I think the saying typically goes “Christmas in July” but this year, it is “July around Christmas” for this post. To say I’m behind is an understatement. So these posts will be picture heavy and story light. I’m just ready to unload the burden of getting them done.
In early July Sean, Charlotte, and Max visited Ohio and that included a couple of trips to our house in Powell. We had fun hanging out and enjoyed a bike ride to downtown Powell for dinner at Koble together outside on the patio. The kids love playing together and the pictures from previous visits also prove they are all growing up.
We were fortunate to attend the inaugural Crew match at the new Lower.com field in July as well. It was an electric atmosphere with so much energy and excitement. We literally sat at the top of our section and the view was still stellar.
July is also full of many visits to the pool. We are fortunate to have a fun neighborhood.
We went to Mom and Dad’s new house for the 4th of July and the kids enjoyed setting off some crackers.
Reid has always been a snuggler. He is an early morning guy.
This will be the last year for our “patio garden”. It had a very slow start this year and took forever to produce anything. But we enjoyed tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers from it.
This year we made a trip to a blueberry farm and harvested some fresh blues. To be honest, it was a slow picking! But the fruits were tasty and we were able to take some on vacation.
While Reid does not “nap” officially, he really does need a rest during the day. I often find him sleeping in random places.
This year Mom and Dad treated us to a wonderful family vacation in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. It’s only about a 4 hour drive from our house – which was wonderful! We had a great week filled with a pontoon boat and tube rental, fun adventures, good food, and family time.
We primarily are still sticking to outdoor activities, including a visit here and there to Nocterra. We met up with Brian, Lisa, Cooper and Cole for a fun night and the kids enjoyed playing card games.
We got our entire house carpets cleaned and it is amazing the difference in the way it makes the house feel (and smell!). If only we were able to keep the rooms this clutter-free and organized all the time….one can only dream.
Look at little Reidy from a couple of years ago! He continues to be a trooper and goes with me to Griffin’s soccer practices and other necessities. He loves adventure.
It’s been so long ago it’s hard to even recall, but I believe we went on a walk and in the end had a competition where we all placed and were given medals (a nod to the olympics that were going on at the time). Even Brutie got in on the medal placing.
Catching lightning bugs with the Manning girls, a bike ride for breakfast to The Locust Table in downtown Powell, a fun trip to the park, and a visit to Griffin’s new playground at Tyler Run.
And a little nod at the listing of Mom and Dad’s Mansfield home listing. The number of views and saves online were crazy!
Millcreek had a fun social event put on by the social committee – the Summer Olympics. It included a timed competition for filling flats with pots, pie eating, plug tray sticking, and an egg toss.
Looking back on November, it flew by in an instant but was loaded with fun. Griffin continues with Distance Learning and Reid remains home. He often gets to do fun projects with Lexi, including this cute book with a few things he likes. He absolutely loves pink!
We ventured up to Mansfield on a warm sunny weekend so we could help Mom and Dad button up the greenhouse before winter, and before we headed south for vacation. It was the warmest day that I can recall in recent years when we’ve covered – we were sweating by the end! Dad installed some new vents in the greenhouse this year so we had a couple of new cuts to make and secure. The kids and Grandma made some tasty chocolate chip cookies that we were able to take with us to Tennessee.
Our neighbors down the street, Jane and Bryan, are such fun hosts. They invited all of the neighborhood kids to join in an afternoon of rocket launching! Everyone masked up, as there were quite a few of us, and man was it a warm day! Each of the kids were given a rocket and they were able to shoot it off twice. Meanwhile, the other kids tried to catch the rocket as it parachuted to the ground. It was a fun, and quite hot, day!
Afterward once we were home the boys were playing around inside the house. After a bit I noticed how quiet it was and suddenly couldn’t locate Reid. Quite literally I was running around the house, inside and out, yelling Reid’s name and Griffin and I could not find him anywhere. I was really getting worried that he wondered off. I finally went into his room and turned the corner and found him lying in his room on the floor asleep, naked! Poor kiddo was exhausted.
The following morning we left on our annual road trip to Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Before leaving, Griffin hopped on his morning meeting as he was the teacher’s helper for the day. He was able to help with the date, pick the character on the front page of the slide, and we’re not sure what else (lol) as I’m writing this post 9 months later. Miss Peacock was great with involving the kids, even through the virtual setup.
We arrived at our cabin and surprised the boys that this year our cabin had a pool in the lower level! We stayed in a new neighborhood for us just a short distance from where we typically stay. Our cabin was really awesome with three levels, plenty of games, space, and areas for everyone to spread out. Kevin was able to work from the basement lower level, Griffin did school daily from the kitchen area, and Reid and I moved around trying to stay quiet and not be a distraction to all the work that was going on.
In these Covid times we’ve been very cautious and have primarily dined at home or gotten carry out. Each year we visit Gatlinburg on the evening of our arrival and have dinner at Smoky Mountain Brewery. We decided to give get it delivered this year and eat at home. It wasn’t the same, but it was good nonetheless!
We ventured out to The Island and sat outside on the open air patio of restaurant for a short bit and then all of a sudden the power went out – to everything at the Island! Some things ran on generators, including the ferris wheel. It was weird to have everything go dark but also kind of fun.
Grandma and Grandpa sent us on the road with a fun book and car for Griffin and Reid. They loved them both and played with them a lot during our trip. One great thing about CDL (Committed Distance Learning) is that it can be done anywhere! So this year we didn’t need to fill out any forms and have Griffin miss school during our trip, rather he was able to do school on the same schedule each day! So while he participated in school, Kevin worked, Reid and I played and hung out, and once school was over we would venture out. “Recess” time was typically a quick dip in the pool or a lap around the neighborhood outside. Not a bad deal!
We ventured in to Gatlinburg and decided to dine indoors at Ole Red where we could take in some live music. I was rather nervous as we really haven’t dined indoors at all much, but it turned out to be ok and we all survived. Afterwards we walked around Gatlinburg and stumbled upon a chili cookoff event where they also had some live music.
It’s kind of funny looking back at these pictures 9 months after the fact, but when doing a load of laundry (located in a closet) I was closing the closet door and heard something fall. I opened up the door and saw that the iron had fallen out of the top door organizer, so I picked it up, put it back in, and when swinging the door closed it happened again only this time it landed on the bridge of my nose causing a bit of a bloody gash. Ugh. So for the remainder of vacation I had a nice mark on my nose.
Dollywood continues to be our favorite amusement park. It is so clean and there are so many things for young kids to do. We frequently slathered the kids in hand sanitizer after riding a ride and had fun walking around outdoors doing all the amusement park things.
We stuck primarily to outdoor activities, which is pretty normal actually during this trip. We played Hillbilly Golf and each of the boys did really well and had a lot of fun. Griffin got a hole in one!
Kevin made a really nice charcuterie tray as an appetizer on our Anniversary. It was devoured pretty quickly by big and little hands. Later that evening we headed to a later showing at Dolly Parton’s Stampede for the dinner show. Reid got to go down to “chase the chickens” but in typically Reid fashion, had a bit of stage fright and stubbornness and decided he didn’t really want to do it! Made for a good memory.
We went to Smoky Mountain Brewery in the late afternoon and enjoyed our traditional pizza dinner, dine in style this time. The restaurant did a good job spacing out guests and tables. And while I was a bit nervous, everything was fine. It’s kind of crazy how once you become accustomed to not going indoors places when you begin to do it again it’s kind of nerve wracking. At least it was for me!
More of the normal: mac and cheese, computers, school, computers, school, more computers and school…..
Our neighborhood this year was great for getting out and walking and also a bit of climbing on the huge rock. Each of the boys tested their fear-factor and made it to the top for the victor stance. They are strong and brave! It’s hard to really see from the pictures just how huge this rock really is!
Lexi stayed at our house with Brutus while we were away. She took great care of him and sent us pics while we were away 🙂
Once we returned home it was back to the grind of the everyday.
Sadly, we didn’t gather with family for Thanksgiving this year. So while we were home the boys and I made pecan and pumpkin pies. And we had a ginormous feast on Thanksgiving day. Leftovers for days. Thankfully, we were able to facetime with family later in the evening.
Here we have evidence that boys will be boys, lol!
During the nice fall warm days the neighborhood kids have been playing football games. Kevin took advantage of the warm to put up Christmas lights on the house this year. It looks great! The boys and I decorated for the Christmas season and got in to the holiday spirit. Each year Griffin, in particular, is so excited to help decorate! We went off on our annual adventure to cut down a Christmas tree but this year we struck out! The farm we typically go to did not have ANY tall trees this year, so we sadly left without a tree. Of all places, we ended up a Lowe’ to get a small tree for our foyer area. Then we decided to go the artificial route this year for our 12-13′ family room tree due to the tree shortage in general this year. First time ever for a fake tree. But it is a nice one and we added scent sticks to fill the house with the smell of a fresh cut tree. Not the same, but that’s ok.
It has taken us several years, 5 1/2 actually, but we were finally able to get our family headstone and Nathan’s headstone installed at the cemetery in Dublin. We are happy with how they turned out and are relieved to have them there to more finitely be able to find our plots.
Millcreek renovations have begun as we are converting our former shipping warehouse to additional office spaces. We’re removing the overhead doors on the North and South sides of the building and converting half of the open spaces into a conference room, new larger lunch room, a new growers office, and three additional private offices along with a new customer lobby. Bring on the construction!
Get ready for picture overload from our vacation week at Camp B! Our original plans to go to Bethany Beach area of Delaware were changed due to the corona. But we had a wonderful week in Mansfield at Camp B. Mom and Dad spent a lot of time and preparation to make each day a fun one.
We started with the Camp Welcome that included Grandpa reviewing the rules of camp and raising of the Camp B flag. Kevin designed a camp logo and got the flag along with stickers that we put on water bottles, journals, and lanterns. Mom and Dad got everyone Camp B shirts and the Bethune’s got the kiddos really cool head lamps. At the welcome, the kiddos each opened their bags which also included a book for each of them along with a letter and spending money from Grandma and Grandpa. Pretty grand start!
Kevin put a lot of work into pre-building the car wash at home and then later Friday evening he assembled it at Camp B along with help from Rowan and Grandpa.
Reid could regularly be round all week long wearing his back pack, that he had filled with his journal and book all while walking around with his headlamp and holding his lantern. Silly kid. The kids played a lot of what we refer to as “hot lava” where they use the stepping blocks to stay off the floor, or lava. It was an awesome birthday gift from the Bethune’s to Reid. Pretty fun entertainment and definitely works their core.
On Saturday we had a water day filled with fun at the car wash, a bubble machine maker, and the pool. The kids spent hours in their suits doing all the things. A pretty grand time.
Lots of the above activities and the heat then leads to situations like these, lol. Reid has pretty much stopped napping, except for on vacation. That’s what vacation is all about though, right? All the kids enjoy sitting in the family room recliner from time to time. Sometimes there are even 3 or 4 of them in it! Reid and Greta spent a fair bit of time together.
Another fun outdoor activity was squirt-gun dying t-shirts! The kids each picked the colors they wanted and shot and their shirts to decorate them in any fashion they wanted. It was pretty fun to watch and see what kind of creations everyone made. Reid did really well!
Like my previous post said, we still find Reid suddenly napping in no particular place. This day he was b-e-a-t and I could NOT get him to wake up. I picked him up, talked to him, walked around, and then gave him to Grandpa!
We ate at home each night, rotating through who made dinner like we typically do. Each night we always enjoy some kind of dessert and this night my Dad and I made a trip to the good ole DQ for sweet treats for everyone! Yummers!
The kids each brought sleeping bags (because it is camp after all!) and ending up sleeping in Mom and Dad’s newly finished basement together each night. They each had bedside tables where they kept their things like journals, lanterns, water bottles and such.
