Watoga Part 4: Lunch at The Pretty Penny

For our first full day on the adventure, we had eaten breakfast and now (in usual family form) were preparing for lunch.  We decided to venture out into the world around us and find a fun restaurant.  And, boy, we did!  The Pretty Penny.

Our crew (I'm taking the picture)

We took the advice of a man we met at the park headquarters.  Evidently he and his wife stay at Watoga quite a bit.  He recommended the restaurant and told us that the woman that ran it also did the Park restaurant - when it was in season.  (This man is also the reason we learned to order kindling! Ah, yes!  Good call.)

The restaurant was one of the only things in the town - or so it seemed.  It was owned and operated by a lady that focused on fresh, local products.  The food was unique and tasty.  Keith ordered the bbq sandwich, I think?!  They boasted to having the best anywhere.  He agreed. Not being a barbecue fan, I'll take his word for it. 

I can't remember exactly what I ate.  It had goat cheese and chicken on it and was tasty!  The sandwich breads were made there too.  Yummmmy!

The building was a general store at one point, I believe.  There was also a small stage complete with upright piano!

 The front of the building was full of windows.  It was really cool.  The light was lovely.  I think these are some of my favorite photos - simply because of the clarity.  ah, natural light.  :)

Keith

Tracy.

Mama.

 After our leisurely lunch, we decided to walk a bit and see what we could find.  Right next door to The Pretty Penny was a little antique place that had...  Fiesta!

Yes, I found some Fiesta to bring home.  (And later on, my sweet sister picked up some MORE mugs at the outlet on her way home - since when Mom and I drove by it, it was closed.) 

I also picked up some old blue glass bottles for my bathroom.  Milk of Magnesia, I believe - though the labels were gone.  One still had a rusty metal lid and dried stuff inside. 

Cousins, knit hats, and a bench!

the side of The Pretty Penny - just for fun

From this point on...  we decided to drive on to Lewisburg.....

Rainbow sweater

Ok, ok...  so it's been awhile since I've been on here.  Some pretty big things have been happening...  big and small.  Time has been ticking right along.  Presents have been opened (at four different times).  Meals have been eaten (big family meals, mind you).  A wedding has been celebrated.  Cookies have been baked.  Netflix has been watched.  And on and on...

Special dates have been marked with many happy (and some sad) ways. *Oh and during all of this Blogger decided it didn't like me or my computer.  So instead of fighting it (or trying to fix it) for a while...  I just watched Doctor Who!  hahahahah

On to the real post...  My sister made some wonderfully knitty items for Christmas this year.  I received a super soft hat (pictured here) and she made a WONDERFUL sweater for Zoey.  She had asked Miss Z about her favorite color a while back and Zoey said.  "RAINBOW!"  And proceeded to tell her about the colors of the rainbow or sing the different rainbow songs she knows or something uber cute. 

This is what resulted from the conversation:

The inside photos are of the actual gift-giving day at Sun Valley.  The outdoor photos are here at the Manor in the heat of a January day.  (seriously it was 45 or 50 degrees outside!)  *Today - merely 3 days later - it's SNOWING.  Hey, that's Ohio for you. 

Superstar!

With her cowgirl hat that Daddy found.

You can read my sister's story of the sweater and the buttons.  Oh, those buttons.  They are awesome.  They were in my Grandma's button box (one of many button boxes/jars/cottage cheese containers...).  I think they are so cool.  Cool enough that while John was out of town earlier this week, I took on storyTELLLING duty.  (I normally read her a story or two every night, but Daddy does the TELLING.)  Since he was gone, and she was without a fresh new story, I made one up about her magical orange buttons.  Complete with a walk in the woods and fairies and all.  Her buttons lit up or glowed when she was in the presence of fairies.  Well, I liked it anyway.  ;) 

"Yeee-Haw!"  (I'm sorry...even I can't escape it.)  ;)

Miss Zoey has been wearing her sweater every time we go out.  (Except last night for Uncle Bill's graduation... it was raining and the threat of snow was menacing...)  The first time she wore it and her infamous "cowboy girl hat" to Giant Eagle, we were the life of the produce section.  and the bakery. and the deli. But who's kidding the folks at Giant Eagle love her every day! 

Thanks dear seesta!  We are enjoying the gifties (I even wore my hat out to play in the snow this morning.) 

**And now that Blogger has decided that I can blog again...  Perhaps I'll get to it....The Watoga saga hasn't even wrapped up yet.  (Sheesh, I may have to make up the rest...) 

Graham Cracker as Gingerbread Housing!



Today, yes, today!!!  Zoey and I finally made our gingerbread house!  (Our first ever.)  We had a blast!!  

With an egg...  waiting for the eggs to reach "room temp" was the hardest part.  ;)

Loading up Grandma Joyce's sa-weet mixer!

My girl with the sensative ears.  This time she not only stayed in the room with the mixer but right there next to it! (small steps)  :)

Piping the walls.  Zoey really did a lot of the work!  She's quite the little baker/maker!

Our base house (and little snowmen that turned into trees!)

Concentration.  She really did work!  :)

Our stash of candy and things (all "found" items in the pantry)!

Candy on the roof.  (Yes, I piped it.)

Making our bushes and trees.  (Marshmallows covered in icing - pretty cool, IMHO.)

Presenting our very first Miller Manor Gingerbread House!!!



Our chimney is an out-of-date Kashi bar that I found in the back of the pantry.  ;)  Really, it is on straight - it just looks crooked. 

