Tag Archives: camping

August 2022

August means it’s family vacation time! This year we went to Lewes, Delaware along with Mom, Dad, Amy, Andy, Graham, Rowan and Greta for a nice week at a lovely home in a neighborhood with amenities. A social area with a couple of pools, workout room, tennis courts, walking paths and such was all within walking distance. We enjoyed many a trips to the pool and hot tub.

And as with each and every vacation we spent time in line for ice cream 🙂 These cones were ginormous!

We went to Funland which as the name reveals is full of arcade games, rides, and fun things for kids and adults. Griffin absolutely loved collecting tickets and redeeming for things at the ticket counter.

This is one of my favorite pics of the boys. Classic candy necklaces and happy smiles.

We visited Rehoboth Beach for a brief walk and to dabble our feet in the water. The waves were super rough and I was a nervous wreck! The beach was so crowded with people but no one really in the water as it was a red flag on this particular day. We even met up with the cousins for a bit on the beach before heading back to dry land and a stop at the ice cream shop. I was happy to be on dry land!

This trip is so nice each year for the kids to be able to hang out so much. TV time, games, some sports mixed in. Even though we live nearby we truly don’t get together very often amid sports and school schedules.

I took each kid on a “date” during our trip. Griffin, in particular, has been needing some one on one time. We drove to Rehoboth and walked the boardwalk, had a pizza lunch, went to Zelky’s Arcade, and Griffin got a henna tatoo – what is wanted to go there for! He was so happy with it.

Each year Mom and Dad graciously watch all of the kids while Kevin and I and Amy and Andy go out on date night. They’ve moved on from English Muffin pizzas when they were little kids to full-size pizzas now that their appetites are so much bigger!  Kevin and I had a delicious dinner at Raas, and Indian restaurant in Lewes. We walked around the little town afterward and perused some cute little shops.

For Family dinner night we headed to Matt’s Fish Camp, only about a 5 minute drive from our house! This was awesome considering traffic in the area could be really heavy and though we didn’t always go far it could take 20-30 minutes to get around. Afterwards we enjoyed a family round of putt-putt.

Bunk beds in the kids room and lots of time at the pool!

Our traditional “cousins” group photo. In this one they are reenacting the photo from when Reid was 3 months old. They are all much bigger now, ha!

Back home it was time to gear up for school. Here are a few pics from our yard. The shrub I’m standing next to was only planted last summer. It has grown a crazy amount in height and looks awesome.

We finally got around to planting the hostas from Mom and Dad in our garden around the patio. We are planting all of the family hostas there including Mighty Finn, Reid All About It, and Megan’s Angel.  It’s taken us awhile but we finally have all of the shrubs and other plants planted in all of the beds in our outdoor patio area. Whew. That was a big check mark.

During the beginning of Covid we bought the boys desks and set up the basement like a classroom. In order to give them more open space in the basement we decided to move their desks to each of their rooms. They’ve really been enjoying them! Reid has been writing and drawing and Griffin’s is full of his cards and he uses it as a workspace to sort and organize.

This summer Reid played T-Ball through I9. He’s definitely growing up and having less frustrating moments and fits. He was so happy at the end of the last game that he earned a medal as well as receiving the season ending trophy.

Griffin’s soccer club has a new 2-year kit and the colors are now black and white. He wasn’t too excited at first, but after picking them up in person and putting them on he’s decided he really likes them and thinks they look sharp.

We also signed Reid up for OUFC Juniors this Fall and he is playing with his buddy Orin. These two have a lot of fun each week. It has worked out awesome that Reid’s practice on Tuesday’s is during the same time Griffin’s is as well. Two for one!

Griffin and Kevin attended a Crew game and had a great time. They met up with buddy Rowan too 🙂

Reidy and I stayed home and had “breakfast for dinner in bed” and watched a show. The best of both worlds for each kiddo.

The start of soccer season arrived and we’ve begun spending lots of time at practices and games. I really love watching Griffin and his buddies play together. And we made to it watch Aidan play in a Varsity game for Berlin and were able to chat with him after the game.

