from one family house to the next and managing to travel from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in 8 days.  There is only one word for this trip - exhausting!

 This year we flew to Philly and drove to Topton just in time for the annual parade.  I remember as a teen this being one of the best nights.  We would walk around, run into friends (pre cell phones), ate funnel cake and Tony's pizza, laughed at the drunks and pretty much did everything but watch the parade.  So imagine my surprise when I found out just how long the parade really was...hours.
Adelaide had the best time with her cousins.  There was volleyball and tag in the front yard, candy during the parade and lots of attention from family.  Unless you are from one of these little towns you don't realize what a big deal this kind of night is.  There are blankets and chairs put out along the parade route a week in advance.  Lucky for us we have a family that lives on the prime parade route so we get to play around until last minute when the parade starts.
A had to be the luckiest little girl because she had two boys jumping in front of everyone for candy and then giving it all to her.  However Penelope was a different story.  Little P was teething so she wouldn't let us put her down, she was whiny and exhausted from the travels.  Maybe next year she will have a better time.

Look at all of that family.

Look closely and you will see my alma mater in the back, no I was not in the band.

 What is the best thing to do after a night of Halloween fun?  Pumpkins of course!  Aunt Jackie spent the day with us looking for pumpkins, playing games and grabbing a quick bite at the local diner.  There were animals to feed and Grant has a taste of "the best root beer ever" originating in Kutztown.

Aunt Jackie you are crazy, that can't be a pumpkin.

Please let me out of here Mom, this is ridiculous.

 One last stop for the day was a place I haven't stepped foot in in about 15 years - Brandywine Heights gym.  When I was there it was the HS gym and now it is where we watched Madison play MS Volleyball.  A few things have changed in Topton, but not much.