Our Journey

We loaded in the (newly cleaned up!) Jeep yesterday afternoon and took off for a ride! This is a map of where we traveled (approximately, of course... Eric tends to like back roads).

The stops:
1. From our house, we headed down towards the river. We stopped at U.S. Grant's birthplace in Point Pleasant (but they charged $ to go in, so we kept going).

2. Our next destination was the Chilo dam. Eric had been there Thursday night with a guy from work (they were fishing) and said we should go back. There was a (free) museum, a neat-looking playground for the kids (but it was too hot to go on, to Audrey's chagrin... "play! play!"), some docks down to the river, and a telescope so you could see boats/stuff on the Kentucky side of the river. We spent quite a bit of time in the museum - there were some surprisingly interesting things to read/interact with/see. A girl working in the museum told us about a blueberry festival across the river, so our next stop was. . .

3. Augusta, Kentucky. We drove a bit down 52 to get to the Augusta Ferry. Conner was certain he'd never been on a ferry before (I guess he doesn't remember going to Kelley's Island/Put-in-Bay when we was 6 months old!) and loved it. We didn't find the festival, so we went to the Augusta Pub (and played a little bit of indoor cornhole!) for dinner.

4. Because it cost $5 to ride the ferry, we decided to work our way back across the river a different way. We drove down Rt 8 until we got to Maysville, KY and crossed a pretty neat new bridge.

5. Back on 52, we went west (north?) until we came back to Chilo. (By this time the kids were getting tired - Conner'd conked out earlier and Audrey was enjoying her paci but wanting her blankie.) We stopped at the Chilo Dairy Bar, where Conner woke up for a messy messy ice cream cone.
6. Home! Approximately 5 hours after we left and about 90 miles, we made it. It was a fun trip and definitely bedtime when we got here.

So busy...

We've kept ourselves pretty busy for the past few days! Here's a quick (?) recap.

Friday: Got up early to go garage sale-ing with some friends. I found some good buys including a kids' picnic table (for the back deck), snow boots for me, jeans for Conner, and lots of clothes for Aud. Then we all headed to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and to play. After Eric got home from work we went to Kings Island for the evening - got there a little before 7 and stayed for the fireworks at 10. The kids were obviously very tired, but they did great! Both Conner and Audrey were tall enough to ride a few new rides, which was very exciting. This is a little video of them (mostly her) on the bumper cars:

Saturday: Conner went to Woodland Lakes Christian Camp for the day (from 9 - 4) and had a ball. He couldn't remember much of what they'd done for the day, so thank goodness they sent a CD of pictures home with him! It looks like the kids had a ton of fun!

Sunday: Very low key. After church we came home and hung out for the rest of the day. I met some friends at a local coffee place for book club ( this month we read Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum).

Monday: I took the kids to Coney Island to play in the morning. We normally get there around 10 (when they open) and leave between 12:30 and 1:00 so we can get home for Audrey's nap. After a quiet afternoon the kids and I headed up to Fouss' so they could hang out while I had a softball double-header. We ended up playing from 6:15 to 9:15 - it was a long evening! (And came out of it with 2 ties!)

Tuesday: Conner's behavior wasn't great Monday evening when I went to pick them up, so I told him that we weren't going to do anything "fun" on Tuesday. We went up to the library to return some videos, then I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch and to play (so, ok, I went back on what I told Conner, but they'd both been really good!). Conner loves the climbing and sliding; Audrey does too, but she has trouble with the climbing part of it. Fortunately, her big brother was willing to help (for a while, anyway... then it was all Mommy!).

Wednesday (today): The weather was supposed to be a bit iffy (but of course it looks beautiful now!) so I wasn't too sure about going swimming. We ended up meeting our friends Amber and Brendan (who's 3) at a playground by Lunken Airport called "The Land of Make Believe". We'd never been there before, but I'd heard good things about it and was really impressed with what they had! There were several different jungle gyms and slides, swings, a little shelter, and a little sandy area. The kids had a ball and it was a great way to spend our morning!

Miscellaneous notes:
1. I'm sorry that I ever taught Audrey the word "up". She loves to be carried around, and it seems that all I hear these days is "Up! Up!"

2. We're on day 2 of her wearing panties and all is going well! I actually don't worry about it at all when we're out - it's when we're home that she has the most trouble. She did great at the library and McDonald's yesterday and the playground today. Hopefully we've turned a corner!

