Monday, September 29, 2014

Wedding Pictures!

One of my closest friends from college, Sarah, asked me to be one of her bridesmaids in her wedding which was a few months ago.  I didn't actually put the pictures on my computer until just now, which made me remember that I never posted anything about the wedding!
 
So a few months ago, when I was still in PA, I drove to the Philadelphia airport to pick up another one of the bridesmaids, Kim.  Kim and I are friends as well.  It was so nice to be a part of a wedding where I was already friends with pretty much everyone in the wedding. 
Anyway, on our way back to Sarah's house in NJ, we totally got lost and were wandering around in NJ until about 2 AM...sheesh. 
But we finally made it to her house and got to sleep. 
I took this picture of Kim and I on the morning after we woke up.  We pretty much were at the house by ourselves, so we just hung out and cleaned up until it was time to help decorate the church.
 
 
 
At the church, we just helped decorate all of the tables and the reception area. And...we may have goofed off a little bit.


 
This was later, at the rehearsal dinner.


 
Anyway, these pictures are completely out of order...but I had the best time ever with the best girls ever.  
 

 
 



 
And I was only able to get one picture of the happy couple...how terrible is that?




 
It was a lovely wedding and I miss these girls a lot!  Kim is still here at college, so we are able to hang out sometimes when both of us are not working.  :) 
Well, those are just a couple of the photos of my amazing time spent in NJ being in my friends wedding. 


Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Nieces and nephews

One thing I hate about being in California is that I have missed every one of my nieces and nephews being born.  My sister Lydia just had her second baby this morning!  I realized that I never wrote a blog post about Katie's baby either.  So here is a blog post with the most recent pictures I have of my nieces and nephews, in order of age.  :)
 
 
This is Tabitha Isabella Keckler, she will be turning four in just a few months!  It is so hard to believe that so much time has passed already!  She likes to talk a lot, and she plays the piano a lot.  When I go home for Christmas, we will record a duet. 
 
 
 
I can't wait to see her again soon.
 
And this is little Abigail Hannah Keckler.  She turned two not long ago.  She is getting to be quite the talker too!  She smiles a lot and always looks happy.  I only had a few recent pictures of her from this summer.  All of the rest are from last Christmas, and she has grown a LOT since then. 

 
And this little guy...well this is Hudson Steele Wooten.  Goodness, time flies.  It seems like yesterday he was a chubby little baby...now he is a boy.  He doesn't talk very much, but makes tons of noises.  He is so active...definitely a boy. :)  He likes to throw stones, and play with the cat when he comes over to visit. 
 
 
In this picture actually, he was sitting by the porch waiting for the kitten to come back out so he could play with it. :) Hudson will be turning two very soon!

 
This little guy is Eleazar Hilkiah Keckler.  When I first got home for the summer, he always seemed to be sleeping!  But nooo...he loves to gurgle and stand up on peoples lap.  He likes to bounce a lot too.  He is a funny baby and always laughs.  He will be one in February.


 
This is Reuben Mark Tuckey.  I totally spaced it when I was posting about my new nephew.  I posted it on Facebook, but forgot to post on here.  This was his picture when he was just born on April 7th. 

 
And this picture is from this summer.  He grew up a LOT.  He is so cute and chubby.  Pictures don't really capture his personality...he raises his eyebrows all the time and looks SO cute.  He is very expressive for a baby!

 
And this cutie is the new addition to the Keckler(+Wooten+Tuckey+Caudill) family.  :)  Ella Rose Wooten was born just this morning.  She was premature, supposed to be born in November, so she is tiny.  Only 4lbs 15 ounces.  Now Hudson has a little sister!  I can't wait to see her when I go home next time. 

 
That's it for the nieces and nephews for now!  Its a tie- 3 girls-3 boys.  :)

 

 


Flight Information

My flight to California was an exciting one for sure. I had a window seat, so I had a lovely view of the sunset...however, 


I couldn't enjoy the view nearly as much as I would have liked because of the woman sitting directly behind me. Please people, when you are on a cramped plane, do not torture the person in front of you like this. I was grossed out the entire five hour flight to say the least...


But...this beautiful view driving down to the antelope valley almost made me feel all better :) 



Anyway, I am back safely in California. I have been teaching piano for three weeks now and loving every minute of it!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Late farm pictures

Right now I am back in California, but I have a lot of pictures that I forgot to post from my last few weeks in Pennsylvania.  So when Bekah was here we did tons of work.  But I had so much fun visiting with her. 
 
Right before I left, we were picking tons and tons of tomatoes every other day.  This picture is of all of the flats of tomatoes we picked in just one day.  I think it was 79 flats of them...
 
 
At my farm stand: some blackberries!

 
I thought these carrots were so cute!  They look like they are hugging :)

 
And this huge heirloom tomato is called Aunt Ruby.  It was sort of funny, because most customers see the Aunt Rubies on the tables and never want to buy them because they think they are unripe (due to their green color).
I tried one this summer, just by itself...and it was amazing!! 



And THIS bad boy was the biggest tomato of the season.  It weighed in at nearly 3 pounds...
 


 
Juan found a snake and I took a picture of it...

 
On that Saturday, I took Bekah to Hershey Park.  I hadn't been there in years!  Probably the last time I went was when I was about 9 or 10.  It was fun!



 
Anyway, those are a few of the pictures from Bekah's visit.  Soon I will be caught up and post some new pictures :) 


Thursday, September 11, 2014

Bekah and Centralia

One of my closest friends, Bekah came to visit me at my home in Pennsylvania. We pretty much worked on the farm all week, and had just a few hours in two of the days to go do some fun things. 



I took Bekah to see Gettysburg since it is so close to my home. This is me, posing with Abraham Lincoln on the square of Gettysburg.


 
When we left Gettysburg, we went to a place I have been fascinated by for years.  Ever since I was about 11, I have researched and longed to visit the abandoned town of Centralia.  Those who know me know that I am fascinated by historic places, and this was something I have wanted to do for years.  So we made the trip up that way.  It only took us about an hour and a half to get there, and where we parked, we were right in front of this cemetery.  We found out later that this is actually the newer cemetery.  The older one is behind it aways.  There is a picture below of the older one.

 
We started walking back this gravel/stone road and kept coming across similar "puddles" this size and even bigger. 

 
We found what used to be the main road into town.  It is now being overgrown

 
And due to the underground fire in the mines, the road has been cracking open.  I have seen pictures online where there is smoke billowing from the cracks, but the day we were there, we saw no smoke.

 
We sort of went off into the woods after the paved road ended suddenly. 

 
We came across a lot of junk and trash in the woods.  I found this old 7-up bottle.

 
We found part of a partially remaining tool

 
 
And what was also what used to be a coal crusher back in the 1900's





This is a shrine that I found right outside of Centralia.



Unfortunately we began running out of time before it started getting dark.  Plus it started raining a bit.
 
This is the original old cemetery
 




As far as I could tell, this is the last standing house!

 
A pretty lake nearly where we were.


 
I had sooo much fun looking through The old town of Centralia.  Next time (and there will definitely be a next time) I will make it an all day!  Looking forward to the next visit I make!