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February 1-15, 2020 ~ We have a Pinewood Derby champion!

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Griffin and Kevin worked on preparing Griffin’s first ever pinewood derby car over the last couple of weeks. Griffin decided he wanted a Buckeye car and he chose the thin shape for the car. They went to the hardware store and had it cut down and then got to work sanding and painting and assembling. They made a trip to Buckeye corner to purchase some OSU things and Kevin purchased weights and other items online. The night before the weigh in the troop sent out some info and in it suggested that nothing on the underside of the car not be flush with the underside! Arrgghh! The weights they built into the car were not flush on the bottom. So they went to work modifying the car and adding the weight to the top – the shiny silver oval which is where the “driver” now sits.

Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong had been in town helping care for the kids so early the morning of the Derby Kevin, Jim, and Griffin headed over. Not long after Kevin texted to say I better make my way there as Griffin’s heat was happening soon. I took Reid (not the best decision, but didn’t want him to miss out) and we arrived just a short bit before Griffin’s heat. Reid wondered around the gym and made friends with older kids and inserted himself with the big boys playing cars in the corner. This kid, he knows no stranger. Griffin’s car did super-great. He set a new track record, followed by another track record (as in he beat himself, lol). In the end, he competed against 3 other kids in the troop for the championship. It was a super-tight race – and he ended up winning the overall champion! The final calculations took some time as it was down to hundreds of a second I believe. We had one super happy (yet shy) champ!

 

Later that evening we celebrated at Finn’s chosen dinner spot: Roosters. Only a few short days later Griffin woke up with a mild fever. I gave him some Tylenol and it went away and never returned that day. On Friday, when I got home from work I felt his head and he felt warm and sure enough his fever was back. Since it was the start of the weekend, Kevin took him to the Children’s urgent care where the result of the swab was Influenza B.  Ugh.  We had plans to go to a Magic Show with several neighbor families. We ended up quarantining Griffin in his room starting Friday evening! He hung out in there, we delivered food and drink and medicine. He had the tablet on which we installed the Spectrum app so he could watch the Blue Jackets. Really, he had it made! Luckily his symptoms weren’t too bad though he did have issues on Saturday night where he threw up in his room and then had potty problems. I think went from not drinking enough to drinking too much hence the puking.  But after that he was fine the remainder of the weekend.  No fever, no meds.  Then on Sunday evening he felt a bit warm and darnit – his fever was back!  Ugh, no school on Monday for him either. But luckily, the fever never returned after one dose of medicine and he was back to his normal self.

This was Griffin’s excited face when he was finally allowed out of his room for a snack and a bit of outdoor fresh air with a short bike ride.

Kevin and Reid went on a date to the Magic Show with dinner first at the Spaghetti Warehouse!

Being home while Griffin was sick gave me some time to finally get Reid’s car seat flipped around in the van. Wahoo!

Next up, Reid wasn’t feeling well and had an on/off fever with no real other symptoms other than he wasn’t sleeping well. The last time he didn’t sleep well he had an ear infection, so I decided to take him in to get looked at. Sure enough, his ear infection from December was still around despite two different antibiotics. Next step: injection antibiotics for back to back days! Ugh, because of the dose they split it up into two shots (one in each leg). His first dose was Monday. On Tuesday’s recheck it was looking much better so we only had to have the second set of injections (thankfully not a third on Wednesday) and a follow up with an ENT at Children’s. He was a tough boy but he was NOT happy during and immediately after the shots. Poor boy!

This year I took the easy route and bought the kids Valentine boxes at Target for $5. Ones that they can easily assemble and customize. The Taco one is perfect for Griffin and the Monster is great for Reid. They decorated them with Haya during the day and each took them to school for their parties. We did make our own valentine cards though – Reid’s a school of fish (his preschool class is the Guppy class) and Griffin’s was an awesome word puzzle greeting where his classmates could find each of the words “Happy Valentine’s Day Your Friend Griffin Armstrong Heart Candy February Flowers Treat Hugs Card Chocolate”. Kevin put it together and it was awesome!

 

Thanks for the Valentine’s cookies Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein!

On actual Valentine’s Day Haya made the boys an everything “heart/pink” breakfast!

Reid had his first dental checkup – and somehow – he was cavity free! He and Griffin loved playing in the playspace before hand. Griffin was a champ and went first to show Reid the way. His teeth were in great shape too – no cavities. When it was finally Reid’s turn he was really reluctant. I ended up sitting with him in the chair and the hygienist was able to get through the entire teeth cleaning. Dr. Bob was able to check out all of Reid’s teeth and get lots of giggles out of Reid in the process. Overall it was a great trip!

Reid’s specialist ENT appointment at Dublin Children’s showed that he still had some fluid in his ears, which isn’t abnormal after an infection. At this point it is what happens to the fluid – if the infection comes back, which the doctor thought we just need to give it some more time. If the infection reappears, we may then consider tubes. For now it is wait and see.

