2015 Year in Review

Family Photo, after CCC Christmas Eve Service

2015 was another year filled with changes, and adventure in the Mohler family, just on a slightly smaller scale than 2014...which is OK.

Nick and Emily joined us at the beach

This summer Emily and Nick moved from their first year apartment in Narberth to a nice 2nd floor apartment in an historic Brownstone near Fitler Square in Philadelphia.  They are both now working in center City Philadelphia, so they are truly living the urban lifestyle.  Emily continues with Tierney where she was recently promoted to an Account Executive position, and Nick is enjoying work at American Bible Society which moved into it's new offices just off Independence Mall during the past year.

Sarah in front of Broad Street Ministries
 church

Sarah is now in the middle of her senior year at Eastern University.  In May she will graduate with a bachelor's degree in Social Work!  She truly enjoys helping people in need, and has gained practical experience through many great internship opportunities.  During this past summer, she worked at Broad Street Ministries' Youth Initiative in Philadelphia, where she was part of a team that led  groups of youth, primarily high school aged, but some middle school as well, in volunteer projects in Philadelphia, focusing on poverty and other social issues.  She is currently applying to Grad schools with the goal of working towards a Masters degree in Social Work....and working at her local Trader Joe's store at school, and Applebee's at home - she is a busy young lady!

Jacob and the "Draggin" crew

Jacob is a Sophomore at Messiah College, majoring in Physics. He has a work-study job with the Physics Department, and is a "Dungeon Master", organizing a Dungeons and Dragons group at school.  He also enjoys playing club and indoor soccer when given the chance, and racquetball as well.  During the summer, he worked in the Packing Department at Four Seasons Produce, enjoying the same short commute as Anne.  At the end of the summer, Jacob joined three others in a unique adventure of building a raft and then floating it down the Susquehanna River, check out the newspaper story for more details.  The raft was named somewhat ironically named "Draggin".

As the new year began, and with the newly-emptied nest, Anne went back to work full-time--first time since expecting Emily in 1991!  She is enjoying her new position as a sales rep at Four Seasons Produce, learning lots and happily sampling fruit and vegetable items along the way.  The ultra-short commute and the employee Produce Market are two of the other great perks of this job.

In late February, Glenn completed the Winona Forest Tourathon for the 3rd year in a row. In late September, he traveled with 3 former cycling club-mates to Richmond VA to watch the UCI Cycling World Championships.  To cap off the athletic year, he completed the Philadelphia Marathon.  The highlight of that event was the cheering section of family friends, taking the time to cheer for him along the way.

In the summer of 2014, our church bought an existing church facility in Reinholds.  However, we needed to complete some renovations before we could move in.  That was completed and we held our first service on June 7th.  If you don't have a church home, or are just curious about what it looks like now, please stop by 1200 Swartzville Rd, Reinholds, PA on a Sunday morning.

July we vacationed in Ocean City Maryland.

To celebrate our 30th anniversary Anne and Glenn enjoyed a four-day trip to the Finger Lakes region of New York, go here for the longer story.

Place setting and decorations at
our Anniversary Brunch

On our actual Anniversary weekend, we were looking forward to having Sarah and Jacob home for the weekend.  We  returned from a relaxing fall hike at Nolde Forest with Jacob, to a wonderful surprise Anniversary Brunch planned by our children.  It was quite an honor, and we really appreciated the effort they made to plan and host such a thoughtful celebration.

In November, Anne and Glenn to joined a Four Seasons bus trip to go here for more details.

Ready for another Smith family Thanksgiving hike.

New York City In a Day...

No other way to start a
day in the city of bagels

After arriving in NYC, we satisfied our Bagel cravings at Madison Deli.  While there we got a text from Emily and Nick saying they were also in the City for the day, we had no idea.  When we got off the bus, we probably walked within 75 ft of where they were standing in Bryant Park, without knowing it.  At that point they were already on a train to their first stop of the day.  Wow, small world experience!

Entrance to the "Public Eye" exhibit

Our first stop was the Public Library to enjoy the "Public Eye, 125 Years in Photography" exhibit.  We were there for over an hour, enjoying pictures and reading captions.  The exhibit included photos dating back to the earliest days of photography.  We were touched by the 2 photos of holocaust survivors, which had their personal survival stories and written on the image.  I also enjoyed the Ansel Adams landscape photos, and the really old photos showing glimpses of American history.

The Department Stores were
decorating for Christmas

After leaving the library we headed toward Central Park to enjoy a late morning stroll.  On the way, we passed Rockefeller center to see the ice skaters and large Christmas Tree.  We also did a quick duck into the Lego store, but that was in full-on, pre-Christmas, chaos mode.

Wollman Ice Rink and
skyline

When we arrived at Central Park, walked by Wollman Rink (more ice skaters on  larger rink) and enjoyed the beauty of the park.  It is always interesting to see all the athletes, recreational to serious, exercising along the roads within the park.  We exited at Columbus Circle and headed to Times Square.  It was now around mid-day, and the streets were getting crowded.  Despite this being the day after the Paris attacks, people were not shying away from crowded public places.

Times Square really comes to life when
 the day gets longer

After enjoying a bite of "New York" pizza at Amadeus. we walked around the corner to the theater.  The show we chose to see this year was Jersey Boys.  It was a retrospective on Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons.  It took an honest look at how the group rose to fame, and the cost of fame on the band members and their relationships with each other and those close to them.  It was fun listening to the "oldies", while enjoying all aspects of the show.  At first I thought they were lip-synching, till I noticed the very small microphones hidden in their hair.  

Waiting in line to see
"Jersey Boys"

After the show, we walked back toward Bryant Park and had dinner at The Australian , which had kangaroo meat on the menu.  We went for more standard dishes, but our waitress was an Australian who happened to be living in the city.

Finger Lakes Region is Gorges

Ok, the title is a twist on a very corny and overused pun, but that's because it is true.  We have always heard that "Ithaca is Gorges", and wanted to spend some time in the Finger Lakes region.  Since it was early fall and nearing the peak of the foliage season, and also the best time in our family schedule to "get away" to celebrate 30 years of wedded bliss.

We spent some time finding an apartment to rent on the NW edge of Ithaca through AirBNB.  On our drive to our destination, we took the winding and scenic path through Central PA as Glenn is always want to do, and found a nice lunch spot in the center of Bloomsburg.  To get is in the mood to see falls and the like, we stopped at Rickets Glen State Park.  It was as beautiful as we remembered.

When we arrived in Ithaca, after finding our lodging, we headed toward downtown and the pedestrian mall.  Ever since we were gifted a cookbook from the Moosewood Restaurant, we thought it would be great place to eat some time.  Even though we knew it had changed hands over the years, we found the food to be true to the vegetarian tradition and yet very tasty.  We recommend it, but we have heard it can get busy.

Robert Treman State Park

Falls at Taughannock State Park

The next day based on recommendations from workers at the local outdoor shop, we headed to Robert Treman State Park.  We hiked a 4.5 mile loop made up of the Gorge Trail on the way upstream and the Rim trail on the way back.  We enjoyed the beautiful twists, turns and falls of Enfield Creek as it cascaded through the gorge it cut in the surrounding plateau.  The horizontal strata of the bedrock created unique and somewhat uniform formations where the rock had been worn away.  In the afternoon we toured a few of the local vineyards.  Although we are not wine experts, it was interesting hearing people talk about the many varieties of grapes and the wine that was made from them.  We wanted to find a tour where they talked about raising the fruit, and the full production process from harvest to the table, but were not able to.  On the way back we stopped by Taughannock State Park, to view the very large waterfall.