Amy and Andy arranged a heptathalon (I think was the official name?) of 7 different events for the camp Olympics. Complete with registration check in and bags for each kid (and a clever plan behind each kids “entry” bib number), jerseys, disks, and a redemption coupon for treats at the end. It was really fun to see the kids go through each event. I took a ton of videos but have the pictures here. Lots of smiles had by all and it concluded with medals and photo ops.
I just love this picture of Reid. It is his personality 100%. Mr. Goofball personality.
And this perfectly represents Griffin. OSU gear, athletic wear, getting pumped.
Another day included an outdoor adventure of hiking at Gorman Nature Center. We went just under a couple miles and explored on and off trail (lol) as we reached a couple dead ends. It was quite a warm afternoon. The kids enjoyed climbing up fallen trees and walking on a tension line. Ironically, we didn’t see much nature in the form of animals there. But a lot of ferns and other plants, including loads of poison ivy. Happy to say though that I do not believe anyone got it!
Another fun activity was a lesson on botany followed by a trip around the yard, over the bridge, and to the play pen area where each of the kids got to choose a colored planter. Next, they took turns choosing hens and chicks and they each planted a planter to take home. Another fun keepsake!
The evening of hiking was also a cookout followed by s’mores and camping for Kevin, Andy, and the kids. They all set up tents in the side yard and then later after dinner and dessert (and catching lightning bugs) off they went in the dark with their headlamps to their tents. It ended up being a great night weather-wise for camping out with cool temps.
Next adventure was an afternoon of mini-go-karts, go-karts, and putt putt at the Infield in Lexington. Now this was quite a toasty afternoon, yikes! But that worked in our favor in that it was not really very busy and made for decent social distancing. Reid, sadly, was too young and small to both drive the mini-go-karts or be a passenger in the full size ones. So he played a bit on the playground and then sat with Daddy in the shade and watched Griffin and I do the go karts. We broke up the putt-putt into a group of kids, which I chaperoned because, well, Reid and the adults. Reid did surprisingly well and had a lot of fun. He even got a hole in one! It was technically a do-over, but a hole in one nonetheless. I was a bit worried as while we were there he began to have a really runny nose and for the next 24 hours he had a runny nose, but then it disappeared. So we wrote that off to camping outside and sinuses.
Later that night Kevin and I enjoyed a date night at the Phoenix Brewing Company patio. It was perfect patio weather and a nice couple of hours sans kids. We walked around the block but being a weeknight nothing was really open so we headed home after grabbing a bite to eat at the Taco Bell drive thru, lol.
Throughout the week the kids spent plenty of time making magnet creations, playing all kinds of games, and just spending time together. There were a couple days I literally barely saw Griffin very much!
On your own day we spent going to Kingwood Center and walking around, including a trip down the new Storybook Trail. We looked a many flower beds and plants and again, enjoyed getting out and doing something where there weren’t many people. Afterward, we went to Target where I took Reid in first, by himself, for him to choose what he wanted to buy with his spending money from Grandma and Grandpa. He chose a fun automatic car. Next, I took in Griffin and he already knew he wanted Pokemon cards. He is currently Pokemon obsessed. Kevin was on a work call in the car!
Back at the ranch it was more water play.
Another fun activity one afternoon was assembling and then painting wood crafts. Mom and Dad had carefully chosen something fun for each grandkid, something that suits their likes and personality. Reid was given a semi truck and Griffin a Jeep. They definitely took some time to put together, but were super cool and the kids did a great job painting them. Reid took a lot of time and sat there for probably 40 minutes painting!
Movie night was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the basement (in a box, if you’re Reid).
And then, pretty quickly, the week was over. We all put on our Camp B t-shirts and Amy took our Christmas Card photo along with photos of each family and Mom and Dad with all the grandkids. A short bit later the camp flag came down and was signed by each of us. Then camp was over! The Bethune’s headed home later that afternoon and we stayed one more night and went home on Sunday. We ended up getting a replacement computer for Mom and getting that all set up before we left.
It was a fun week full of a lot of great memories! We’re thankful for Mom and Dad’s generosity and hospitality in having all of us for the week. Cheers to Camp B!