When playing with his neighborhood buddy Miles recently they each designed their own CBJ jersey’s to wear while playing hockey! And here are a few of Griffin and Reid from awhile back to now – they’re both growing up quickly! And another from google of 10 years ago (yikes!) when Mom and Dad helped me move into my house. Crazy it has been 10 years.

Kevin also got a message from Rafael that Base22 had met and was able to officially extend an offer to Kevin! They had been in discussions for some time, but this was the official vote needed to extend Kevin an offer.  Yippeeee!

January 16-31, 2020

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Going back in time to put together some posts that I’m behind on. Our worries were far less back in January! Reid and I are up and at em early this morning I figured I’d go back and put together some blogs. As I look through these pictures from school it seems like such a long time ago! Now, granted I’m putting together a January post in late March, but still, even though the boys have been out of school for two weeks it seems like all that has happened with the Coronavirus and various orders within Ohio started such a long time ago!

Griffin and Reid play together quite often. Reid basically imitates anything Griffin does from words and conversations to running, jumping, or any other physical activity. Things go from fun and laughter to screaming and fits in an instant around here!

I  was able to volunteer at Tyler Run during the COSI on Wheels visit. I stepped up to the pH table and talked to the kiddos about the difference between acids and bases and did some hands on experiments with different liquids to determine if they were an acid or a base. It was a fun and fast afternoon! Griffin was excited to come to my table :).

Here Reid is playing in our refrigerator cubby in the kitchen. Our fridge has stopped keeping a consistent cool temperature. It fluctuates all over the place and unfortunately, the fix is to replace the entire cooling system which costs half as much as a new fridge. So the hunt is on for a new one, though it’s not as easy as you would think. It turns out our space is 33″ wide and most fridges are 35.75″ wide, ugh!

One afternoon I arrived home and Haya was cleaning up paper off the floor. I wasn’t sure what kind of activity they had done, but as it turns out she brought a balloon filled with confetti the color of which revealed whether she was having a boy or girl! She recorded a cute video asking each of the neighborhood kiddos what their thought was and then Griffin popped it with Reid sitting nearby. It was cute!

 

We celebrated Andy and Mom’s birthdays with dinner at Polaris Grill followed by dessert and presents at our house. We celebrated a bit early as Mom and Dad headed to Florida for the month of February! We also celebrated our neighbor Abbie’s birthday with a fun party at the Bolan’s house. Tons of kiddos played for quite a long time and little miss Abbie tore into her cake!

For Christmas I’d given Kevin an Order of the Moth membership at Nocterra, though honestly I forgot to give it to him, lol! Then I got a reminder of the Launch Party from Nocterra and gave him the belated gift. Thankfully I had it together enough to get a sitter back when I purchased it so we headed out for the launch party on a date night. We love hanging out at our community tap room!

Brutie is getting some love from all the Manning girls. I rode with Sarah to pickup Abbie from a retreat and the rest of the girls watched Griffin and Reid. It was a win-win for everyone.

This was a beautiful sunrise I captured upon leaving the driveway one morning en route to work. The picture isn’t nearly as pretty as it was in person, but you get the idea! This is Wyndbend.

The new office and restroom building inside our Shipping Facility is coming along quite nicely. Drywall is up and mudded!

November 15-24, 2019 ~ Tennessee Vacation!

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We headed out for our Tennessee vacation on Friday morning. Before we left I took Brutus on a nice mile-long walk. It was a pretty quiet morning and not many distractions so toward the end I put the leash up on his back and had him heel alongside me for a stretch. He did really well. I took video of it which is below if you feel like watching. Some of these things I just post for me to easily find later 🙂



Before leaving we turned Reid’s car seat forward facing. Though he hasn’t reached the “limits” of the manufacturer for rear facing we felt it was time. He seems to like being able to watch everything and it certainly makes interacting with him much easier, not to mention putting him in the actual seat.

We didn’t leave Columbus until 11:30 by the time we got the seats rearranged, packed the car, and stopped at Walmart to pickup Kevin’s prescription. One of our later starts, but still a good trip down. Once we arrived we quickly unloaded our car and unpacked some things while the boys explored the bunk beds in the basement. Our cabin this year had 4 bedrooms, so we took over the basement floor which had the bunks, a room for Reid, a room for us, a bathroom, foosball and arcade game, and a tv area with a couch. It was a great layout.  It was about 7:45 and we packed back into the car and headed in to Gatlinburg for dinner at Smoky Mountain Brewery, our yearly first night stop for dinner.