Griffin is also really enjoying hockey. On occasion our neighbor Brian will reach out with a fun extra lesson or practice that he extends to Griffin and other neighborhood kiddos. He even takes them all!

We also signed Reid up to play OYAA soccer this fall as the OUFC is really just skills work and practice but not games. Reid is on team Royal (pre-K). He is excited! We got him a soccer bag as well like his big bro. He’s super cute to watch. He’s either all in or totally distracted as you would expect at 5 years old. But man, when he scores he beams with excitement and a smile!

OUFC Coach Pete has tremendous patience with these kids. I wish we had known about or thought to enroll Griffin in club soccer earlier than we did. The skills Pete is teaching these kids at the age of 5 is so cool! Reid is learning “foot skills” and if any one kid scores too often when they scrimmage he’ll tell them to do a “foot skill” on their way to the goal before they can score again. So fun!

Griffins OUFC U10 Black team was asked to be ball boys for the Olentangy Varsity game one evening. It worked out great where they were able to walk over to the field after practice. Each kiddo received some food (a pretzel or nachos or hot dog and a drink!) and got to stand along the edge of the field and retrieve balls.

In Scouts Griffin is a Webelo this year which means all new scouting gear that is tan/green and no longer blue. Kevin and Griffin attended a campout together at Camp Lazarus in Delaware.

I’ve been trying to be more intentional with one on one kiddo time. Griffin and I went on a date to the movie theater where he chose to see Minions: The Rise of Gru. It was a cute movie.

One night I went in to check on Griffin and I found this – his light on, shining on a sports card on his desk. This kid just absolutely loves sports. Sports players, teams, games – he is full of information. He knows more than Kevin or I about any of it!

August also means Back to School time. This year Griffin will be in 4th grade and has Mrs. Price as his teacher. We went to the Open House to check out his room, find his desk, and meet Mrs. Price. We ran in to a bunch of buddies too :).

Night before the start of school trip to Graeter’s with our neighborhood crew.

Prepped our first day of school outfit the night before!

Traditional first day of school pancakes by Daddy.

Look at these kids all getting so big. Last year at Tyler Run for Cooper and Ella! Dewey and Jay in 1st, Miles in 3rd, Griffin and Cole in 4th. Reid in Pre-K – next year will be  in this photo as a kiddo headed to Tyler Run!

Donuts and OJ on the patio before the first day of school.

Lisa was home on maternity leave this year so she was able to join in the fun with Myla! She’s typically at school, as a teacher on the first day shenanigans.

My date with Reid took us to the same place – the movie Minions: The Rise of Gru. This kid loves movies and popcorn.

We’ve really enjoyed spending hours upon hours outside on our patio. We gather every chance we can for dinner, with neighbors, or just to watch a movie or sports.

These PJ’s are classic. They have worn them all-year-round since November 2019. They used to be so big and long on Griffin and Reid and now look at those ankles! They are favorites!

We also got to go to meet the teacher morning at NPCA for Reid. Lilly joined us also and Reid did the traditional handprint on the class canvas.

August means neighborhood block party too. Another fun night with friends and this year the bubble truck!

Griffin loves to go to the card shop. He would go every.single.day if we would take him. This week was a special treat to be able to go and meet famous baseball player Jose Rijo who played a majority of his career for the Cincinnati Reds!

Look at what is missing from this kiddos mouth! Reid lost his first tooth! We are not sure, however, where it went! It seemed to have disappeared and he didn’t really realize he lost it. Lilly and Reidy made a tooth out of clay to leave for the tooth fairy!

September 2021

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Reid is going to pre-school! He is entering the pre-K Monkey class and he is excited about it that is for sure. He is also apprehensive. He’s not been to school since he was 2 in March of 2020. He’s been home the entire time, mostly around adults and not too many kids other than neighbors. He did wonderful at drop-off on day 1. Masks are just optional at NPCA, but we have chosen to have Reid wear one and he does so wonderfully from what I can tell. The first few weeks had several rough drop-offs thereafter, where Reid literally clung to the lamp post and Miss Laura took him in screaming and crying. It was awful. As soon as I would turn into the parking lot he would say “wait a minute, I don’t want to go to school, let’s talk about this”. It was a hard couple of weeks, but he eventually turned the corner and came home saying he loved “everything”. So much transition and newness for this one. It has had me second-guessing whether or not we should have kept him home last year. He is already a younger one emotionally and has just played at home for a year+, so this structure and learning and having to obey a teacher and schedule is all quite new. When I picked him up about three weeks into school his teacher pulled me aside and told me it had been a super rough day with listening and it almost landed him in Miss Kim, the Directors office.  Those words aren’t easy to hear. But he continued to make progress and seems to be in a better place.

He begins after Labor Day, but he had a meet-the-teacher and play in your classroom kind of day. He was so excited to be there and to play with so many toys. It has been since March 2020 since he has been in the church building and this is a new classroom and teacher for him so he loved exploring and especially playing pretend.

September 1, 2021 was moving day for Mom and Dad! Beginning with the packing and loading at 1179 followed by the unloading at 7005, it was a pretty smooth day. Griffin also had his very first soccer game that evening for Olentangy United. It was a fun and busy day.

Throughout September we had lots of soccer activity. You can see some videos at the end of the post. One fun day was when Griffin had a tournament at Darree fields just a minute drive to Mom and Dads. We had an early morning 8 am game and in between we hit up Tim Hortons, went to Mom and Dad’s and chilled for a bit before heading to game #2.

One day after a game, team mate Brady had everyone over to his house for a cookout and pool party. Just Griffin and I went as Reid had a case of the runny nose/sniffles (thanks to being back around all the school germs). Finn had a great time and I enjoyed talking to the other parents. We are loving this team of kids and families. We’re also loving having our families attend games! From Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein who now live close and can come often, to Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong who have made the trip up, and Aunt Amy, Uncle Andy, and the cousins who have made it in between their own crazy busy schedules. Being a soccer mom is fun ;).



 

We’ve even made it to Rowan and Greta’s games 🙂 Here is Rowan with a sweet throw in.

After moving day was complete, I headed to Mansfield to help Mom and Dad clean 1179 and get it ready for the sale. So many wonderful memories of this place I found myself pretty emotional then and again now when looking through the pictures to write the post! But that’s why I take the pictures, right? To capture the things that will jog a memory down the road and that it certainly does.

Griffin is having a great time being back in a real school building and being in-person with friends! He LOVES it and is so thankful to be back. Again, it makes me realize the impact that being home for a year doing distance learning pretty much on his own. While it was a great experience, his teacher was amazing, and he did really well in school I also am aware that people are built for connection and kids need it just as much as adults. His teacher this year, Miss Robinson, is the varsity softball coach at Olentangy Orange High School and she has started a fun pen-pal program between her players and her students at Tyler Run. I think Miss Robinson is going to be a great fit for Griffin given her sports mindedness!

Sadly, Griffin’s cub scout den at Tyler Run only consisted of about 3 kids, so we were given the option to transfer from Pack 248 to Pack 428, which meets the Liberty Presbyterian (The Barn church). Kevin seems to really like it, the den is big (15ish kids) and everything is organized well and seems to be fun. They had a fun fishing event at Liberty Park.

Here are Reid’s first day of school pics at NPCA! As is tradition, the day started with custom pancakes: a R E I D pancake, Reid himself, a baseball, and a school.

I was so fortunate to take the day off and take Reid to school and also pick him up. He had a super-cute “Kissing Hand” piece of art and was in the greatest mood. We went to the park afterward on our way home, also getting custard at Culver’s to celebrate. Then on to Rooster’s for dinner – Reid’s favorite place.

And here are some pics from throughout the month of Reid. We ventured to the zoo, played t-ball, and had lots of fun.



The many expressions of Reid.

I arrived at Griffin’s parent-teacher curriculum night to find a cute note on Griffin’s desk, to which I replied. It was fun to peak around at his room and sit in his place.

