Punxsy!

Punxsutawney, PA is one of the greatest places in the US of A. And this picture here is a little taste of what's to come! Clever eh? Eggs, bacon...taste? Lol to myself.

Let me give you a little background on the place. Punxsy is the official home of Groundhog's Day, and every year on February 2nd, the tiny town is flooded with THOUSANDS of visitors anxiously awaiting the weather prediction for the next six weeks! So obviously, the town kind of thrives on and revolves around the star of the holiday, who just so happens to be named:

And since Janet grew up just outside of Punxsy, I like to tell people that my Philip was named after the groundhog. And perhaps the only way he agreed to take the picture below is if I promised to never tell people that again, which I kind of haven't lived up to my end of the bargain on, because that coincidence is just too awesome! The town is very much dedicated to this blessed event, and has very cute groundhog themed things all over! Such as this adorable clock: The window painting:

The groundhog zoo:

And my personal favorite which happened to be the 30+ giant ceramic groundhog statues that are painted to coordinate with their surroundings! Such as the dollar phil outside of the bank:

I don't remember what or where this one was, but I was kind of obsessed with taking pictures of them whenever I could:

And as you could probably guess, Philip wasn't thrilled about or willing to be in all of these pictures. But lucky for me, I had our nephew Max to step in whenever possible!

Do you see the tiny french fries in his hand? In front of McDonald's? I love it!

The wizard in front of the library:

The fix it guy in front of the hardware store:

The fireman in front of the fire station:

And unfortunately the more giddy I got about these groundhogs, the less attractive I looked in these pictures. Proof:

And again:

And my favorite! New York and Punxsy all rolled into one? Amazing!

After running from statue to statue on main street, we took a five minute drive to Big Run, where we would kick off the reunion, and started out the first of the hugs and excited hellos when we saw Philip's aunt Nancy!

And then we got the official tour of Big Run, which included the house that Janet grew up in:

And Philip, JoDee and Nancie at the cemetery where a lot of their family rests in peace.

And this is Joe and Rose's backyard, which had the most amazing old barn I've ever seen, and I could have stared at and taken pictures of all day!

And before we headed into camp for the reunion, we made one last touristy stop, which was at Gobbler's Knob, where Groundhog's Day actually takes place and just so happens to be the weather capital of the world!

I love my Punxsy Phils!

Some very classy groundhog artwork that was gifted a few years ago:

And this is where the magic takes place! Phil the groundhog chills in the tree stump until the appointed time that they knock on the door and summon his expertise on what to expect from the weather for the next six weeks!

Like I said, Punxsy is the cutest place on the planet, and I was so excited to get a t-shirt as well as a few other key items at the gift shop, and am now going to be the weirdy at work who celebrates this kind of obscure holiday a little too enthusiastically by bringing in groundhog shaped cookies (I bought a cookie cutter) and wears her shirt underneath (or perhaps on top) of her scrubs and talks about Phil all day long! Seriously, I love it that much. It was seriously the best kick off to our reunion, and I can't wait to get new Groundhog's Day/Punxsy paraphenalia every time we go!

Next up, reunion! And it isn't even going to take me a month to post it, like it might have for this post...whoopsies. :) Stay tuned!

And one more... :) Gotta love it!

Erie, PA

Please prepare yourself for ridiculous amounts of posts and pictures to come. Our trip was amazing to say the least, and definitely one that will be repeated in the future.

This year the mission of our trip was threefold, the first of which was to meet Philip's parents in Erie, where they have been serving their mission for the past almost two years. We flew into Baltimore, a mere 6 hours away, and then road tripped through Pennsylvania. And now for the pictures:

ERIE OR BUST!!!

I was glad to see that Arizona isn't the only place that people paint classy murals on their cars. Indeed it was welcoming, I seriously couldn't get over how pretty and green everything was!

And then late that night we finally arrived at Phil and Janet's apartment, and let me tell you, this boy was happy to see his mama. It was a very happy reunion.

The next day, Phil and Janet took us to a few of their favorite spots in Erie, the first of which was this amazing little diner/icecream shop called Sarah's, where you obviously had to take a picture with the people-sized hotdog.

The reason for this stop was to get the orange sherbet and vanilla swirl cones that were in a word, perfection. And who doesn't love icecream at 10 AM?

We then were shown Lake Erie, where we all waded and sweat, since it was a mere 400 degrees outside with 8000% humidity.

Yay! Together again!

Philip's sisters are always nice enough to have a girls picture that I'm included in. :)

Janet loving on her boy.

Philip and cute nephews, Desmond & Garrison

Cute nieces, Jocelyn, Aniston, Janet

It was after this day that I decided I would no longer attempt to do my hair in Pennsylvania.

Jocelyn found some sort of shell thing that her mom, Michelle kept telling her was a dead person's finger that was floating in the lake. And I laughed every time. And from the looks of their faces, I think that Janet and Kate believed her.

Max and Philip

Rockwell, Jolie, and her crack

Desy, Garry, Maxy and Phil

After we had all sweat bucket loads, we went to Quaker Stake and Lube for wings. It was there that Julia met up with us and surprised us all, since she hadn't originally planned on coming! Yet another happy hug.

The wings were delicious, and the company was delightful.

The rest of the day consisted of going to a chocolate shop, driving around Erie, hanging out with the Oneders (false, no oneders sightings took place), and then that night a giant party. Phil and Janet's ward hosted a huge open house where all the people that they met and loved from Erie could come and say their final goodbyes and meet all of their kids and grandkids. It was so great to hear about how loved Elder and Sister Lindblom were and how much they helped, which almost made us feel bad for wanting to bring them back to Mesa with us! Not bad enough though. And word has it that Phil and Janet made it back safely to Mesa just yesterday, hip hip hooray!

Next stop/post: Punxy. Be prepared for your mind to be blown. :)

Trips

I bought these today for our plane ride tomorrow, but accidentally just ate 1/3 of them.

Deeeelicious.

And yes, you read correctly, plane ride. We are heading to the East Coast tomorrow for a reunion and vacation. I've been looking forward to this for seriously years. So I figured that since I'm about to take a new batch of bajillions of pictures, I'll share the last several hundred I took, that being the weekend trip to Carlsbad, CA with Sara's family.

Um, remember how I take "California or Bust!" pictures whenever I drive there? Not as fun when driving by yourself. :(

And basically the rest of the pictures are of Sara's boys, which is most likely only entertaining if you're related to us.

Reesey winking at me right after he woke up one morning...

Seriously, he did not inherit the Jones wake up face, or cranky wake up attitude.

Nate, on the other hand, is a Jones.

Watching small children eat small doughnuts is a new favorite hobby of mine.

And after much prodding, I got a smirk out of him.

At the beach, I could not believe how much sand these kids could get to stick to their heads and faces.

And perhaps I bought Oakley a 5 pack of wifebeaters, because they are kind of adorable on 3 year olds. And he was the cutest thing ever at the beach, it made me want to birth a 3 year old of my own to take on vacation with me.

Picture courtesy of Oakley:

Also Oakley's work...

Not included are the 17 he took that are of the ground, his shirt, his teeth, etc.

And have I mentioned I love Nater Tater?

Because I do. A lot. In fact, I love all of those kids a lot.

Being an aunt is my favorite.

See you in a week or more.