admiring the butterflies at lakeland

we took a trip back to lakeland and visited their butterflies before the butterfly festival ends.  they are so beautiful and love the flowers inside their butterfly house.

noah always loves riding all of his tractors at lakeland too!

love, laurie

butterflies and blooms at lakeland orchard

it's august and that means it's butterfly season at lakeland orchard.  noah and i took a trip to lakeland over the weekend while ryan was working an event.  we visited the butterfly house and brought home some pretty zinnia flowers.

love, laurie

saying hi to butterflies

over the weekend my dad attended the annual butterfly release.  he came home to us with extra butterflies and we had a nice little ceremony of our own releasing them near the flowers.  noah was especially happy that one landed on his finger and then his leg!

love, laurie

beautiful butterflies

the month of august is the blooms and butterlfies festival at lakeland orchard.  we love going there, and were excited to check out their new butterfly house.  we visited the butterflies and admired them sitting on the gorgeous flowers.

noah likes butterflies and was excited to go in the butterfly house.  about half way through he decided he was scared of them.  hopefully he will like them again soon.

love, laurie

a visit from a butterfly

when we were at ryan's parents' house on friday, ryan was walking around their yard when he came upon a butterfly perched on top of a flower.  he was able to snap a few pictures of it before it flew away . . .

love, laurie

butterfly release

on saturday afternoon, my parents and i stopped by skytop resort to visit their butterfly house and see their butterfly release.  it's the time of the season when it's too cool for the butterflies to stay in northeastern pennsylvania, so they have to make their 3-month trek 3,000 miles to mexico!  before they took flight, the butterflies fueled up on some milkweed plants to give them strength for their journey.  it's always so nice to see monarchs in person!

love, laurie

peddler's village

the other day, my parents and i took a day trip to peddler's village.  we had never been there before, so we really enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the cute little shops.

the grounds were so pretty.  in the center, there was a gorgeous gazebo overlooking the perfectly manicured lawn.  there were flowers everywhere, and so many butterflies floating all over the place.  the weather was absolutely perfect too.

while we were there, we stopped for lunch at buttonwood grill for their famous burgers.  oh my goodness, we could not get over how big the burgers were.  1/2 pound each!  when we saw a waiter bring a few burgers out to another table, my mom and i opted to share one.  (that was a really wise move on our part.)  such a good burger!

love, laurie

a walkway to remember

down the road from my parents' house, there is a small little park.  on the land of the park sits a tiny gazebo and two park benches.  the park is so petite that you might drive past it without even noticing it.  however, if you took a moment to walk around the park, you'd find that it is such a peaceful and serene little slice of nature along a busy hustling and bustling road.

my parents had a vision for that tiny little park.  they imagined a curved brick walkway leading up to the entrance of the gazebo, with engraved paver stones lining the edges of the walkway.  each brick along the edge of the walkway would contain the name of a child who lived in the county and who left this world all too soon.  the walkway would be a memorial walkway for children of all ages who have passed away.

for weeks, my parents wrote proposals to their township board, presented their vision at meetings, and had sketches drawn up.  when the township approved their proposal, they worked with the compassionate friends organization and they coordinated the orders for the memorial bricks.

my parents' vision became a reality.  after all of the engraved bricks had been put into place, my parents organized a ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony to officially open the memorial walkway.  on saturday, dozens of families gathered to open the memorial walkway and to see their childrens' bricks.  the names of the children where read, a prayer was given, and butterflies were released.

this petite little park has become an area where families can go to remember their children.  the end result is absolutely beautiful and i am so proud of my parents for all of their hard work organizing this very special walkway.

love, laurie

. . .

{photos by ryan and ryan's mom}

a visit to the butterfly house

on sunday we took a trip to creekside gardens with my parents to check out their butterfly house.  it was amazing.  i have never seen so many butterflies in one place in my life.  there were hundreds of butterflies and so many beautiful flowers too.

we learned about the butterfly life cycle, and saw several butterfly chrysalises.  we were even able to feed a few butterflies with cotton swabs dipped in red gatorade . . . who knew that butterflies love watermelon and red gatorade!

love, laurie