Ashley's visit! :-)

I had the sweet gift of a whole weekend of fun with my long-time friend, Ashley! She happened to have a conference for work over in Philly earlier in the week, so it worked out perfectly for her to come over to Lancaster for the weekend to soak up a little Amish experience and see where I live. We had such a great time getting to sight see, catch up, and work on the nursery together. I wish I could hold on to weekends like these and be able to transport dear friends up here whenever I can!

Friday night, Greg and I took Ash to Iron Hill Brewery, a regional place that brews its own beers on the premises and serves up amazing steaks, seafood, salads, and sandwiches. It was a great start to the weekend, and it took us straight into the heart of downtown by Franklin & Marshall College. I love downtown in the evenings.

Saturday we had a lazy morning and then ventured over to Central Market (if you come visit me, you will always get to see Central Market :-) I never get tired of it!) We filled up a backpack with fresh fruits, veggies, and glass bottled milk and stopped at the herb shop for some super inexpensive and yummy dried oregano and cumin. I have figured out now that when I have an herb jar from the grocery store that runs out, I just need to get a baggy of that herb from the herb shop, and I can refill my jar. It is sooo much cheaper this way!

From there we visited a museum next door that has an old printing press room with people who are trained to use the printing press models that mimic ones that were made in the 1700's and 1800's. There was a really nice man in there who talked our ears off about how the presses worked and sharing with us all sorts of sayings that have come into existence b/c of the printing press. We learned where the word "font" comes from, why the terms Upper Case and Lower Case originated, why flyers (one sided brochures) are called flyers, etc. All very fascinating. He also let us try out two types of printing presses ourselves. It's nice to be in an area that values history so much. I am learning to appreciate it more.

We still had our milk in the backpack, so we decided it was time to head back home. We made a quick run by my office (not for much longer!!) and then stopped at Rita's Italian Ice to cool off. Ashley knew all about Rita's because her husband is from Pittsburgh and raved about it. We checked that one off the list with happy bellies and headed back home.

The afternoon was spent grabbing a quick nap and working on the nursery. And guess what? The complete non-engineer (ME) finally figured out the crib problem!! Woohoo!! Greg and I were super frustrated on Father's Day when we were putting the crib together and the spring was installed at an incline. We had ordered another crib and were waiting for it to come in. When Ash and I were looking at it, I discovered that one of the two stabilizer bars would simply be flipped over and the screw holes would then be at the correct height for the springs to attach to. Greg was in D.C. for the day, so we decided to pull out the tools and just fix it ourselves. It turned out great, and we were able to decorate the whole thing- dust ruffle, mattress, sheet, bumper, and mobile! I'm not taking a picture until I have the room complete, I think, but I was SO excited to have it done. We were then able to organize some other stuff in the room and start washing some of Emily's clothes so that they could be put away. I can't tell you how much better it feels to have the crib done, the changing pad ready to go, and some clothes cleaned and put away. Nesting has definitely begun. :-)

After that, we made a mad dash out to Amish country to visit an outdoor shopping center called Kitchen Kettle Village. They have lots of fun stores including a homemade jam, dips, and salsa store that is sooo good. We each found a few items there. I also found a cute butterfly windchime that I think will go great in Emily's room. From there we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner (my first time to finally make it there). It is really famous up here and has all sorts of awards for best fries and best burger. We got the obligatory burger and fries. The fries were awesome, the burger wasn't anything special. But it was good to finally say I've been there! I hear it is starting to infiltrate the south, so some of you might be able to try it sometime!

All in all a wonderful weekend that wasn't quite long enough!

Next post: Liz, Greg's mom, is here for the week! We have already started having fun getting curtains ready to hang all over the house. I am taking off a day of work tomorrow to hang out with her, and I'm really looking forward to that. YAY for friends and family being in town! What a comfort. :-)