Gene and Myra came back from Florida just in time to take Alex and me on a tour of the LVRR tour sites.

The Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association is a non-profit corporation that was organized to:

• Preserve the legacy of the Ligonier Valley Rail Road
• Conserve the vestiges of the Ligonier Valley Rail Road
• Collect relics and memorabilia of the Ligonier Valley Rail Road
• Educate the public about the history of railroading in the Ligonier Valley

Even though yesterday was a little bit chilly and overcast we had a wonderful time visiting different sites to view each member of the LVRR Association open house to view their model train setup. We started at Huber Hall in Latrobe and viewed their train presentation. There were several large tables setup with several different size trains running on them. The Circus Model Builders were there as well with an interesting model setup with circus tents and a parade scene.

We moved on to Greensburg to enjoy riding on a real miniature steam railroad setup. What a blast! Alex had a least 5 round trips on both trains. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be able to get him to move on but he was such a trooper and was enjoying himself at each stop.

Our third stop was the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church which had a train setup on its third floor.Again, a big room with a big table setup. Alex made his rounds several times around the table to make sure that he got it all in.

On our fourth stop Alex and I got our picture taken at the site by a reporter from the Newspaper and again, we had a great time looking at this gentleman’s N-Gauge and HO Gauge setups. Alex was really fascinated with the N-Scale. They also had a nice display of quilts there that really got Myra’s notice. She is big into anything revolving around sewing in any way and she seemed really impressed with the quilts she say here.

Our last stop was back to Darlington Station Museum and this was really great as well. They have a big red caboose out in the yard that is currently being worked on, that caught Alex’s eye. I think that he would have loved getting back into the caboose to take a look around. We will have to go back when they have it available for Alex to jump into. Anyway, here is the location on SmugMug with all of the pictures that I took.

First Try with Socialcam Software

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2011 April–Full of family events

Jenny and Toby were in another play together again this month. Jen played Helen Keller’s mother and Toby was the head house maid. This play made a big impression on Toby and has her focusing on becoming a teacher for the blind. The girl that played Anne Sullivan the teacher is actually a teacher for the blind and she made a big impression on Toby. From what I understand there is a real lack in that area and I can see that this could be real fulfilling for a teacher. We really enjoyed the play and of course the emotional ending. It is always great to watch my girls up on stage. See the gallery of images here. I have most of the show recorded but I am have a little bet of trouble getting down to a low enough resolution as not to take up too many disks to record on. I’ll get there eventually.

This was a matinee so Kathy and I decided to stop at the Colonial Inn and have dinner on the way home. We had a slightly overcast evening but the geese were out and the pond was fairly still so I yanked the camera out and took a few quick pictures. It is funny how I keep ending up in the same places for pictures, year after year.I have put them up in gallery so you can view them here if you are interested.

We had all of my family over for Easter Dinner. We had a great time. I took some pictures of the spring flowers around the house before everyone arrived. We had a great time with the kids and of course us older guys as well. Alex was of course the center of attention and was cheerfully enjoying all of the attention. With so many people in the house he had a lot of that! Alex had a little accident falling into the pool so we had to dress him in t-shirt until his clothes dried. To see the whole gallery click here.

A couple of days later after a heavy Spring rain the sun came out and we had a lovely rainbow. Take a close look at this picture and see if you see the double rainbow. Pretty neat!

The month ended with Toby’s Spring Band Concert. Most of images I took are video but here a few of our poser. She is growing up way too fast.

March was a busy month where this old dog begins his training…

We decided to add a new vertical market at the company by signing on with Allscripts, a medical software company that has the largest presence in the medical community with over 180,000 physicians across the U.S.. So I took my first drive to Raleigh to go to sales training in March. It was an interesting week and a beginning to a very disruptive couple of months trying to get up to speed with this software and still try to do business as usual.

