Ohio Summer

Emma and Jack with Uncle Larry and Aunt Theresa

Jack and the canon that Aunt Theresa helped him make

Emma shows of the ice cream cone that Aunt Theresa helped her make with the Cricut

My intent is to chronicle all of our activities while visiting Ohio this summer. Just try to keep up! We left NC on Wednesday, July 21st after lunch. Allan left work early and everything was ready for him to pack into the van. Given that he is a "master packer", I usually leave that job for him. :)

We had a pretty uneventful trip, thank goodness. Our only stops were for drive thru food and bathroom breaks for Jack. I think his big toe is bigger than his bladder! We made it to Grandma's house by 10:30 pm. Just in time for a couple cold beers and snacks for the kids. We stayed up until after midnight, munching and catching up.

The next morning, we were up early for a big breakfast and some walks around the farm. July in Ohio is so beautiful with all of the crops so green. It was pretty awesome to stand next to the corn, which was over 8 foot tall!

Uncle Dennis came to pick up Dad and Will to head south for the Man Trip. This year's destination was Chillicothe for canoeing. Excitement and testosterone were running rampant!

I packed up Emma and Jack and we headed to Nana's house. After getting settled in there, we headed to Bellevue to visit Grandma Grace. Of course, it was quite the expedition with me not knowing where Bellevue was, Nana's crazy directions and British Jill yelling at me through the Garmin! Throw in a couple detours and I was ready to scream! Thank goodness, we ran into an ice cream stand and I hooked up with a shredded chicken sandwich (only in found in NW Ohio) and turtle sundae #1 of the trip.

Our visit with Grandma Grace was nice. She lives in a very comfortable home with other women. After tiring Grandma out with a lot of talk, we headed to Fostoria to see Aunt Theresa and Uncle Larry. It was a fun, but also sad visit. Uncle Larry gave each of the kids something of his that he wanted them to have. Will got a pocket knife that had belonged to his dad, Emma got a doll from Germany that Aunt Theresa had been given as a gift by Catherine and Louie when she was a little girl and Jack got a Roy Rogers guitar. Uncle Larry wanted the kids to have these gifts while he was still doing well and could enjoy watching them play with the toys.

Aunt Theresa then took us out to show off her scrap booking shop. Emma was in hog heaven! Everything she touched or asked about, Aunt Tree C had to show her how it worked. There were drawers and drawers full of ribbon, brads, die cuts, embellishments, etc. You name it, she had it! Emma especially loved the Cricut and embossing machines. She told me that she could have spend weeks in that shop!

On the way back to NR, we stopped at Bubby's for pizza. Delicious as always. And it went down so well with a cold beer!

After dinner, we headed over to visit with Chris, Jill, Evan and Wyatt. What a hoot! Those boys are just precious. It made me miss the days when all of my kids were little and home all day. I really feel that I made the most of my time with them all home, all of the time, but I still miss their littleness. Is that a word? No matter, that is what I miss. I guess that is why we get such joy out of Jack. It is just different from the other two.

I'm straying from my point. It was great to catch up with Chris and Jill. It's always fun to be around people who are happy and enjoy life. Emma and Jack had a great time playing with someone else's toys. It was almost like Christmas!

Having fun in the corn field

It just isn't a visit to Grandma's without climbing the Tree of Heaven

Look how tall the corn is!

Having fun with Grandma

My handsome guys