Moore Thankful in Pennsylvania, November 2013

Our sweet granddaughter, Madison, returned home to her family in Pennsylvania from her mission to Anaheim, California, on Tuesday, November 19th.  Always such a happy time for a family!

We had the great privilege of flying out to PA to spend a week with the Jefferies family and arrived on Thursday, November 21.  They had moved to Pennsylvania from Virginia over the summer and it was our first time visiting them in their new home.  They are now officially country folk and have a beautiful home in the Pennsylvania countryside.  Cecily showed us all around the property and we were so blessed to be there!  It is so beautiful there.  We totally get why they love it there!

On our first night there, we were able to go with the family to their stake center in Altoona to hear Sister Jefferies report to the High Council.  It was awesome to hear her stories and her excitement of having served a mission.  While we were in the hallway waiting our turn, we were looking at the pictures of the missionaries serving from their stake and I noticed this picture of a Sister Charlotte Willette and recognized her as a Sister Missionary from Hannah's Sao Paulo MTC District!  Small World!

It was cold and we love real wood burning fires, so Papa pretty much kept this fire roaring the whole time we were there!  So snuggly warm and cozy!  Livi was practicing the piano for an audition to accompany the school choir for a Christmas concert.  She was chosen and we were so proud of her!

 Before going to PA, we realized that Wellsville, NY was just a 3 1/2 hour drive away, so we made plans to drive up there and spend a few days with friends and relatives there.  Melecia and Rhett were so kind to loan us their Jetta and we had a great trip.  It was cut a couple of days short due to snow, but we still had a very nice visit and got to see a lot of people that we know and love.  Here's a picture of our Miller Road house.  Still looks great and well-maintained.  It's so beautiful in the East and being there made me miss it!

The Pink House

Our rental home from January through July, 2004

The missionaries apartment (upstairs) where they lived when we were in our rental home.  They were across the street and down a couple of houses.  When we arrived in Wellsville on that cold, snowy, January night in 2004, they alerted the Branch and we had about 20 people helping us unload our moving truck in a snowstorm!  What a welcome.  We felt so loved!  Always did feel loved and appreciated there and were welcomed back again with open arms.  The Branch stayed after church and had a dish-to-pass (potluck lunch) in our honor.  It was just like old times and so fun to be back with our good friends, the Howes, Littles, Haineys, Harringtons, Mary Austin, and several new friends.

I had lunch with my sweet friend, Lois Spinelli, at the Texas Hot! 

After lunch, we met my cousins, Mary, Cherie, and Cherie's husband, Don and had a great visit and fun time reminiscing.  Mary is hilarious and had some great stories to share from childhood.  She has a great memory and I loved hearing things that I had long since forgotten!

Gonny's Main Street home.

 We stayed two nights at the Wellsville Microtel and our plan was to head to Palmyra from there and spend a couple of days up there revisiting the sights.  The forecast was for really heavy snow and icy roads so we headed back to Pennsylvania instead.  We were so glad that we made the trip.  It really was a great 2 1/2 year stay in our history book from January 2004 - August 2006.

Before getting back to Melecia's, we stopped in Gold, PA, and visited our good friends and Branch  President and wife, Kurt and Julie Shillig.  We had a nice catch-up with them and then headed out before the storm.

It was great to get back to our family in Centre Hall!  We at once felt completely at home and warm and safe with this sweet, wonderful family who we adore!  The fireplace was everyone's favorite hangout and drinking hot chocolate was a favorite drink!

The snow came and provided just enough materials for a great snowball fight, some sledding, and a cute snowman!

We also played lots of games and watched movies. 

 Cecily turned 8 while we were there so we got to celebrate with her!  We also got to be present for her baptism.  She's a doll!

Crazy, Black-Thursday shopping with the girls!  Here's Sully, I mean Madison, at Walmart.  Don't really know what possessed us to go shopping on Thanksgiving night, but it turned out to be fun just being together and laughing and standing in lines!!
 

Cecily's Baptism Day

 

Rhett's mother, Deanna, was also visiting for Thanksgiving, so it was a lot of support for sweet Cecily's big day.

I found out from cousins in Wellsville, that my cousin Jim Gardner and his wife Linda live near Penn State and it turns out they live about 5 minutes down the road from Melecia and Rhett.  Melecia, Mike and I had a lovely visit with them and got reacquainted after many years.

Pennsylvania Sunset

 These are a little out of order, but here is our beautiful Thanksgiving dinner!

 We had all the traditional dishes that make Thanksgiving so special and delicious.  It was perfect in every way.

Something everyone was looking forward to all week was a big bonfire in the front yard!  Rhett and Melecia had piled up all the cuttings of everything they had removed from the landscaping when they moved in and were going to burn it on Friday night.  It was a huge pile!  We were all very excited, unfortunately Mother Nature gave everything a pretty good soaking and then freezing and it just wouldn't stay lit! Went through quite a lot of propane, but it just wouldn't take hold.  Oh well, looks like it was fun enough!

 Papa chopped and collected a lot of wood and we really appreciated those warm fires in the fireplace.  Made me really want to yank out our gas log and get back to the real thing!  The girls helped collect sticks for kindling.  Everyone really enjoyed the outdoors!

We had a truly wonderful trip.  We ate lots of great food, played games, watched movies, did a great puzzle, played piano and sang songs, went to see Penn State, went to a Penn State hockey game and a girls volleyball game, and got ice cream at the creamery.  We got to see some of the countryside and the Amish, we took lovely walks along their beautiful country road.  What a blessing it is to be able to travel to see our kids and their families.  We loved being with the Jefferies and can't wait to go back!