Part of Griffin’s enrollment in Olentangy United includes weekly sessions of Futsal at the Fieldhouse at Polaris mall. The kids learn quick ball handling and the last half hour includes working with OSU sports therapists to learn good injury-prevention and stretching skills. Since it is connected to the mall, Reid and I went to the zoo play space (yes, full of germs). This boy had such a great time.

I am amazed to report that both boys had great checkups at the dentist this month – no cavities. I honestly was surprised, as brushing here is a struggle and eating sweets comes easily, of course. Reid did super-great with his first round of xrays.

While at Reid’s the park playing after Reid’s tball games, we spotted a bomber flying through the air. It was “pretty cool”, says Reid.

We’ve started a fun neighborhood tradition of camping each September. This year the Dennie’s hosted in their back yard. Chrissie was able to organize “Bartholomew Lakes Kids Crew” tshirts that we purchased for the kids and then Karla bought tie die stuff so they each were able to customize their shirts. We made s’more’s, had pizza, and played together for hours on end.

Being conveniently next door, I was able to stop in and check on Brutus and give him some lovins from time to time (and potty breaks!).

While Kevin was out of town for a few days on a golf trip with friends in Michigan, the boys and I hung out with the Bolans and went to Bridge Park one evening. We played duck pin bowling, had a fun “kids drink”, and then were able to watch the OSU practice band march through Bridge Park and play some tunes to get everyone pumped for the home game the following day.

 

 

We also celebrated Brutus’ 5th birthday! This boy loves to be around his people, his daily walks and routine. He knows the 4 o’clock hour like none other – and will gently begin to remind you the time is coming starting around 3:15 pm with little pokes and nudges and following you everywhere.

Here are a few of the Millcreek Open House, which we resumed this year. We hosted everyone in our “new” (built in 2019) shipping facility having a couple of educational seminars, a catered BBQ lunch, and tours of our facility. It was well attended and I heard numerous times how everyone was so thankful to be in-person again.

Lilly and Reidy came to visit me! And Reid helped Luis load flats into the flat filler potting machine during our drive-around.

September 1-30, 2020

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September started off with a pretty big day – Griffin’s first day of 2nd grade! As per tradition, Kevin prepared custom, made-to-order pancakes which this year was a laptop (appropriate given the nature of distance learning) and a Tiger paw to represent the Tyler Run Tigers. We have enrolled Griffin in the Committed Distance Learning program for the first semester of school. He is in a digital class with his teacher, Miss Peacock, along with several other friends he’s either had class with or that he knows from Tyler Run. There are also other kids from another elementary school within the district. He has a pretty solid schedule and will have live meetings several times per day. He was a bit reserved and shy during his first couple of days (which I was able to be home to help and see how everything is going to go!). Hoping he’ll come out of his shell and warm up as he adjusts to the new normal.

We’ve been really impressed with his teacher and the way everything is organized this year. There is a regular structure to the day, live morning and afternoon meetings with the entire class, and live meetings for math and reading on alternate days, in small peer groups. We have certainly had challenges with Griffin and his attitude and his tendency to complain and fight doing school, especially the writing assignments and some of the independent work. We’re hoping to work through these challenges and improve his mindset.

 

Even though Griffin isn’t going to in-person school, we wanted to get our annual School Bus stop picture this year. These kids are getting so big! And new to the mix this year is Hadi, a new friend who moved in down the street. His family moved here a few weeks ago from Lebanon. We’re happy to have another friend in the neighborhood – he certainly fits right in with so many boys!

Lexi is turning our basement classroom into a fun space for Griffin. She’s fun and creative and has made several posters and various wall art that helps to remind Griffin of certain rules or encourage a positive mindset. Reid chimed in one day with his for his Gym class, Lexi sent me this silly pic of them doing class together. A really fun part of school from home is all the fun places you get to have class. One day Griffin’s teacher asked them to find a fun place to do their reading for the afternoon and to have their grown up send a picture to her. Griffin chose the driveway outside on a sunny day :).

 

We have enrolled Reid at NPCA in the Tiger class, but have chosen to keep him home for now. We still wanted to go through the fun traditions so I took him to preschool for a meet-the-teacher and friends playground gathering. There are only 8 or 9 other kids in his class this year. He enjoyed playing with all the toys and on the playground equipment. Some bit of normalcy for a short stint.

Lexi has been doing fun arts and crafts and teaching Reid all sorts of things. She’s doing a great job having them both at the same time. I’ve lost my cool on more than one day when I’ve been doing it all solo. It’s a lot to keep Griffin on task, keep Reid from interrupting or being distracting or from having a fit if he isn’t allowed to do something he wants to do in the moment. Whew, it’s taxing!

 

We continue to enjoy the nice outdoor weather and some fun family time. We continue to either eat at home, or eat on a patio. We took the boys to Liberty Tavern on evening where we were able to enjoy some sunshine and live music from Local Roots a few doors down. We followed that up with dessert from Rita’s. We’re fortunate to have a cute downtown area with a lot of options – all just 5 minutes from home.  We woke up on a Saturday morning and decided to have a great family adventure starting with a bike ride to Tim Horton’s for breakfast (sound familiar?). When ready to leave, we discovered that  Griffin’s back tire was flat! We had already planned to go to Wheelie Fun Bike Shop in Powell to get him a new helmut (as his had broken on the inside), well, we were definitely headed there now! First, a stop at Grismer where they kindly filled the tire with air. At Wheelie Fun we got new helmuts for each of the kids (Reid’s was too small for his noggin) and bike mirrors for Kevin and me so we can see each other more easily when we’re riding in a single line! And of course, a new tire for Griffin. We continued on our trip, which by the end of the day was 16 miles. We went far up Sawmill Parkway, stopped at DQ, a park, and Nocterra. All while using lots of hand sanitizer and masking up when around others. It was nice to be outside for the day. We ended the day pretty tired with pizza and movies in bed.

I’m really liking having red, green, and yellow peppers this year!

Reid is doing really well on his “fire bike” with his training wheels. He is so excited to go on walks with me and Brutus and be independent.  Thank goodness for nice weather and outdoor play. Our neighbor, Abbie, put together a neighborhood flag football game complete with a hand-drawn invitation, organized teams, and a real referee (her dad!). From what I hear the game was pretty intense and a bit of frustration ensued from some of the interactions between the kids. Argh! A learning lesson for all!

 

Griffin is really loving playing soccer. He has really become more intense and aggressive this year just running his hardest and going after the ball. He’s been scoring nearly every game and has had some really great passes too. It’s been fun to watch.  Lexi knows American Sign Language and has been teaching the boys some from time to time. One afternoon when I got home they wanted to show me what they had learned.

 

Mr. Reidy went a bit fast on his fire bike and ended up with a little scratch on his forehead. He insisted on having bandaids put on like this and wore them for a couple days. Can you see his personality shine through in all these pics?

 

Griffin had quite the fan base at one of his earlier games as Grandma and Grandpa came along with all of the Bethunes! He gets so excited on Friday nights, the night before game day, that he has been setting out his uniform and complete outfit, down to the shoes, shin guards, socks, cleats, and ball.  Reid likes to dress just like Finn, so he wears Finn’s jersey from last year along with his cleats to each of the games.

 

Upon returning home from one of my morning walks with Brutus I discovered our Rising Sun tree branches looking like they were hanging low. Upon looking up close I was devastated to find not one, but two huge splits in the tree trunk. The one had apparently been there awhile as it didn’t look at all fresh. The other, I believe was from recent high winds. We are so bummed. This is the tree we take the yearly first day of school pictures in front of and so many friends always comment on how beautiful it is. The new growth always emerges pink so it is constantly having pink tips and the rest of the tree is yellow. We’re going to have to replace it.

