Fourth of July Visitors!
As I have mentioned many times - we are always pleased to have Pittsburgh visitors! I love when the house is full of family and friends. This time my cousin Andrea and 2/3 of her boys joined the festivities! They road tripped with my mom to visit over the long fourth of July weekend! It was perfect timing since I just finalized and submitted my written dissertation to my committee - I was a semi-free woman! All that was left was creating a massive powerpoint presentation for my talk, but that could be managed :)
We had quite a few festivities planned for the weekend, including walks for dessert in Squirrel Hill, doing a little local shopping, and catching the home town Pirates game! Paul was working most of the weekend, but he was able to join us for dinners and much of the evening fun.
The Pirates game was awesome - a very warm summer afternoon in PNC park. The little guy got the nod to join us and luckily we stumbled upon an open seat so he didn't have to sit on my lap the entire game. Andrea treated us to some frozen lemon ice. At first the little guy wasn't so certain that the tart taste was worth it, but after just a few bites he was ALL IN. He took down the lemon ice like it was his job, complete with drinking any remaining sugar water. I wasn't even mad, I was impressed! It was the perfect day for a ball game and I think everyone enjoyed the time outside watching the Pirates. We also followed this up with a major tooth brushing before bed, haha!
While we had visitors, I finally located the Squirrel Hill Farmers Market! Even though it is closing in on the end of the season, its was nice to walk down and check out the vendors. After the market , we had the perfect night for a back yard campfire. We stayed up late and played outside in the perfectly warm weather. Andrea taught us the secret of replacing chocolate with Reese's Peanut Butter cups in our s'mores - making them even more sinfully delicious!
We shared many delicious dinners and laughs over the weekend. It was a blast and soon Monday was sneaking up on us and they had to take off for Wisconsin. Our dog Dale sure misses all the excitement of boys who want to play fetch all day long - and I miss having everyone around, giving us joy and the proper excuse to explore the city! Looking forward to our next gathering!