Virginia Beach

One benefit of my job is that I often travel to Virginia and stay within 20min of Virginia Beach, VA.  So this year, while I was on business travel, Casey and Hailey came to visit me!

This was Hailey's first trip to a ocean beach!  She had the greatest time playing in the sand, waves, and looking for sand crabs that you can dig up when the ocean waves go out.

Casey loved the fact that we go to go out and eat at one of her favorite (and gluten-free) restaurants, P.F. Chang's.  Hailey was less impressed with their food, even though their chicken nuggets for kiddos were delicious!

Below are a few photos from VA Beach.

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Baltimore Aquarium

Casey and I took Hailey and Tyler to the Baltimore Aquarium in the inner harbor.  It was Hailey and Tyler's first visit to the aquarium.  Casey and I were shore that they the kiddos were going to have a great time seeing all the sea and wild life!  Well that last statement was about 65% true.

Hailey had a great time and wanted to see everything, but Tyler didn't want to walk, didn't want to be held, and didn't want anyone telling him what to do.  He was running into people, telling people to move, and generally not a happy camper.  I guess it is to be expected when you coupe up a 2 1/2 year hold for a 3 hour drive.

Anyhow, once we got away from the crowded areas, Tyler seemed to do better.  He liked seeing the fishies swimming around and around in the huge circular fish tank, and liked the turtles in the rain forest displays.  Below are a few photos from our trip.

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Hands-on House Children's Museum

Casey and I took Hailey and Tyler to the Hands-on House Children's Museum in Lancaster, PA.  We had a lot of fun visiting this time, it was a weekday and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  As you can see below, Hailey enjoyed face painting.  Tyler enjoyed make believe land and the factory.

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Virginia's Spring Wine Festival

Casey attended the Virginia Spring Wine Festival with her cousin, Makenzie.  They had a great time.  Casey purchased an assortment of wine during the festival, seen below.

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Hopefully Casey will invite me along next time she goes. ;)

Pittsburgh Visit

Tyler, Hailey, Casey, and I all went to Pittsburgh early in the summer to visit our good friends Andi and Rob.  Andi was having her wedding shower, Casey and Hailey attended.

While we were in Pittsburgh, we decided to check out some of the sites.  First was the Pittsburgh Zoo, it was a very nice zoo, but it was pretty hot that day, so hot that most of the animals were just lounging around. Tyler and Hailey loved the Elephants (there were some baby ones too)!

Secondly, we visited the Pittsburgh Children's Museum.  This place was awesome!  They had a huge exhibit associated with the Mr. Roger's show.  They also had several industrial exhibits; which I think were the favorites of the kids.  We spent about  an hour at the museum before heading to Andi's shower.

We finished our trip to Pittsburgh with dinner at the P.F. Chang's, yum!

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Jules Shepard Gluten-Free Cooking Demo

Tonight I attended a Gluten-Free Cooking demo class by Jules Shepard.  It was sponsored and organized by the State College Celiac Support Group.  The turnout was pretty good; I think there were like 30 people at the event, many familiar faces as well as many new faces.  One woman made the trip in from Pittsburgh for the demo!

Jules did a great job and showed how easy it can be to make great tasting gluten free foods.  Jules brought already made items (day before) and also showed how to make each of these items live during the demo.  This was great because we could sample each item a day after it was made... as many celiacs know, most baked goods don't taste that great the day after you make them.  Her items were all very delicious that she had made he day before.

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So you are probably asking yourself, what did she prepare / demo?  Well she demonstrated how to make bread in a bread machine, pierogies, graham (like)  crackers, and finally a two-layer birthday cake.  All of which were very good.  The graham crackers were the best gluten-free ones I had ever had, light and crisp!

It was also nice to hear her talk about how you could vary the recipes to get different results... like how to make ravioli using almost the same recipe as the pierogies(for the dough).  I also enjoyed hearing about bread machines and makes me want to bust mine out of the closet again to start making breads.

At the end of the evening, she had a raffle and the group attendees could win one of three items: cake batter, graham cracker dough, or pierogi dough.  I won the cake batter, so I will be making that tomorrow night!  I also bought one her books: Nearly Normal Cooking for Gluten-Free Eating.  I definitely enjoyed the demonstration and encourage those of you that are near one of Jules' demonstration locations to attend!

Thanks to Natures Pantry for providing water and the space for the demonstration.  Thanks to Karen from the State College Celiac Support Group for initiating and organizing this event.

Butterflies: They are here!

Yesterday, the butterflies emerged from their transformation.  Hailey was really excited, and wanted to release them outside.  We released them in the back yard and took a few photos.

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