A close up.  One icing/marshmallow tree and a window.  She decorated the windows all by herself and then put the icing on the backs for me to put them on the wall.  :)

This is my first time making royal icing.  I learned quite a bit.  For one, it doesn't take a doubled recipe to ice a tiny house.  2) add vanilla for a better taste... As in, it IS really edible at all!!  and C) I'm interested to find out what happens with the massive amount left over in the fridge....  still usable/tasty?  And this recipe is easy!!  (Would it work on the upcoming wedding cookies?!?  Hmmmm.....) 

Hope you enjoy a timely look!  xo

Catch up CUTENESS!! Halloween edition

One of my sweet hubby's favorite holidays is Halloween.  I like it too - but not nearly as much as he does.  That is, until this year!!  (Ok, so I have always liked dressing up - putting on fun makeup and hanging out with my friends...)  But THIS year, Zoey understood Halloween and we took her Trick-or-Treating!

Truthfully, I wasn't too cracked up about it at first.  I mean, would she get it?  Would it be worth it?  We don't even let her eat a bunch of candy...  hmmm...

OH SO WORTH IT!!!  She was SOOO excited!  She was SOO cute!  And yes, taking her TorTing was my favorite part of the WHOLE holiday!!!  I'd rather go walk the cold streets in search of candy happiness with her and John than go to any stinkin' "adult" party ever!

Zoey was a cat.  She even had her kitty scratch dance down to an adorable - melt-your-heart science!

I was having a wee bit of focus trouble the whole night - but this one I love anyway.  I think it should be a card or something.

Knocking on the first candy-filled house.  She was not shy at all!!

Our neighbor and the first candy hitting the bottom of her bag!

Daddy and Z leaving the first house - seeing the MOON!!

Me as a witch - leaving another neighbor's house.  We took those neighbors some coffin brownies! 

Another house down the street.  It's blurry, yes, but I was so amazed that she didn't have an ounce of shyness in her that night!!  (Except for one house that had a man answer the door and his porch had scary decorations... but that's just her good sense.)  ;)

A girl and her bounty.

"Now, this is my candy...."

 And here are some pictures from earlier that day....

Breakfast.

Zoey "helping" me.  She decorated her own brownie pieces.  :)

Coffin brownies.  (Ok, yes, it's fun to go to parties too!) 

Watoga Part 3: Pancakes on McNickle and a walk.

Cabin #7.  (It is actually much bigger than it looks!)

 I believe it has been long enough since I sat down to update the ol' blog... well, that I can't remember much detail now!  ha!  No, seriously, I made an outline of what happened and which pictures to use the first night I started this whole Watoga saga.  Now, I have lost it.  (Outline?  What?  Yep, I am an English teacher's kid and I'm a geek, yo.)  So, I'll settle my future-me brain to remember via pretty pictures.  :)

 After the first night of me waking up every single hour to put more logs on the fire, we all got up to eat a yummy breakfast!  Tracy brought home made pancake batter and cooked it up on cast iron.  We also had bacon! And coffee (using bottled water to try to change the taste this time...  no luck, must've been the coffee pot.)  And toast from the Bakery!  weeee.  And cereal, just in case.

Zoey likes pancakes.  nom. nom. nom.

So does Aunt Tracy...  I kept the photo of her shoving a fork-full into her mouth off of the web. thankyouverymuch. ;)

The two pictures here on the left are specifically for Mom and Barbara.  Mom just loved that we ate on McNickle China and kept saying how much Barbara would like it too.  So I took some snaps of the dishes.  They have the WV state seal on the top and various outdoor/animal scenes on them.  Pretty cool. 


After brekky-poo, Mom hung out at the cabin and the rest of us walked up to the lodge.  We needed some activity and to call John.  We had decided not to leave Dad at Watoga and needed to tell him he didn't have to  drive the 5 hours to get there.  We did miss him (especially now that he's not in any of the pictures of our fun family outing), but it was best because Mom, Z, and I ended up leaving on Sunday anyway. 

Me calling John on the pay phone.  It was a bit gross... and I was a bit peeved that it was the only source of communication (beside smoke signals, I assume).  It worked.  **Keith, you never did tell me how much it cost?!  Hope it wasn't $10/minute!  eek!

 Our walk was pleasant.  Zoey walked part of the way, ran part of the way, and was carried most of the way.  Too bad she refused to let anyone else carry her.  Everyone offered... she made me do it. Oh well, we had fun.  It was just one of those moments where I wished I had a toddler backpack or Ergo or something! Even my old-school Moby knock-off - although I don't know if it would have fit her nowadays.  (If I actually hiked in my real life, I'd consider buying one for a big kid.) 

The CCC worker statue.  Reminds me a bit of Grandpa Buss. 

We took many pictures on our little walk to the lodge.  Delia took some too (while I carried Zoey).

The happy hiking couple.

Cousins playing at the lodge.  Leaves are FUN!

Mom drove up and "rescued" some of us...  from a walk back to the cabin.  :)

Poor Tracy forgot her "Very Important Parks Person" pass to get stamped.  I felt bad - espcially since I doubt we'll ever go back.  But who knows?!  Now that we know how to get there - it wouldn't be bad.  (**Knocking out Mom for the drive... however.**)

We did have a most wonderful morning...  just hanging out.  Cooking.  Setting off the smoke detector...  oh wait, I didn't mention that?!  :)   After the walk, we decided to look for lunch in town... 

**This is where you see the screen fade to black and "...to be continued."  flash across.  :)