Monthly Archives: August 2019

August 2019

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We spent the last couple weeks of summer packing in all sorts of activities and wrapping up our Bucket List. We did super-great this year, accomplishing most everything on our list with the exception of a couple things! It definitely was a busy summer and seemed to fly by faster than any other yet.

Summer baseball wrapped up on a perfect sunny morning. Griffin did really well this season both fielding and getting some great hits. He is pretty focused out there.

On Saturday afternoon we headed to the Irish Festival. We essentially spent several hours in the kids play area and then had some dinner under one of the tents. Reid is at an age where it makes it challenging to really do much other than kids stuff. And like most his age, waiting doesn’t come easy for this toddler. So while we’re happy to have gone, Kevin and I decided next year we’ll get a sitter and go for an adult afternoon/evening where we can take in more of the actual festival!

One of the items on our summer bucket list was riding our bikes to downtown Powell for dinner and ice cream, which we were able to (mostly) accomplish! Kevin rode his bike to Library Park by our house where he met me and the boys. We took my bike and Griffin’s bike in the van and parked there so we wouldn’t need to bike on Jewett Road as there aren’t any sidewalks. We rode all the way to City Barbecue and Graeter’s on another nice evening. Once dinner was over we hopped on our bikes and about 10 feet away from City BBQ the pedal of Kevin’s bike fell off.  It had been loose on our way there and we were hoping to make it home, but it wouldn’t stay on. We switched Reid’s chair to my bike and the boys and I headed thru town and back to Library park. We tossed our bikes in the car and drove home to drop them off and then headed to pick Kevin and his bike up at Village Green Park. A memorable trip!

This was my version of showers for the boys on this particular night, lol. The both thought it was great and I must say it was actually quite fun and full of laughter.

Another summer bucket list item was camping in the back yard and making s’mores! We had the perfect night weather-wise and Kevin and Griffin had setup our camp in the back yard complete with our neighbors fire pit. Lily and Brutus joined us outside for pizza and ginormous s’mores. Then we got ready for bed and the boys watched a show on the tablet before lights out in the tent – all 4 of us plus Lily and Brutes. After about 15 minutes in the dark of Reid still getting up and wondering around inside I decided to throw the towel in and take Reid inside. So that night Kevin and Griffin and the dogs slept in the tent. The following day was a busy one starting with a birthday party for our friend Sammy, then a baseball game for Finn, followed by a fun night at Crew Stadium, which we got tickets through Locker Soccer for a special night where the kids got on the field before the game to play, they sat on the benches during the team warm ups, and then a halftime got to go to the tunnel and smack hi-fives to the players as they returned to the field. It was a nice evening – another perfect fall temperature night – so Griffin and I took a turn in the tent when we got home.

The following day we headed to my friend Jaime’s house for a pool party with my college girl friend crew and (most of) their families. We enjoyed a nice cookout and all of the kids and adults were in and out of the pool and hot tub for several hours. Another great afternoon of sun and fun! It’s crazy how quickly these kids are growing up – Audrey turned 13 this month!

On Tuesday, 8/13, we headed to the Open House where Griffin met his first grade teacher, Mrs. Hale. He explored his room and put away his school supplies in his desk. It was a short but fun visit. Afterward we headed for haircuts which were in dire need before school started Thursday!

I’ve been working on being more prepared with meal ideas for the week and having easy and quick dinners to make on the weeknights. It’s been working out pretty well and the boys have been eating well too. I actually snapped a pic of Reid eating spaghetti, yay!

The first day of school was on Thursday, 8/15. Griffin was so excited he walked into the kitchen fully dressed with shoes and socks on at 6:50 am! He went out and talked to the middle schoolers at 7:30 am (our driveway is the bus stop for all – elementary/middle/high). Kevin prepared a fun pancake breakfast, including a tiger paws and 1st! Griffin has the most genuine, huge smile with his plate of cakes. We hung out in the driveway with Haya and our neighbors and all of the kiddos awaiting the bus. Haya brought Griffin a 1st day of school present  skeeball! Wowzer, this boy has it made! We love having our driveway be the hub of activity :). I’m really liking his teacher, Mrs. Hale. I enjoyed going to the Curriculum night and learning more about her and her teaching philosphy and the plan for the year. She uses an app called Bloomz and regularly posts class updates, including photos, throughout the week. Some of the pics below are from the app.

