Good ole' York

We spent another few days of our trip celebrating some monumental family occasions in my hometown of York. Every time I go home, I am glad to be reminded of where I "came from" as my dad always says. (Whenever I'd head back to college after a weekend at home, my dad would say "Marg, don't forget where you came from.) It was a lot of fun to be together on the farm. 

My dad caught a 5 foot long black snake in the chicken coop in the midst of eating an egg. Please notice the lump in the middle of the snake which is the egg, and please notice that 3 year old Ev was fearless and literally hugged the snake at one point. Also note that my dad has on shorts and boots and socks pulled halfway up his legs. 

 We always try to eat outside as much as we can when there is a full house to save my mom from having so many dishes and to save my dad from having to vacuum. I swear, the man vacuums 4 times a week.

Thomas continued to hone his Uncle Big Big skills and remains favorite uncle of all time. Sometimes I wonder if my nephews and nieces even know I exist. 

One night all of us girls went to The Brandon House for dinner while the boys had man time celebrating my cousin Martin's graduation and heading off to college. They all shared wisdom about becoming a man over beef tenderloin, green beans, homemade french fries and peach cobber. 

Side note on The Brandon House: it really might be one of my favorite places to eat. If you live within driving distance to York, you'd better stop by. Chef Colin Flynn and his wife Ashley have really brought a spark to downtown York, and their crème brûlée makes me weak in the knees. Plus, he buys most of his produce from my uncle over at The Bush-N-Vine. Hooray for buying local!

 Here is my recently graduated cousin and his dad. That awful wolf t-shirt was given to him as a gift by my brothers+brothers-in-law. Hideous, but it had to be documented.

We made an attempt at taking a picture of all of the cousins. Didn't work out too well, but I do wish we could've filmed myself, my sister, 2 sister-in-law's, and mom all trying to get them to cooperate at the same time. We did this while the guys were celebrating another cousin's bachelor party by playing paint ball. They came home with whelps on every square inch of their bodies. And they were trying to coerce us wives into letting them "invest" in their relationships with each other by buying their own paintball guns. Yeah, right.  

Last but not least, my adopted nephew Shatu was baptized on Sunday and my entire family got to be there for it. It was such a special time! We are so thankful he is such an integral part of our earthly family, but even more thankful to call him our brother in Christ.