72nd Annual Mountain State Forest Festival

We are back from the Forest Festival and had a great time. Even though Lenny, Nate, Dominic, and I all got sick a few days before we had to leave. Luckily Brooke never did get sick and the rest of us were better by the time we left. Dominic had to work and wasn't able to go with us.

Kristi and I and all six of our kids stayed at dad's house again this year. It was a lot of fun. Aleah and Kiana were a huge help with my kids as always.

Thursday morning I met Mom and Ernie at Mom's house and we followed each other to Elkins. It is always a beautiful drive there especially this time of year. Later that evening we all took shifts of watching my kids so that we can go watch JB (a friend of the family) play at the Kissel Stop in town. It's a short walk from Dad's house. If you want to hear a talented musician, you need to hear JB sing and play sometime. As soon as he sends me a link to his website, I will post it on my blog. He really is amazing. When Dad and I got back from watching JB, Kristi and her kids were there. Lenny was super excited and all of them were wound up.

The weather was perfect all weekend. It was cooler which was nice and seemed appropriate for a Fall festival. Friday was a fun day to walk through the park to see the exhibits and then head to the carnival for rides. Lenny and Anthony-Glen had a great time riding the rides together. Nathan liked them too but Brooke wasn't too thrilled. After watching them for a while, Kristi and I (and Brooke and Nathan) went with Aleah and Kiana to watch them on the rides. Mom stayed with Lenny and Anthony-Glen and took them on more rides. I think she had a great time with the two of them.


I love how Anthony-Glen is holding Brooke's hand. You can tell she doesn't like the ride too much from the look on her face.


Again this year, my kids slept through the fireman's parade. They were awake and running around until the parade started and they all fell asleep. That's hard to imagine especially since Dad lives on the main street where the parade goes down and the room we were sleeping in is on that side of the street. They must have been really tired.

Saturday was the grand feature parade when we get to see everyone. We even got to see my cousin Jason's new little baby girl, Autumn. She's very adorable! Nathan was so tired by the time of the parade that he only saw a little of it before he fell asleep. Nathan still caught a frizbee from Bob Evans while he was sleeping. Okay, maybe Aunt Kristi placed it on his lap to make it look like he caught something. Brooke is too nosey to fall asleep. She really enjoyed the parade and got some nice little red cheeks from the sun. Lenny was able to see Izzy again this year and sat with her for the parade. If you saw my post about the Forest Festival last year, there is a picture of them holding hands walking through the park. Izzy is JBs daughter and she is a very cute little girl.

Saturday night Kristi and I headed out with Ernie to go watch dad play music with his band. He plays keyboard for this band and it was so nice being able to see him play. Dad is another very talented musician. This was only the third time that he played with this band but you never would have known it. He is very good! Mom stayed with the kids. Thanks Mom!


By Sunday the kids were so overly tired and it was time to go home. We had a great time as we always do. And Dad probably spent the next few hours cleaning his house after we left. Kristi thinks that's his favorite part of a visit--cleaning up after we leave. :-)

Here are some pictures of the kids that we took in the park at various places.

Lenny and Kiana.


Nathan with one of his many balloons. He loved playing with them. Somehow they mysteriously kept getting slow leak holes in them. Thanks Kiana. Yes, it's bad that we did that to him but we were afraid it was going to pop because he would roll on them and act silly. And yet somehow he always got another one.

I LOVE this picture of Anthony-Glen. He has the cutest biggest smile with adorable dimples. It's so cute because you can ask him any kind of a question like "Did you have fun on the rides?" He will just say "Yeah" and then shrug his little shoulders and give you that cute smile. He's so sweet.

Lenny and Anthony-Glen were climbing trees.


Aleah and Anthony-Glen.

Brookie playing peek-a-boo around a tree. Check out Nate in the back with his balloon.

Here is dad with all of his grandkids. Nathan wasn't too happy about getting his picture taken. I didn't get a single picture of mom with the kids. Sorry mom.