3. The novelty of sleeping in the big girl bed has worn off. Last night she was not crazy about going to bed and very very soon was coming down the steps. Today's nap seems to be going ok, though she got up early (7:15) this morning and was climbing up in bed with me!

4. Aud's figured out that she can open the fridge. We've never gone through so many apples so quickly!

5. Conner's last 2 t-ball games are tonight and tomorrow. It'll be nice to be done, but I'm sure he'll miss it (at least the playing in the dirt part of it!). He's signed up for fall soccer, which is supposed to start in August. I'm sure that will be a nice cool activity.. not!

Summer Part 2 - The Zoo

It was another yucky gray day this morning, but it wasn't raining when I got up. I checked the radar online and saw that though it looked kind of bad, the chances for rain in the morning were pretty small. I decided that it might be a good day for the zoo!

We left the house about 9:15 and got there a little before 10:00. The parking lot wasn't crowded at all, though there were a bunch of kids (seemingly on a field trip) waiting to get in. Conner, Aud, and I all had hats and were ready to be rained on if necessary, but all we encountered were a few sprinkles. It didn't look pretty, but it definitely was a good day to walk around! There were very few people there and it wasn't hot at all (which was wonderful).





Audrey hasn't been to the zoo for a while so I thought she'd be pretty excited to go see the animals. She seemed interested in what we saw, but she was very very quiet - maybe she was tired? Maybe overwhelmed? I don't know. I pretty much just let Conner dictate what we were going to see and we followed. She really enjoyed the Reptile House (lovely) - had to peek in all of the windows.

We also had a nice ride on the train (you can see how few people were on with us!) after we figured out the seating situation. The kids wanted to sit together, but after we got started moving they had trouble sharing the space. I think the picture to the left is cute, but the best this is that right after I took it, Conner was whining that he couldn't see and Audrey was elbowing him to get him out of our space. She ended up sitting with me for the remainder of the trip.

We also the carousel. Aud was definitely not crazy about that one! I had to hold her on, then she calmed down... until it started moving. We'd gone about a quarter turn when she first said "All done" and wanted off.

After a quick trip through the McDonald's drive thru we headed home - somehow she stayed awake the whole time and is now sleeping peacefully in her new big girl bed!

Summer Part 1 - The New Bed

It was a pretty nasty rainy day yesterday, so Eric ended up coming home around 10 AM and we ran out to do some errands. Our first stop was at Schloemer's Furniture, which is a local store that we've gotten several different things at over the years (Conner's bed, our dining room table, coffee & end tables. . .). We were looking for two things - a twin-sized mattress for Audrey and a new kitchen table (we like the one here with the bench). Their inventory looked pretty low, but they did have a few pillow-top twin mattresses, so we ended up getting one. After several other stops, we made it home so Audrey (and Daddy) could take naps. Conner and I took a trip up to Walmart to get her some (Tinkerbell) sheets, mattress pad, and bed rail. Since the only rail they had was $30, I talked him into (ok, I bribed him with some M&M's!) going with me to a nearby secondhand store. She had 2 bedrails for $10.50 each.

When we got home from our trip, Eric went back up to Schloemer's to pick up the mattress in the truck. As soon as he got home we all headed upstairs to get the bed put together! I got a couple last pictures of the kids in the crib, then we got it put up and started getting the bed put together. Audrey was pretty excited - I just hoped that it would last long enough for her to fall asleep in it at night!




It took a bit to get everything together, so after we got the room set up and came downstairs for a few minutes to relax, it was close to 9:00 before the kids made it to bed. Audrey did really well - we kept telling her that she was to stay in bed until I came to get her in the morning (I'm not sure that she can climb in it by herself, which may help). When I went up to bed and checked on her, she was lying with her head centered perfectly on her pillow under the sheet.

And, yes, she stayed in bed until a little after 8, when I heard her talking and went to get her! It was a great first night.

I've had to leave early for school the past couple of days because we're giving exams and are on a different schedule (I actually have to be there when school starts!). This morning as I was leaving the house around 6:45, I heard Conner upstairs stirring. He came out to the top of the steps and called down something (I don't even know what); I told him that it was early and he needed to go back to bed. Then I heard the toilet flush (him again). He called down again. I told him to go back to bed. Then he said, "But Mom, the sun's awake!" I relented and let him come downstairs.

Just thought that was cute.