Here are the pics from Reid’s first day of school. While he didn’t actually go to school, he got all dressed up in his first day of school outfit (a repeat from Griffin’s first day, can you tell?) and posed for numerous silly pics.

 

Reid is signed up for a “potty trained” preschool class, yet we haven’t quite made it there. We are, however, making great progress. Sorry for the potty pic, but wanted to remind ourselves in years to come where we were!

 

Haya came to visit again with baby Summer and the boys were just over the moon. It’s always a bit chaotic at first with so much energy and excitement. Reid and Finn constantly ask to hold her and take turns. She is getting so much bigger and more aware. Growing up fast!

 

Griffin pre-planning yet again – this time for school pictures!

 

While Kevin was away at his annual golf trip outing in Michigan, we had a super busy weekend – perhaps the busiest since Corona began. Started out Friday morning waking up to Brutus’ 4th birthday! Pardon my morning tired eyes and face – took these pics at 6:30 in the morning! We love this big boy. He was SOOOOO excited to have birthday cupcakes and receive new toys. He literally would not put down the duck and carried it with him in his mouth during our entire mile-long walk! See the video :).



 

Friday evening we had dinner at Culver’s on the patio with the Bolan’s and then gathered at our house with friends in the driveway. Saturday was a super busy day, starting with flu shots for the boys, followed by Tim Horton’s on the way to the soccer game! Then we had a long-planned neighborhood camp-out, which was scheduled for a couple of weeks prior but it was terrible weather and this weekend was the backup date. Each family setup their own tent in the Craig’s yard. We had pizza, glow sticks, dancing, glow-in-the-dark-football-fly-playing, campfire, s’mores, and all around fun! We were sad daddy wasn’t there with us though. I must say, I was pretty proud of myself for pitching the tent all by myself and keeping track of these two kids into the dark and sleeping in the tent at night. It was COOL at night and I hardly slept at all between being cold and just thinking about Brutus being home in his crate for so long. I took Reid home at 6:30 to let Brutie out and feed him breakfast, then we ran a quick errand to pick up donuts for the crew. It was a great weekend!

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Progress pic of the cemetery, they’ve now re-seeded the area.

 

George (and Lynda, posthumously) were the 2020 recipient of the HILA Award (Horticulture Industry Leadership Award) so we held a surprise celebration for him at Millcreek one morning. Normally he would have received his award in person at the Cultivate Trade Show, which didn’t occur this year due to Corona. We all think George is a great leader, a wonderful person to work for, and Fred put together a nice summary of the many contributions George has made at Millcreek and within the horticulture industry. George was also featured in the September issue of Greenhouse Management magazine, which was a nice surprise.

Sadly, September wasn’t without heartbreak. On Sunday, the day after our super long bike ride, Lily was having a normal day. I was upstairs in our bedroom doing laundry and when Lily walked in the door from the white steps and she seemed to be struggling some. Not sure why, so I went and talked to her and ended up carrying her to her bed in our room. From that point on, she wasn’t ever able to walk again. Being a holiday weekend, we weren’t able to get in touch with our vet. She ate dinner on Sunday, but on Monday and after would no longer eat. Kevin or I carried her in and outside each time for Sunday and Monday and Tuesday, and on Tuesday afternoon we took her to the vet. Dr. Shearer did a complete exam on her and gave us some possibilities that could have happened, perhaps an injury to her spine or disk (like slipping down the stairs, which she had done a couple of times in recent months). She proposed a couple of treatments and left the decision to us. We decided her quality of life, even with proposed treatments, would not be ideal. She was unable to stand or walk and no longer wanted to eat. We knew it was time to put her down – but it was still an agonizing time and decision. She was down to only 59 pounds. Our hearts were broken. She was the last of my original trio of three. She was the sweetest girl, who loved small and quiet spaces and loved to be around her people at all times. Even with her bad joints and arthritis in recent years, she made it up and down the steps numerous times a day. She went into each of the boys rooms at night – every night – for bed time routine. She was sassy, had impeccable hearing and sight, and loved playing with Brutus. He’s not known life without her. We are going to miss our sweet girl.