Snacks c/o Appalachian Brewing Company and Pizza c/o Tommy's Pizza

Oh man. I really gotta go to bed, but here's one more post. The timing of our lunch and then idea for planned dinner was such that a quick snack had to be had between them. This snack was c/o Appalachian Brewing Company, which truly has wonderful beer ... but has never quite figured out how to have its food match up in terms of quality. I had another stout and loved it.

And ordered a small cup of the chili, which my uncle warned me would be too spicy ... it wasn't, but I think he and I have slightly different tolerance levels.

We also all had a bit of their soft pretzels with mustard and beer cheese soup dip, they were nice and warm and soft. There was also a spinach kind of dip. Basically my thought is this: go there for the beer and if you need to eat something, don't get too ambitious.

Then we spent some time hanging out in the two adjoined rooms out of the four we had reserved. K. the little really was doing some excellent bed jumping work.

K. the OC and I concocted a plan where we'd play UNO before going to dinner so that afterwards we could potentially distract the kids with a movie while we focused on hearts (the night before the reverse happened in part because the kids got annoyed that we weren't going to teach them how to play hearts. Their day will come, but not quite. I think A. the bf's daughter K. and the eldest of M.'s kids, A. will be the first to be allowed into the hearts/rummy circle. And other cousin/brother K.'s daughter G., but they weren't there so let's not complicate this any further.

I got kind of bored of UNO pretty quickly and moved on to lying around taking photographs.

Little I. began to see me as a potential tickle target. Or perhaps I first tickled her and it was her payback?

In any case, she'd jump from one bed to the other and then try tickling my feet or belly. She hasn't quite gotten the knack for it, so I'd really just pretend to be tickled.

Which figuratively tickled her while also getting the attention of her older brother, who had a much firmer grasp of how to make a person tickled/squirm. Once it was two against one it was a little more intense on my feet.

Oh yes, she's an angel.

Then they momentarily lost interest in me and wrestled each other.

Then it was back to me.

Then I think pretty much everyone was over UNO and into lying down.

And then we gathered ourselves for another ritual eating experience. I don't actually remember Tommy's being as large a part of our visits to Gettysburg as it was for Uncle E. and his brood, but in the last few years I've enjoyed catching up. They recently renovated and it has slightly classed up the place, they also are doing a great job of having interesting beers on tap - Troeg's, Yards...not your average pizza joint Bud (though they have it too. We were lucky to be able to grab two good sized tables. I ended up with the kids. K. the OC joined in at some point. I took some photographs, but then trusted A. the eldest and K. to take some too as they are both responsible young ladies. And they took some good shots. This first one I did.

This was by A. I believe. I look awful but what can you do? Wake up early and work out probably. Moving on.

I think between us we split three pizzas, one pineapple and pepperoni, one cheese, and one sausage and peppers. Good stuff.

A. by K. I think.

K. by K. but two different Ks.

Ugh. I just want to prove I was there even though I look the worst.

Another one by K. I think.

Probably A.

Little I. does this funny thing that when you tell her to wink, she really just closes her eyes and winks her mouth, which is, I think, what I was doing here.

And that has got to be a wrap for tonight, even though we had one more meal before I headed out the next afternoon. You'll just have to wait a week and some days. It will totally be kind-of worth it.