There is a great lookout on the way down south in the middle of the West Virginia Mountains that I like to stop at and take some pictures of the beautiful view. I was headed down though the pass around 9am and well before the sun came full to begin melting the snow off of the trees and hillside. I love when you see a fresh light snow on the trees, it almost looks like they have lightly frosted. I have posted these pictures here: http://bappleby.smugmug.com/Other/20110307-Trip-down-to-Raliegh/19492100_d6FHP8#1525907340_Vwqjj9D

The next day after arriving in Raleigh I went to dinner at the Crabtree Mall, yes they have a Crabtree area down here as well. This is a partly outside/inside Mall with lots of restaurants scattered about. Anyway, here are some pictures of the Murals that were painted on one of the Mall wall’s and then this tree was in flower and it just caught my eye in the street lights. http://bappleby.smugmug.com/Other/20110308-Pictures-at-the/19492114_DzDz2f#1525912049_D3Lkqbx

The following week after I got back I was able to grab Alex and go for one of our walks along the Heritage Trail. It is so much fun to watch him looking at all of the sights along the trail and to point things out to him as we walk along. He is such a trooper. We walked for about a mile and a half and he didn’t once complain or fail to keep up. We had a great time. As you can see in the pictures I did wear him out. http://bappleby.smugmug.com/Family/Alex-Deible/20110319-Spring-walk-with-Alex/19492205_nMHRqj#1525917437_Ff56LLm

2011-January and February

I already spoke about Toby and her Mars, PA competition that we went to, two posts ago so that is already there. So I’ll jump back to January and move forward from there…….

We always begin the year now spending time with my Uncle Gene and Aunt Myra at their lovely home in the mountains above where I grew up. They have such a lovely view of the surrounding area and Aunt Myra puts on a wonderful Southern New Years Day Table that we all enjoy immensely. I am just going to put out the comment that I am keeping track of what we did by going through my Photo files to prod my memory in the key moments that we enjoyed. I bring this up because at the bottom of each of these posts I will give you the links to where these photos are available to access. Hope that you enjoy.

Well, on New Years Day we spent watching football and having good eats. What more could you want. We are a long way past those days where we would be recovering from a fun New Years Eve. Kathy and I usually spend New Years Eve with each other, having a very nice dinner and enjoying each other’s company in front of a furious fire in our fireplace, relaxing and talking about the past year and our thoughts about what we want to accomplish during the new year coming up. So the day we have a great breakfast and get ready to run up in the hills between Waterford and Laughlintown to enjoy a new family tradition with Gene and Myra… http://bappleby.smugmug.com/Family/2011/20110101-News-Years-Day-at/19484060_kK8GSv#1525083547_Rpdg9sb

Mom decided to have an Appleby Girl’s day out to celebrate themselves and Jen’s birthday. Kathy wasn’t able to come so I got to be our family’s token girl. We had a great time together even though the restaurant lost our reservation. Can’t trust those employees. http://bappleby.smugmug.com/Family/2011/20110108-Jens-Birthday-and/19484164_Wv82vR

On the 15th Alex spent the weekend with us and we had a blast together. Morgan and Fran seem to be trusting us more with him and we are getting to enjoy him more and more. It is wonderful to have him feel so safe and happy to be with us. You see the fat little cheeks here at the beginning of the year and if you go to Alex’s Gallery you will see him growing up so… fast!  http://bappleby.smugmug.com/Family/Alex-Deible/20110115-Alex-spending-the/19484202_4w9VXx

In February we took a trip up to Mars, PA to see Toby in a regional Winter Guard Competition. Very impressive! We had a lot of fun seeing her and her classmates compete and then we grabbed her to stay overnight in Cranberry and then run up to Grove City to do a little shopping and sightseeing. This was a great weekend! http://bappleby.smugmug.com/Family/Toby-Recitals-Concerts/2010-2011-Toby-in-Winter-Guard/15923400_7CRhsQ#1194273966_h3Rm9

We had the kids over to help celebrate me getting one more year older. It is always to have the family around us. What fun and I of course captured a few pics to commemorate. http://bappleby.smugmug.com/Family/2011/20110227-My-Birthday/19484483_TbGnLQ#1525125671_sDX9fgh