Bay Point Exclamation Point!

What a way to end our month long summer trip! Today we spent the day at Bay Point, and I'm pretty sure Nora's head almost exploded in a great way! Almost all of her cousins were in one place - and at a beach to boot, both sets of Grandparents were there plus aunts and uncles and great aunts and uncles...AND the boat! It was a pretty amazing day of fun in the very sunny sun. There was sand playing, water splashing and tubing! Woohoo! Then after a pizza dinner by the beach we of course put the cherry on top by going to Dairy Dock - where Ken and Susan joined us for a dessert to our day! Pretty perfect - except we were a little too late to pick up peaches. Next time! Until next summer, I'm so grateful for the month that we've had and all the fun we've packed into it. Here's hoping Nora remembers at least a little of it! After such a great day it's going to be hard to pack into the car and spend the day driving tomorrow.

Zoo Day Number Two!

We got really lucky today! It would be REALLY lucky, but we didn't get to see Nora the polar bear. Our crew did however get to see pretty much everything we wanted to see at the Columbus zoo before the sun came out and the temperatures soared to crazy heights. It was predicted to be a stifling day but some rain storm related clouds kept the sun at bay. By 3pm we'd seen a pretty decent number of animals and had some pretty tired kiddos. After the zoo we rounded up the dogs and headed up to Bay in time to pop over to the neighborhood block party. Nora had a BLAST playing with the other gazillion kiddos on the street behind my parent's and apparently even has plans for when we're up in December. She's just now taking her dirty feet to bed after partying hard! We'll see how she holds up tomorrow! Hard to believe that our trip is coming to a close already...soo much packing left to do too!

Sun Up to Fun Down!

Another busy day in the books! I've been intending to get my butt down to the beach to see a sunrise for weeks now and today, as my days are dwindling, I finally did...and as expected I loved it and am now kicking myself for not having been down there nearly every morning...what a perfect way to start the day! After watching the day wake up it was time to pack up for an overnight trip to Columbus. We got down there in time to stop at a park that was on my list for a mini adventure - Topiary Park at the old School for the Deaf. It was pretty cool, lots of people shaped bushes. It looked like some could use a little trim but still a GORGEOUS park with a lovely trail, lots of benches, flowers & tress. We found one magical tree that we hung out under/in for a while. After the park I managed to get us to Marty and Kristin's house (3rd time around a block to get on the freeway is the charm!). The kids had fun playing together and we took them all out to dinner. Tomorrow Kyle arrives and we head to the zoo!!

Creek Walking

Everyone was a little antsy today so we headed out into the woods late this morning before the heat really kicked in. This was Nora's first time loose on the trail and she did great and showed her bravery and caution spending most of her time playing in and along the creek with Cort but also navigating some tricky trail and climbing some steep hills on her own. She even managed to stay upright and dry until the very end. Lincoln was content as could be, aside from the time I didn't duck low enough to get under the downed tree and bonked his head...whoops! Cort did well, flushing birds, running, prancing and listening; until he scared the bejeezus out of a poor un-expecting girl who apparently was terrified of dogs to begin with. He was attempting to just say hi but it wasn't received that way. Any who, it was a fun and overall very successful hike in the woods with the kiddos!

Do the Zoo!!

Today was a zoo day at the Cleveland Zoo and my Aunt Ann came with us!! It was perfect weather, a lot of the animals were out and about (the grizzlies were in the water and the one in the background here was washing with a rock!). Nora saw what she wanted to see - elephants and zebras included and both kiddos did well despite pressing through lunch/nap time. Another fun day on our vacation!!

Summer Day

Today was a great recovery day! I dropped Kyle off at the airport this morning and the rest of the day was spent relaxing a bit and catching up on sleep. We spent time out in the yard enjoying the weather. I made Nora a daisy crown which she wore while we enjoyed a little picnic - she didn't want to put her yogurt down to pose for any pictures. Tomorrow is an adventure day with a new guest star!

Solid Sunday

We had a lovely day in Fremont today - Kyle, Nora, Ken & Susan all went to church while I stayed home with a napping Lincoln, who clearly needed his nap because it lasted the entire time they were gone!! We headed to Woody's for lunch, enjoying hotdogs and root beer floats, Nora scoped out the work of a real live very busy spider, and shortly after dinner we got on the road and headed back to Bay so Kyle can fly back to Florida first thing tomorrow morning. This was definitely a whirlwind and jam-packed weekend but oh so much fun!! The plan is to check a few more outings off the list with both kiddos this week! I can't believe our last week in Ohio is here already! It's gone sooo fast!