We headed to Nocterra for a spontaneous hang out with our neighbors on Friday afternoon at the end of the first school week. The kids had a lot of fun and were sweaty messes by the time we went home.

I found this selfie on my phone and while it’s dark I think it’s a cute one of Finn :). This boy is growing up too fast for my liking….he’s got a tooth starting to poke through on the bottom and hadn’t lost one yet, that is until on Sunday night, after the first couple days of school Griffin asked Daddy to pull it! Kevin made a lasso using floss and sure enough that baby was so ready to come out it flew across the bathroom and hit my leg! Griffin said it didn’t even hurt! He was excited to use his Tooth Fairy box for the first time. Earlier in the afternoon on Sunday we gathered with the Bethunes, Mom, and Dad at the Dublin South Pool to celebrate Rowan’s birthday. It was quite a warm day and many others had the same idea but we had a great time. Reid has really become a water bug and Graham walked all around the pool with him. Dad and Rowan tag teamed the water slide too :).  Later in the week on Wednesday, Griffin came home with a tooth missing! His tooth came out in class and he got to go to the nurse who gave him a tooth necklace in order to safely get his tooth home. I was amazed, it made it all the way home even on the bus! This kid has had a big week!

On Wednesday, Reid had his “meet the teacher” morning for a half hour, where he can play in his classroom, meet his teacher, and get comfortable with his surroundings. His Guppy class is in the same room he is in on Sunday’s during church so he’s already pretty comfortable there. He will be going to school on Monday and Wednesday’s from 9:30 am – 1 pm.

On Friday I took Reid with me to Millcreek for a couple hours to get some things done on my “day off”.  He enjoyed pretending to drive the golf carts and tractors. He did really well as we were there for just less than 3 hours. He watched some Peppa , his most requested show, on the tablet to keep occupied.

Later on Friday Griffin and I went to the St. Joan of Arc Festival just down the street. Reid stayed home and went to bed and Daddy got some quiet time.  We met up with our neighbors Abbie and her dad Bernie and the two kids went from ride to ride for a couple of hours. It was cool outside by the end of the night – I could have used a jacket!

We’ve signed Griffin up for i9 Soccer for the Fall season and the first game was Saturday. Griffin is all about sports. He is the most intent player out there, so focused and hard core! He did really well considering this is the first time he’s done soccer on a team that plays games! One of his teammates scored at the end of the game to tie it up for a 2-2 tie. Kevin is coaching along with Brian, our neighbor, and Cole and Griffin are on the team together. It will be a fun fall season.

After soccer we headed to Enon for the night. The boys stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while Kevin and I headed to Dayton to have dinner with Sarah and Kara before heading to the Lauren Daigle concert at the Nutter Center. After dinner we had 1.2 miles to drive to the concert – and would you believe it took us more than an hour to get there! Traffic was insane, unlike any traffic I’ve sat in for Buckeye games or concerts anywhere I’ve ever gone! But we made it after the warm-up artist (don’t even know who it was!) and before Lauren began playing. It was a lovely show, she has one of the most flawless voices I’ve heard especially in a live concert. It was great.

On Sunday we enjoyed a lazy start to the day and then were off to Young’s for a bit of fun in the batting cages, the barrel rides, playing in the corn bin, and ice cream – of course! We fed the goats too before heading back for dinner at Grandma and Grandpas. Another great weekend of fun!

Now that school has been in session a couple of weeks we’ve got a good routine down. Weeknights are busy as Griffin has swim on Mondays and Soccer on Tuesdays, then soccer again on Saturday mornings. We grab dinner after swim (as it starts at 5) and this week stopped at Culver’s. There was a face painter there so both boys got Spiderman on their cheeks. They were delighted. Afterward we had to make a quick pit stop at Target, in their skeleton pjs nonetheless. My little skeletons were crazy characters running around Target. Then it was home and to bed.

And here are a few more from the end of the month. Haya sent me this picture of Reid which I thought was perfect! Griffin is becoming more and more brave as he’s learning to climb trees. It makes this mama nervous though I’m encouraging him to do as much as he feels comfortable doing! On Thursday night the boys and I went on a 35 minute bike ride going through several neighborhoods near us. It was a lot of fun as we explored new to us places on bikes and then finished with a sweet treat in the driveway.

We kicked off the Labor Day weekend on Friday with pizza at Dewey’s, Ice cream across the street at Graeter’s, and then putt putt nearby in Westerville. We hadn’t been to the Westerville Golf Course before but are glad we went as the mini-golf course was fun and beautifully landscaped. We will go back when we can spend more time and take in the batting cages!

Saturday morning it was up and at ’em for breakfast followed by a short trip to COSI to see the Jim Henson exhibit before it leaves! We were able to see many of the Sesame Street characters and various artifacts from Jim Henson’s puppeteer career. We also explored the dinosaurs and got wet in the kids water area. Then we headed home to watch the Buckeyes win the first game of the season. Go Bucks. The boys enjoyed playing flag football during the game, lol.

I’m excited that we have two canteloupe and one watermelon growing this year in our garden, however, they’ve come down with powdery mildew and I’m not sure the fruit will mature before the plants die off. Ugh. It’s a good thing cucumbers are easy – that’s about the only thing we seem to grow reliably in our garden each year.

 

 

And here are a few shots at Millcreek. We took several members of our team up to Corso’s in early August. Many of our staff hasn’t seen the new shipping process in action, they’ve just heard us explain it. To get everyone a bit more comfortable and to see things with their own eyes we took a field trip. Then a couple weeks later our consultant was in town and we did a “mock up” in our new facility. We took the team out with batch pull tickets to pull the mass items from the greenhouses, then took the racks in and ran them through the process in the new facility and got them staged in the supermarket. Then we shopped the supermarket for individual orders.  So many moving parts!! It is really cool to see it all come together, but there are so many details to still iron out. This spring will be quite different.

The electric and dock/driveway areas are nearly complete. This week we were able to have our main driver pull down into the dock and “mock” position the truck in each of the 4 dock lanes. It’s going to be good  – and tight – with the western most dock lane, but he got in and out and says it will do – Woohoo!

July 16-31, 2019 ~ Florida & Tennessee Summer Vacation

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Summer vacation 2019 – woohoo! We look forward to this week every year. I love the time with family, a slower pace than usual, and lots of time in a pool. I also love that the kids are creating memories with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Uncle Andy, and their cousins. So, thanks Mom and Dad for treating us to this trip and for the wonderful memories!

Our home this year in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, had an awesome layout where the kids room was the third floor, two sets of bunks, and a side play room with chairs, a couch, games, and a tv. Reid had his own room, which at first I was kind of sad about as he missed out on more cousin time, but it ended up being a great thing as he was able to get plenty of great sleep.

I will warn you – there are a ridiculous number of photos and videos in this post. You would think after so many years of putting posts together I would learn to make them shorter and less work, but I seem to be going in the opposite direction. I love to be able to go back through old pictures or look something up – so as per usual I’ve included a crazy amount of pics.

We drove this year, leaving Friday morning and driving to Fultondale, Alabama on day 1. The dogs were sad to see us go and not quite sure why they couldn’t come. Before we left they laid there looking mopey. It was a pretty “easy” drive. We took the Volvo, had a few fun games to play in the car, and stopped along the way including one rest stop where we saw a space rocket (?). Saturday morning we got up early and had breakfast at the Hampton Inn followed by a dip in the pool. We weren’t in too much of a hurry as our drive to Santa Rose was to be about 3.5-4 hours. As it turned out we ran in to quite a bit of traffic from Birmingham to Florida so the drive took much longer than we anticipated. We arrived around 5 pm and quickly unloaded the car and moved in. Of course about 20 minutes prior to arriving Reid fell asleep in the car. The kids both did really well with the drive. They slept very little, perhaps an hour nap each day/trip, and we enjoyed looking for different license plates. Nashville was great for finding a ton of them – including Alaska!

Mom and Dad made a delicious spaghetti dinner and afterwards gave the kids matching tie-dyed swim shirts and towels. They were all so excited to see what was in the bag and they hit the pool for a quick dip before dark.

On the first morning, Kevin woke at the crack of dawn and was out the door to The Donut Hole and Wal-mart before 7 am. His internal wake-up alarm got him up early most every day of vacation! He brought home some tasty donuts that everyone enjoyed and got our shopping done before wallyworld got too crazy. The kids came down in their vacation pj’s, this year looking like a crew of bandits! Sadly, I realized I didn’t get Reid any pjs! Don’t know where my brain was, but we made up for it and got him some blue-striped pj’s while we visited Seaside on our family night.

Our vacation home was in a gated community this year which had a wonderful infinity pool at the club area. There were also boardwalks through the marshes and beautiful views as the neighborhood was surrounded by a nature preserve. It wasn’t as convenient to go to the beach, it was a short drive and full parking lot so we parked along the roadside, which turned out to be fine just a bit of a walk to get to the beach.

Another morning Kevin work up early and got started making “The Breakfast”. It was a tasty start to the day. We went to the beach twice during the week. The kids loved body boarding and playing in the sand. Griffin didn’t love all the sand in his swimsuit (after having been buried, which he thought was great). The water the first day had lots of seaweed but was still quite clear and pretty. The second time we visited it was much more clear and hardly any seaweed (though lots of tiny dead fish on the shore, which we called sardines whether they were or not!).

Here is our family selfie, followed by the pics Amy took of us taking our selfie, lol. Hers are better!

Our night out for dinner was spent at Chanticleer, a short drive from our house. It was a delicious dinner where we had our own private room which worked out great (even though it was quite loud) for our crew. Afterward, Mom and Dad treated everyone to ice cream at Blue Mountain Creamery.

 

 

For Date night, Kevin and I headed out and did some walking at shopping at an outdoor mall. We ended up in Tommy Bahama where we had success finding some dresses for me and shorts and a shirt for Kevin. We headed on to the Vue for a delicious dinner and a great view of the beach. I enjoyed some tasty, fruity, beachy drinks and Kevin tried out the local brews. This is one of my favorite nights, because as we’re out the kids are home with Grandma and Grandpa. Mom and Dad are always great about having some sort of activity to do with the kids. This year, they each colored pictures to give to us when we returned home. They also went on a long walk through the marshes and the neighborhood. Everyone had loads of fun and we loved coming home to the artwork :).

I went on a long 50-minute walk one morning and headed toward the state park down the road from our neighborhood. It was a mile to get there so I wasn’t able to spend too much time there before heading back home. The views were nice, though the Alligator warning signs made me nervous!

For on your own family night we got a bit of a later start, leaving the house at 5 pm once Reid and Daddy were up from their naps :). We headed east on 30A to a place called The Hub. I had found them on Instagram and had been following them for awhile. We had dinner and the kids played a bit on the open lawn area. There was live music and we walked through a few shops. We then headed back towards our house and decided to stop in Seaside, a cute town along 30A with lots of shops. We enjoyed ice cream and shopping. Griffin used his own money to buy a Monster Truck, staying within his budget of $9. Man, it’s hard to find something less than $10 in a toy store in a vacation destination, lol! But I’m proud that Griffin found something that he would enjoy within his budget. He has a Save/Spend/Give piggy bank and had brought money in his Spend pouch for vacation shopping. We got a keepsake for Griffin, a Cheetah lovey, and a pair of cute pj’s for Reid.

Graham, Rowan, and Greta had visited Seaside as well and each gotten a new toy. The kids were so excited the next morning they were up quite early (6:30 am or before!) to play. I heard them talking and playing and went upstairs and found this!  We spent a lot of time at the pool this year, going at least once if not twice a day. We packed lunch or headed home for a quick bite and then went back. Griffin got much more comfortable in the water throughout the week. The difference from day 1 at the hotel to even day 3 at the pool was remarkable. He was working on his underwater skills and loved getting the rockets and shark off the bottom of the pool. Reid wore his floaties and absolutely had the best time on the stairs, where he could walk on his feet, walk with his hands, or swim off the steps to someone nearby. By the end of the week he would just float and swim without any encouragment. They are both little water bugs.

We always try to get an entire family photo while we’re on vacation. This year we were able to get some great ones on the front steps of our house! It was warm and steamy but we pulled it off pretty quickly and got some great shots – thanks to Amy! While there are ton included below, if you look closely you’ll see personalities shine through in the different images :). Pay close attention to eyes and smiles.

Sadly, the week came to an end all too fast! Before we knew it Saturday morning arrived. After the traffic we ran in to (and saw leaving FL on our way down) we gave some thought to spending Saturday night in Florida before heading north, but as it turned out we decided to hit the road early to avoid traffic. We were up at 5:15 am and on the road by 6. We were making great progress and stopped for breakfast around 9 am as we also wanted to check the tire pressure in our rear left tire as the warning light had come one. As it turns out, there was a machine screw in the tire and after two attempts to get it plugged, we ended up needed to replace the tire. Thankfully, this repair shop was just a short distance from the Chick-fil-A we stopped at so the boys and I spent nearly 3 hours there while Kevin was getting it repaired. At one point he came back to Chick-fil-A as it was time for lunch and I didn’t have any money with me since we hadn’t planned on staying there! He came back, we had lunch, and then he and Griffin were walking back to the car shop. While doing so, a police officer stopped and asked them if things were ok and ended up taking them in the police car to the auto shop. Makes for a great memory, and Griffin loved that he got to ride in the car and got a sticker from the police officer.

We arrived in Nashville and stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel for three nights before returning home. That place is crazy huge – like 9 acres indoors with numerous “areas” of rooms, restaurants, shops, etc. It is like a botanical garden on the inside when you walk from one area to another. There is also a boat ride, which we had tickets for but sadly never got around to doing as we spent 2 days in WaterSound, the place they call “not a waterpark, it’s your new happy place”. It is an awesome indoor and outdoor waterpark that you can walk to from your room.  It was very clean, modern, and fun! Since it is in music city, and the park is named WaterSound, every slide, pool, etc., had a name themed after music. Pretty creative names!

While we didn’t need to leave the hotel/resort area I wanted to venture out and see a bit of Nashville. We ventured across the street to the Nashville Palace where we had pub-fare and listened to live music. The musicians had all toured with famous country singers and they were quite good. It was a low-key dinner followed by a trip to downtown Nashville, about an 17 minute drive, to visit the Legendairy Milkshake Shop – another Instagram find. Super cool (and expensive) shakes. It was spendy, but it was fun too and Griffin’s excitement to tear in to his Candy Land milkshake was fun. Kevin created his own Vanilla with a donut (and MMs on the side for Reid), and I had a Cookies N Cream.

On our final night, we enjoyed a sit-down dinner at a nice italian restaurant within the hotel. It sits in one of the Atrium areas. The food was delicious and both boys were so hungry they ate a majority of their pizza.

After dinner we walked around and perused areas of the hotel we hadn’t been to. We were on the hunt for a gift for Cameron for staying at our house with the dogs. We found Cowboys and Angels and before we new it we walked out of there with two cowboys ourselves. We got Griffin and Reid matching cowboy hats and boots. I loved watching them get so excited and I think they look adorbs. Looking forward to wearing these this fall to the fair or various farms we visit :).

We arrived back home Tuesday and I was home from work on Wednesday getting everything back in order. Then on Thursday evening we went to the Kids Fun Run preceding the Irish Festival. This was Reid’s first year and as you can see in the video, he wasn’t too sure at the start. But once he got going he was all in! Griffin, Rowan, Graham, and Greta all ran as well. Afterward we headed to Johnson’s Ice Cream for a sweet treat to celebrate their run. Reid got an extra special, non-ice-cream treat of a sprinkle cone filled with gummies! Lordy, so many gummies.

And here are the videos – be sure to watch the ones from the Kids Dash fun run at the Irish Festival. Reid wasn’t too sure to start! Also, Griffin was getting really good at body surfing this year!