New Wedding Tradition?

On Sunday, John and I took a trip back to Peace Valley Park, so I could get some changing leaves  and great sunsets photos.   I did get some lovely shots, like these...  (click on any of the photos below to get a bigger and better view and some good details)

Then, I saw this...

WHAT?????  Is she really wearing a wedding gown???


My sister told me that apparently this is the new thing to do after your wedding.  Ruin your wedding gown in a fun way, because you're never going to wear it again.  Brides jump in mud puddles and other crazy things (like roll around in a cold lake) .


I can't imagine my daughter doing this after her wedding, especially after all the money she spent to purchase her gown.  (she won't and I'm sure you'll see a comment from her confirming this!!)


I, myself, had my wedding gown preserved, in case one of my daughters wanted to wear it when they got married.  I should have realized when I married a man who was 6'2" tall (and I'm 5' maybe) that chances were, any daughter I had would be taller than me (Gina is 5'3" and Dani is 5'5")


Here's a blast from the past!   My brother, Michael and me on my wedding day in 1981.  Michael gave me away because my Dad had passed on the year before.  I paid $250 for my dress, which probably equates to about $1,000 in today's dollars.  I can't imagine ruining this lovely dress!

Anyway, I Just thought it was nuts!  To ruin a perfectly good dress, even if you don't plan to wear it ever again.  Maybe a future daughter might!  Or use the material to make a First Communion dress or a Baptismal gown.

Peace Valley Park, Week 2

I'm trying to get back to my favorite park in the world, Peace Valley Park, in the lovely village of Chalfont, in Bucks County, PA.  I'm hoping to catch the turning leaves at just the right moment.  


The weather today was perfect!  74 degrees with a light breeze.  I sweater or jacket was needed in the shade, but in the sun, it was warm and lovely!


We got to the park around 2:30, a few hours earlier than we did last week.  We weren't there for sunset because Dani and Tim were both coming home.  Dani for an orthodontist appointment and Tim, just because.  Dani's boyfriend, Dustin came home with her.   I promised to make lasagna.... a lot of it so Dani could bring the remainder back to her place in Indiana, PA.  I put the lasagna together last night, then headed to John's to spend some time with him.  I left his place at 5pm to be home for dinner.


sorry.... rambling here.


Anyway, we got to the park at 2:30 and I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few people there.... in the grass, on the pathways, and in the water!


There were all kinds of water craft today!    I had my trusty camera with me.

We saw Sailboats.

We saw kayakers.

We saw my favorite!  A windsurfer!

We even saw people using the paddle boats.

There were lots and lots of folks on land too!

Folks relaxing and reading.

People enjoying a picnic.  They brought a really cool portable gas grill with them!

This old lady was all bundled up to keep the chill off!  Her husband had a really stinky cigar and had just walked off to chat with someone.  I think they were just enjoying the outdoors.  That wasn't their camper either.  Someone had just parked it there minutes before.

There were cyclists riding on the paths.

People playing and walking their dogs.

I saw a runner in just a pair of shorts.  I think it was too chilly for go topless, 

but I guess he was ok with that.

Someone was nice enough to take our picture for us.

John took this one.  Oops!  You can see my white roots!  Time to visit my hairdresser!  

And I just realized that John's so intent on taking the picture that he forgets to smile!

Now, why were we there?  Oh yeah!  We came to the  park to take photos of the changing leaves!  I was so busy taking photos of all the people there, I nearly forgot!

This was taken October 2

This was taken on October 10.

You can see some subtle changes in the colors.    Let's see what next week brings, weather permitting!

Saturday at Peace Valley

John had a rare Saturday off from work.  He's been picking up 12 hour overtime shifts on Saturdays, and he'll continue as long as they give them to him.  So I gave up my own Saturday shift, so we could spend more time together.  I hardly ever give up any shifts.  I simply can't afford to do that, but every now and then you have to say "what the heck" and do it.


I'm back on Nutrisystem, so I had to pack my food for the weekend.  I felt like I was packing for an army!  Six small meals per day, for three days is a LOT of food!  So, loaded down with tons of food, my laptop, Kindle, clothes for Sunday, clothes for work on Monday, and my work bag, I drove to John's.  Of course, he was still sleeping, so I had to lug all this stuff up to his apartment by myself!


After I got his sleeping butt out of bed, and putting all my refrigerated foods away, we decided to enjoy the lovely weather and go to Peace Valley Park.   I packed a small lunch bag with some food, for John and for me, grabbed my camera (I'm getting better at bringing it with me)

Peace Valley Park is in Chalfont, PA.  It has a fairly large lake, Lake Galena.  You can either bring your own sailing vessel or rent.  I took a few pictures of kayakers on the lake.  I think we were too late in the day for any sailboats or canoes.  My particular favorite to watch are the windsurfers!

We were a little early for the lovely fall colors.  I'm going to try to get back there in the next weekend or so and get more pictures.  The woods around the lake are s beautiful in the fall, with all the reds, gold, yellows and oranges!

The leaves, for the most part, are still green.  As the weather cools, the woods will just come alive with color!


We've had quite a bit of rain this past week, and the lake flooded over a lot!  Some areas got upwards of 6 or 7 inches in several days!  Lake Galena and Peace Valley Park has their fair share of rain too.  The lake flooded over and when we went there on Saturday, you could see just how much it had flooded!  The pictures below show several teenagers, hanging out on a picnic table, that is on the beach of the lake.  That beach is under water, and part of the flooding had receded some!

We found a picnic table on dry land and were able to enjoy our little picnic we brought along with us.  And although I tried to prevent a pesky bee from getting into my Diet Root Beer, it still managed to work it's way inside my "soda tent".

Since we arrived at the park in late afternoon, we decided to stay until sunset and try to capture some good shots of the sun going down over the lake.  I also played a bit with my macro setting with this butterfly photo.

I was surprised how quickly the sun set!

As we were leaving the park,  we spied a family of deer, no bucks.  They just stopped and allowed me to take their picture.  It's not a real clear picture.  I was surprised how dark the photo  came out, because it was still somewhat light outside.  Ah, well... maybe next time they'll show up earlier for their photo op.