This weekend was a special weekend: Grandma and Dada took the boys for the weekend while I made a quick (48 hour) trip to Colorado for a girls' weekend with my friend, Krista. While I enjoyed hot springs and climbing 14ers (Evans, Gray's, and Torrey's), they went to the Cincinnati Zoo and spent some quality time together. I'm not sure who had more fun: Grandma or the boys, but it seemed to be a win-win for everyone!
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This week I was on a countdown to my girls' trip to Colorado (AKA: leaving both boys overnight for the first time). To pass the time we hung out as a family, took a hike with friends, and enjoyed the beautiful fall-like weather exploring a park we had not been to before: Aullwood. It is actually a park and a working farm with both a nature center and a farm center. The boys and I took a day to explore both areas, even taking a picnic lunch to enjoy! It was a really cool place with lots for the boys to see and do. It also has a beautiful creek that we ran out of time to play in, so I'm sure we'll be back! We've spent the last couple of weeks taking it easy after so much traveling, but we have had some adventures on the weekends! August 11-12 found us at Brown County State Park with the Rodgers' family for a last minute get-together. We hiked, swam at the lodge, and walked around Nashville a bit.
During the week we went to a couple of playgrounds to play, hiked at Koogler Wetland/Prairie Reserve, and watched the trucks and mighty machines as they redo our road in front of our house. Then Grandad and Nana came to visit this past weekend and we took them to visit a new favorite playground, to hike in the wetlands, and to swim at the local water park. I'm noticing a pattern, haha. The trip to Hilton Head was the longest drive we've ever done with our boys (11 driving hours, though with traffic it was 12 plus stops). On the way out we left in the middle of the night so we were halfway there before they even got up for the day. On the way home, we decided to similarly time driving so we could finish the drive at night while the boys slept. With that timetable, we were able to work in a longer stop in the Appalachian Mountains for a short hike and dinner. Getting to the mountains in the late afternoon is always a gamble with the thunderstorms that often roll in, and our afternoon proved no exception. No sooner did we set out on our short 1/2 mile hike (after having cleaned Ezra and the car seat from a bout of car sickness on the drive to the trail) than the clouds started rolling in. The boys walked all the way to the overlook, but by the time we got there, there sadly was no view. We could feel the rain coming in though, so we loaded the boys on our backs and half walked, half jogged down the trail in the pouring rain to the car. The boys thought it was hilarious to be running in the rain and we all had a good laugh about our adventure.
Once home, we took the week to relax and hang out mostly at home. The boys were ready to not be in the car and to just play with their toys. Their tricycles were very well loved this week and even got baths in the pouring rain one afternoon. We also spent a lot of time reading and trying out some experiments from our Highlights magazine. Finally, Ezra turned 18 months old this week! His check-up at the doctor went very well (he's still in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight). He's also been growing his vocabulary like crazy this week and can basically communicate anything he wants now. He is growing more coordinated and can run even faster as well! He and Micah have become pretty inseparable most of the time, enjoying trucks, climbing, swinging, trains, cooking, and playing chase together throughout the day. Thanks to Micah's tutoring, Ezra now likes to try to count to two or three throughout the day when we see multiple things together. However, he often likes to skip "one" and just say "two, three!", which is somewhat perplexing to Micah, haha. Micah has been my helper with many things this week, especially with weeding the whole driveway (he collected all the weeds for me in his tricycle trunk for dumping) and pulling Ezra around the yard in the wagon when Ezra asked for someone to. Micah is very interested in asking questions about everything (still) and wanting my full attention 90% of the day. Fortunately lots of snuggling and reading together seems to have helped somewhat as the week went on. This past week was a much anticipated vacation to Hilton Head Island with my mom's side of the family to celebrate my Grammy's 90th birthday. Most of us stayed together in a couple of houses and spent a lot of time in the pool and at the beach. We also had bikes to ride, enjoyed delicious food, played disc golf, and explored the island when it wasn't too hot!
The boys had a blast in the pool all week. However, the ocean took a bit of getting used to. The first day the boys weren't interested in the water at all. They found the waves to be overwhelming and ended up just playing in the sand. Fortunately, as the week went on they grew more and more accustomed to the ocean, started braving the water, and eventually ended the week way out in the ocean riding the waves with mom and dad. Micah also took it upon himself to start "tutoring" Ezra during the week and enjoyed coaching him in all kinds of things but his favorite by far was teaching him how to count to 10 (over and over and over...). The boys loved all of the bunk beds, porches, the elevator, and the giant swing at the house we stayed at too (let's just say the deck always had trucks and trains driving around it!). |
AuthorWe are a father and a mother doing our best to raise our children with God's guidance. Archives
April 2020
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