Watkins Glen State Park

Our next days touring took us to Watkins Glen for a morning hike.  We both had been here during our childhood, and had distant memories of that visit.  We were not sure how it could top yesterday's hike.  However, we were pleasantly surprised, as the gorges were deeper, the falls and water features were even more spectacular and the walk built to allow visitors to experience the gorge by walking through it, were amazing.  The only downside was the volume of visitors that meant we constantly had to maneuver around people on the narrow paths. Our afternoon destination was Hammondsport at the base of Keuka Lake.  It seemed like a small rural town with some historic charm, and we were correct.  However it started raining when we arrived, a cold rain.  It has a town square with a gazebo, and an old commercial district surrounding the square with plenty of old storefronts restored and functioning as antique shops and restaurants.  There was a fall festival in the square.  After lunch we took a walk through the festival, but the rain chased us into antique shops.  We really enjoyed our short visit, despite the wet weather.

Sunday came too quick, since that meant we were heading home.  Before we left town, we drove around the Cornell Campus, with it's ivy league charm.  We found the FR Newman Arboretum at Cornell Plantations and enjoyed a very nice walk among the variety of trees, flower gardens and other landscape features.  The sun was finally out, and the trees were about 1 week before peak color, so we enjoyed the nice mix of emerging fall colors and waning greens.

2014 - Year In Review

Christmas Eve 2014 Family  Photo

2014 has certainly been a year of transitions and new beginnings!

Jacob Celebrates Graduation with family...

...and friends

Jacob finished his High School career in June, and with it we ended our chapter as Cocalico parents.  Although we have slowly gotten used to it, it is strange to walk or drive by those school buildings, knowing we don’t have a direct connection to them anymore after so many years!  Jacob started working in the Packing Department at Four Seasons Produce over the summer, and hopes to return to that job on school  In late August, he began his college career at Messiah College as a Physics major, and has adjusted well to this new stage of life!

Sarah with Jerusalem in backdrop

Riding a camel

Sarah completed her second year at Eastern University, and survived her time as an RA.  Although she enjoyed many aspects of that job, there were a lot of challenging parts to it as well.  She has officially been accepted into the Social Work program, excited to be following in her grandmom’s footsteps.  She continued working as a server at Applebees over the summer, as well as took part in two weddings of close friends in June, then was the Maid of Honor in Emily’s wedding in August.

For her fall semester, she had the wonderful experience of studying abroad Israel.  She was at Jerusalem University College located on Mount Zion, just outside the old wall of that historic city.

Emily & Nick with friends at bridal shower...

...and at wedding

Emily happily became Mrs. Nick Hemming on a lovely, mild August day in Philadelphia.  For more on this event, go to Emily's Wedding.  We have had the pleasure of knowing Nick since their freshmen year at Messiah, and are thrilled to officially welcome him to our family!  They have settled into a cozy apartment in Narberth on the outskirts of Philly, and are enjoying their new community there.  Emily’s employer, Tierney Agency, allowed her to transition from their Harrisburg office to Philadelphia as she continues her work in Public Relations, recently receiving a promotion.  Nick works as a Copywriter at Dansko [footwear company] in West Grove, PA.

So, after a busy spring and hectic summer, our “nest” emptied in the span of twelve days as Emily and Nick’s wedding was promptly followed by Sarah and Jacob starting their new adventures.  It has been a nice change of pace, but with a great degree of missing the kids around.  Thankfully, we were able to all be together for a few days over the Christmas holiday.

Proud Mother

Work-wise, Anne is about to transition to a full-time Sales position at Four Seasons Produce, the parent company of Sunrise Logistics that I have worked part-time for since 2011.  This will be a big
change for her as she has not worked full-time since she was expecting the young lady that just got married in August, but is looking forward to delving further into the world of produce!

2015 Firecracker Finishers

This year started off with a winter to remember, for the snow lovers in the household.  There was plenty of local skiing and a lot of shoveling.  During the winter Glenn completed two of the three Frozen Foot 5 K races, along with the Winona Forest Tourathon 50 K cross country ski race.  On the 4th of July, he kept the Firecracker 5 mile run participation streak alive, and was joined by Emily and Jacob this year.  He completed another year as GIS Manager in the Lancaster County IT Department.