Our cabin this year, Aspen’s Envy, had a great view of the mountains. Here is the sunrise our first morning there. We woke up on Saturday, our anniversary, and opened some gifts. Then we proceeded to lounge and rest a majority of the day and then decided to head in to Gatlinburg for dinner at Ole Red, Blake Shelton’s restaurant which features live music.

We enjoyed dips in the hot tub, playing on the beds, arcade games, Reid’s favorite was the balls that come in the foosball table. They were the perfect size for him to carry around everywhere he went.

On Sunday, Mom and Dad arrived midafternoon. It was a nice and sunny day and we figured they’d want to stretch their legs after 7 hours in the car, so we headed to Dollywood. We visited Santa, Griffin and Reid wrote their letters to Santa, we rode the coal train, met Abominable, Clarice, Rudolph, and explored various parts of the park. We had dinner at Aunt Granny’s (which I later learned is Dolly’s nickname, lol) at Dollywood and

On Monday it was another nice, warm, and sunshine filled day. We headed into Gatlinburg to walk around and explore the shops at the Villages. We had lunch at Ole Red and then we ventured up to Anakeesta, which you reach via a chairlift (aka Chondola, lol). The have open lifts or closed cabins – we waited for the closed cabins, ha! Griffin and I rode the mountainside coaster together and Kevin rode separately. We walked through the sky walk bridges (they are high up there and after the first two I got a bit nervous for Reid to walk alone, so I made him hold my hand!!). They have a nice garden and play area and it’s a nice high elevation where you can take in some nice views.

We stopped quickly at the cabin and then moved on to Dolly Parton’s Stampede (formerly the Dixie Stampede) dinner show. It’s always a nice Christmas show and tons of food to eat. This year both Griffin and Reid were selected to chase chickens. It was super cute and completely predictable. Griffin was excited and eager to do it; Reid a bit apprehensive and stubborn – at least at first. Then he came around and participated and seemed to have fun. They are in front of a crowd of a thousand people, literally, with lights shining on the arena – it is intimidating! I video’d the whole thing and this year Kevin got some arena-level photos too.

 

On Tuesday we drove to Cade’s Cove and did the driving loop of the park, getting out at a couple of places for exploring and traditional photos. This year the park was conducting controlled burns within the cove, so that made it rather interesting! Griffin got some practice driving the loop and Reid was all proud of himself for buckling into a big kid seat.

We went home and had lunch and then Dad, Mom, Griffin and I headed out to the outlet malls for a bit of shopping. Check out Griffin showing his trick riding skills that he learned the night before at the Stampede. Reid was home resting up for our big dinner at Paula Deen’s restaurant. This year we had the fried chicken, pot roast hash, pork chops, salad, broccoli casserole, corn casserole, and sweet potatoes. It was a big and tasty spread. We got dessert to go, lol!

The next morning Mom and Dad headed back to Ohio. Reid was being a bit stubborn during our goodbye photo. Later that afternoon we headed back to Dollywood to ride some coasters and other rides. They don’t open until 2 pm! Reid rode his first big kid ride that leaves the ground – the Flying Acorns. Throughout our visits to Dollywood he would at first want to ride a ride, but once on it would start fussing and crying and sometimes screaming. So we got off more than a couple times. He is a boy who stands up for how he feels.

The Glass blowing shop was doing a demonstration so we watched a snowman being made. We’d been eyeing these guys for a few years and this year after looking at those in the shop decided to ask if it would be possible to buy the one we saw being made – and we could! So we bought it that night and picked it up the next day. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the hat and scarf are red/white but different patterns. We love it!

The next day it was another sunny one so we headed to the Island to explore the rides, pretend to play in the Arcade, and have some cookies for a snack. Reid loved riding the train (we probably rode 3 or so times), the carousel, and he bungy jumped and the ropes course this year too.  He worked up his bravery as the first time he backed out of it, refusing to get on the scale to be weighed with a blatant “NO”, lol. But after watching Griffin do it and after some time passed he was actually excited to do it and the scowling turned to smiles and excitement as he got strapped up. We also rode the ferris wheel (our annual tradition) and visited Build-a-Bear where the boys made Pikachu and Pichu.  Then we moved on to Dollywood (gotta make the most of those season passes!) for more coasters. Griffin and Kevin explored Wildwood Grove coasters and rides while I watched Reid explore an indoor kids gym area.

The next couple of days were mostly chilling with a bit of exploring. We took in the Pirates Voyage Christmas Show this year and that was an entertaining dinner show. See if in the pictures below you can see the labradors mid-air jumping off the platform to retrieve a stick from the water! They get crazy air!

This vacation was a pretty busy one with bits of rest here and there. Lots of brotherly love and wrestling. It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, but it was filled with many memories and traditions and we’re grateful for the time away.  As we were driving away today Griffin said “It’s so hard to leave, I love being at the cabin”.  “Bye Dixie – until next year!”.

And here are the professional photos from Dollywood – enjoy!