Wow, I just can’t seem to keep up with blog posting anymore! Yet again I find myself a month behind – yikes! I do recall this week though as it was a busy and fun one.
During the week we headed downtown to the Slice of Columbus at Columbus Commons. We’ve gone every year since Griffin was born, making this our 4th trip! It’s fun to see how much Griffin has grown up and each year he participates in more and more of the kids activities. The event is a fundraiser for Nationwide Children’s Hospital where numerous pizza places donate their pizzas. You buy a ticket to get in and after that you can sample as much pizza as you’d like! This year there were probably 12 different pizza places – anything from indian flavored to regular pepperoni! There were several kids crafts and a balloon artist too. Finn was pretty happy with his sword, sword belt, and parrot combo. Over the weekend we headed to the Delaware County Fair where we had our share of fair foods and entertainment. This year Griffin was big enough to ride several rides so he rode his first roller coaster! He also went on the helicopter ride, a dinosaur ride, and a race car. He also enjoyed sitting on numerous old tractors. He’s a lot bigger than the last time!Uncle Sean was also in Ohio for a week long visit so we enjoyed the afternoon at Kevin’s parents. Even Lily came with us this time, she was quite happy about that! We all enjoyed a nice family dinner at Jim and Pat’s new house to celebrate Pat and Sean’s birthdays! And here are a few others from our week. Finn and I stopped at the zoo and rode the camels and later that week he went with Debbie and Sammy too. And there’s one of Lily in her regular spot watching all of the neighborhood happenings.
Vacation! We were fortunate to spend this week down in Pigeon Forge, TN for our annual fall getaway. We again stayed in Sherwood Forest in a two bedroom cabin. The weather was lovely – warm and enjoyable everyday but one! And we had made plans earlier in the week when we knew the rain would be coming to make that day an indoor day. We were on the go a lot so it certainly wasn’t a very restful vacation. But certainly a time to be away from the norm of our regular activities and chores and tasks and just be together.
The first night we stayed in downtown Gatlinburg this year. Our hotel has a nice pool and hot tub – but boy, have we realized how spoiled we are by taking swimming lessons at Goldfish! The water anywhere else isn’t ever as warm as Goldfish!! We arrived at the hotel and went swimming before heading off to dinner at Kevin’s favorite place, Smoky Mountain Brewery. They have really yummy food (pizza in particular!) and this year I tried their seasonal Pumpkin brew (no surprise there, I know) and it was delicious. The next morning we woke up and headed for the Pancake Pantry where we had the best seats ever! We were right along the front windows of the restaurant which looks out onto the main street of Gatlinburg. Prime people watching and lots of bright light. Afterward we walked around the strip and then new this year, we went to Ober Gatlinburg. We took the big sky tram up to the resort-like area where we spent the next few hours exploring the wildlife encounter (cool bears, sea otters, and the like), riding kids rides, and Kevin took Finn on his first ever roller coaster! Kevin was really excited to take him and they had a fun time. It was hard to get a good picture as they were pretty far away, so I took a video of them heading up the hill!
We spent Monday night, our Anniversary, at home with a tasty spaghetti and meatball dinner. Afterward we all took a dip in the hot tub – a new thing for Finn this year too. Kevin lowered the temperature so it was more like bath water and Finn loved it. Our cabin had tiny rubber duckies in the bathrooms and he brought one out into the hot tub. It turned out to be a perfect toy!
Finn also loved playing pool this year! In past years we’ve used the pool table as a changing table, or ignored it altogether, but this year each morning Finn woke up he would say “please, may I go play that game up dare”. He had some fun for sure!On a nice and warm day we headed to the Smoky Mountain National Park and drove through Cade’s Cove. We were there two years ago and were feeling all nostalgic as we visited certain places – so we reenacted some photos we had taken the last time we were there when Finn was only about 8 months old. the ones in the field and along the fence, in particular. And Finn had the special treat of riding in Kevin’s lap through portions of the park as we drove from one area to the next. As you can see, Finn is really in to balancing and walking on logs, standing up on logs, and such. Even his preschool teachers have remarked how well he can balance himself!
Kevin got out of our car at one point where we had just left the park as we saw several people looking up into the woods. Turns out there was a bear up there – if you look close, you can see it. That’s about as close as we got to one!By the time we were on our way back home, our little guy was really tuckered out! Another day we went to the Island which has several retail shops and lots of entertainment for little ones. This year Finn was big enough to be able to do several of rides and since he is in to trains we all rode the train together, which takes you on a 10 minute route throughout the Island.
It’s also tradition to take Finn to the Dixie Stampede. We enjoy the show, but mostly enjoy watching Finn watch the show and see how he is so mesmerized by all of it. And of course petting the horses at the end of it all is pretty fun too. He hardly ate much this year (there is dinner during the show) as he was so into watching what was going on! We did have some lounge time at the cabin too. Can you believe it was nice enough to leave our cabin door open and Finn to be running around in his swim suit!
I looked over one time and saw all of our shoes lined up like this thanks to Finn. He actually completed the ends, making them symmetrical!And here are our “official” photos from our fun at Dollywood, the ferris wheel at the Island, the Dixie Stampede, and the roller coaster at Ober!Finn was sporting Kevin’s new slippers for a bit before we left the cabin on our last evening to head to dinner at Paula Deen’s restaurant. We enjoyed delicious southern food, family style, and left there stuffed!
Finn is really good in the car, though he rarely will sleep more than an hour. He played a bit with his trucks and scooped some raisins, lol. And Finn was happy to be home and see Lily and Cam Cam. He really has been such a great helper with Cammie. Each morning and evening he helps me fill up her food bowl and take it outside. He opens and closes the door, and if the weather is nice he also likes to wait on the patio and watch her!
Wow, I just can’t seem to keep up with blog posting anymore! Yet again I find myself a month behind – yikes! I do recall this week though as it was a busy and fun one.
Over the weekend we headed to the Delaware County Fair where we had our share of fair foods and entertainment. This year Griffin was big enough to ride several rides so he rode his first roller coaster! He also went on the helicopter ride, a dinosaur ride, and a race car. He also enjoyed sitting on numerous old tractors. He’s a lot bigger than the last time!
Uncle Sean was also in Ohio for a week long visit so we enjoyed the afternoon at Kevin’s parents. Even Lily came with us this time, she was quite happy about that! We all enjoyed a nice family dinner at Jim and Pat’s new house to celebrate Pat and Sean’s birthdays!
And here are a few others from our week. Finn and I stopped at the zoo and rode the camels and later that week he went with Debbie and Sammy too. And there’s one of Lily in her regular spot watching all of the neighborhood happenings. 
