HeaderRight and analytics

Pic of the Week

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Cleveland

We made it to Cleveland on Sunday. This week we're staying at a KOA, which is a really nice treat. We haven't stayed at a park with so many amenities for awhile. There's a playground for the kids, a lake to swim in complete with water slide and inflatable climbing pillow, an old fire truck for the kids to ride, a beach with lots of sand for digging in, and a large site with grassy areas to play, a firepit, and a picnic table. Two minutes down the road is a city park with an enormous playground, and just beyond that is a shopping center with Target, the grocery store, banks, gas stations, and pretty much anything else we could need. It's a nice setup this week.

The only thing we're not close to is museums, but since we went three times last week I think it will be okay to take a few days off. There are some in Cleveland, but it's a bit of a drive so we'll probably wait until Saturday to go out there.

The weather has been beautiful, low 70s with just a sprinkle of rain, so it's been great for playing outside. We've already spent hours at the playground and the park.

The kids are really excited about next week-we'll be meeting up with Grandma Fox in New York. They've been talking about it for weeks and weeks!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Ohio

It has been a good week so far in Ohio.

We've been to the museum twice, and the kids really enjoyed that. It's one of the biggest museums we've seen the whole time we've been traveling. In fact, the kids' room is bigger than some entire children's museums we've visited! They loved everything, from the water spray room and the submarine to riding the glass elevator and watching the overhead unicycle.

We also found some good thrift stores and grocery sales here, which has been helpful. And there was a garage sale a few houses down from where we're staying (it's an old farmhouse that turned their yard into an rv park) where we found a bulldozer from the same set as Ian's front loader that he plays with ALL the time. It was only $1, so we got that for him and a $2 bubble machine for Rinnah-they were pretty happy campers. :)

Yesterday we went out to Ohio State and Jeremy showed us the big student union building that his company did the A/V programming for. That was pretty neat! I haven't ever gotten to see his work in person, just the mockups on Jeremy's computer, so it was fun to see his designs up on the big screens. Afterwards we went out for pizza at a delicious pizza restaurant, a very nice treat.

Today we're laying low here at home, because Ian got new pajamas that he refuses to take off, and Rinnah wants to wear the same shirt she's been wearing day and night for 5 days now and she won't put any pants on. Since that doesn't really fit public dress codes, we're going to try staying at home and playing with wooden trains for awhile.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Off to Ohio

We had a really great time in Virginia. For some reason, I found it really difficult to make time for blogging, but I'm hoping to turn over a new leaf here and get back to regular posting.

One of the highlights of our time in Virginia was a train trip to Charlottesville. We took the Amtrak for a short ride, just over an hour, into Charlottesville. We got there around 11:15, and then walked to a park to have lunch. The park turned out to have a huge playground that was fun for the grownups and the kids both. We played there for quite awhile, enjoying the beautiful weather that day. Then we had a picnic lunch next to the playground.

From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA

(she was jumping!)

PJ and Caedmon
From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


I love Caedmon's blue eyes!
From Lynchburg, VA


After lunch, we walked to the Discovery Museum. It turned out to be a really nice walk through the downtown mall in Charlottesville-all sorts of street vendors and interesting shops to look at along the way. The museum was a big hit with the kids.

Dress up
From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


Ian and Abby in the rocking boat
From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


This part of the museum was really nice-a big open room with lots to play with, and we could just sit down in the middle and keep an eye on the kids. It was a good break for the adults who'd been pushing the strollers all over!
From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


Just outside the museum was this carousel-the kids really enjoyed this. Ian even put his teddy bear on one of the horses.


From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


From Lynchburg, VA


After the museum we had a nice dinner outside, by a fountain in the downtown mall area, and then headed back to the train. It was such a great day! We'd had some concerns, since none of us are especially punctual people (it's hard with little kids), and we clearly needed to be on time for the Amtrak. But it worked out beautifully! We had just the right amount of time everywhere, never feeling rushed but never having to wait more than a few minutes either. The weather was perfect too. And the kids held up amazingly well for a day with no real naptime. It was such a fabulous day with great friends!


That was about a week ago. This past weekend, we said goodbye to Virginia and headed to Columbus, Ohio. We arrived on Sunday with enough time to do a short visit at the COSI science museum, and that was great. We only saw a small part of the museum but enough to see that it's a really fabulous place! We'll definitely be going back there a few more times this week before we head to Cleveland on Sunday.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

August

This blog has been sadly neglected these last few weeks!

We've just been laying low here in Virginia. We've really enjoyed our time here. Debbie & PJ's church is really wonderful, definitely something we have loved while we've been here. Ian and Rinnah just adore Abby. They can't get enough of her. Every day they're asking me if we'll see Abby today, and Ian is drawing pictures for her, or painting pictures for her, or coming up with things he wants to show her, or toys he wants to share with her-it's very sweet. They like Caedmon too, but since he doesn't talk yet they don't quite get to interact in the same way. And I have loved having Debbie nearby-it's so wonderful to have an old friend (we were roommates in college) who knows me well, but who also understands the challenges of being a mom to two young kids.

Next week we'll be moving to a different campground to try out, because we might be coming back for awhile next spring. We'd love the chance to get plugged in, even for just a few months, at this church and financially this is a really inexpensive area to hang out for awhile and save up some money, so it's an option we're seriously considering.

Not a whole lot else happening. Our big adventure for the day was going out to Dairy Queen to buy blizzards for the Miracle Treat Day. While we were out we also ended up needing to replace the car battery. Oh well, we were thankful that we could just run right over to Advance Auto Parts and have them install it, and neither of us was out stuck somewhere, and we weren't in a hurry.

A little over a week left here and then we'll be off to Ohio.

Based on original Visionary template by Justin Tadlock
Visionary Reloaded theme by Blogger Templates

Visionary WordPress Theme by Justin Tadlock Powered by Blogger, state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform