love

Labor Day weekend and then some

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest
Aug. 25, 2013.  My boys have taken to napping anywhere but in their beds.  Theo’s weekend naps are pretty much always on the couch now. I’m fine with that – it takes both of them 10 times longer to fall asleep at naptime when they are both in their room.
Dexter woke up shortly after falling asleep and asked to sleep with me in my bed.  He went right back to sleep…and I woke him up 3+ hours later.

The light in our room was just right for sneaking some pics.  I can’t imagine ever getting tired of watching them sleep.  Even when they’re zit-faced metal-mouth teenagers.

Fast forward to Labor Day.  My sister and her family came from Tennessee for the weekend.  They arrived very late Friday night and we were up before the sun Saturday morning with our early risers.  We traveled 90 minutes east to visit relatives.

Just another trip to our uncle’s alpaca farm.
Checking out Uncle Joe’s cool Corvette Stingray.
Aunt Sandy introducing Penelope to one of her babies.
After a long day of playing and no napping, we made the mistake of setting up dinner plans. Long story short, it was one of the most embarrassing parenting moments I’ve had. Both boys throwing fits (understatement of the decade) in the restaurant. Ryan and I functioning on 4 hrs of sleep. No thank you – we kindly skipped out of the restaurant and drove home.  The boys slept all the way home and then went right back to sleep in their beds after dinner.
Sunday I woke up with an eye infection … awesome.  We had made plans to go to Ryan’s parent’s house to swim in the lake. I got up early and fixed cheesy potatoes and grape salad. Yum & Yum.  We got down there a little after 11am and made a day of it. I ended up not taking my camera down to the dock for obvious reasons but did squeeze in a mini sesh with beautiful 8 month old Penelope Quinn.

She wasn’t in much of a smiling mood, this was about as close as we got to a smile Sunday.

I just love chubby little baby hands and arms and thighs and feet and…you know. Baby chubbiness.  So cute.
Monday morning we lounged around the house before heading to the outlet mall to check out the Labor Day deals.  After that it was time for my sweet sis and her amazing family to hit the road.  Sad to see them go, realizing after spending such quality time together how much we are missing by living so far apart.
Isabella and Malachi – my first niece and my first nephew. Now I have two of each.  These are 2 good kids.  REALLY good kids.  Love them to pieces.
They all left a little after 5pm and I went home to spend a little extra time with my own little fam.  Back to work. Back to school. Back to the babysitter.  We’re all getting back into our post-holiday routine. To toss in a little excitement, we went to the ice cream shop last night and then the library, which is right across the street.  The boys love this library, and so do I.  We let them check out books for the first time.
How’s that for a photo & info overload?  Now that we’re almost into another weekend, I hope your Labor Day weekend was great and I hope this coming weekend is too!
xoxo,
~C~

our tenth wedding anniversary

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

To say that our ten year anniversary snuck up on us would be an understatement.  I remember when we were dating and talking about getting married, how it would be our dream to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon.  Well, we underestimated how much the wedding and everything else would cost.  We settled for Jamaica (no complaints, we loved it!) and said we’d go to Hawaii for our 5 year anniversary.  We didn’t really plan for a trip to Hawaii but during the winter prior to our 5th anniversary, we were presented with the opportunity to go on an Alaskan cruise shortly before our anniversary.  Amazing! But not Hawaii.  What is it about Hawaii?  I guess to us, it’s the ultimate vacation destination.  Anyway, it worked out best that we go to Disney this fall and sorry Charlie, but we’re just not the type of family that is able to go on two big vacations in one year.  So around March, I started looking for destinations for a romantic weekend getaway that were within driving distance.

I discovered Hocking Hills (in Ohio) and could not stop oohing and aahing over the images online.  So, I booked our trip to Ohio (again, not Hawaii) for the 4th through the 6th. Maybe it’s a more realistic goal to get there for our 20th anniversary.  Maybe.

On Friday, July 5th, we celebrated 10 years of marriage.  I kept saying “know what we were doing 10 years ago right now?”  And we struggled a little to remember the sequence and details throughout our wedding day.  We pieced it together and had fun re-living the memories together.

Babies.  Just babies.
We stopped for lunch in Columbus and then headed south to Logan, where our hotel was.  I had never been to Columbus and noon on the 4th of July was certainly not the time to visit.  Deadsville.  But it seemed like a wonderful town.  Logan:  Not Hawaii.  I researched online and this town looked so cute with some of the neatest shops and restaurants.  In reality, the town was a dump.  Sorry, Logan.  I get the draw, the surrounding area of Hocking Hills is astounding.  Amazing.  But when we rolled into town, we didn’t know that.  Logan could do a lot to increase tourism in the area – or at least the tourists’ experience there.  We were lucky to have a delicious barbeque place called Millstone BBQ right next to our hotel.  It was the beginning of my undoing.  
Spiked Southern Tea (x2) and Apple Cinnamon Nachos.  Shew lawdy. 
I was too incapacitated (from the nachos, not the spiked tea) to go to the local fireworks, so we went back to our hotel to use the hot tub.  ‘Cept the jets weren’t working.  Cool!  
Friday morning (our actual anniversary) we headed to Lancaster for our big adventure of the weekend. 
It rained/drizzled throughout our 2 hour zipline tour, but overall it wasn’t terrible.  Most of the time we were protected by the canopy of trees.  I obviously wasn’t able to take my camera or phone so I was happy they offered a photo package.  We got to ride 11 different lines and rappel down from the last platform.  

Practice time – learning how to self-rescue.

Lucky me! I got to be the first one to go across the first line.

Before I figured out that you steer with your wrists, I was twisty-turny.

Zipping across one of the 1,000+ foot lines, over 100 feet in the air!

Racing.  (Pretty sure I lost).

Getting ready to rappel.
After ziplining, we were hungry so we went into the town of Lancaster, OH, where we SHOULD have stayed.  It was super cute and historic with the neatest buildings and homes, as well as a modernized area with all of the amenities you could ask for.  I already want to take the boys to the Hocking Hills/Columbus area when they are a little older so I’ll keep this in mind.  We found another neat spot to eat called Four Reasons.  So cute and delicious.  The rain let up so we stopped at the next attraction area on our way back to Logan. 
It was some pretty intense hiking despite this serene looking photo so afterwards, I was ready to do a bit of shopping and relaxing. 

Too bad these awesome-sauce boots were $130.
Friday night we ate at a Mexican restaurant near our hotel and it was delicious.  Afterwards, I wanted to die.  I ate way too much and am definitely going to have some make-up work to do for the damage I did this weekend.  Was it worth it?  Depends on whether or not I can lose this FIVE extra pounds or not… oh and by the way, the hot tub still wasn’t working.  WASTE!
Saturday we got up and headed to the heart of Hocking Hills. I have to admit that up to this point in our trip, I was feeling pretty disappointed overall.  Glad that we were able to get away but pretty bummed about the gloomy weather and the town we stayed in.  (P.S. As we checked out, we noticed that the jets in the hot tub were indeed working again. WTH).  So we found Old Man’s Cave which has several fantastic other spots to see, all within a 6 mile hike.  We did the entire thing and absolutely fell in love with the area.  It was gorgeous.  It seemed that there was a surprise around every corner.  The hike Saturday made the entire trip for me.  The ziplining was a fun adventure, but THIS was Hocking Hills. This is what we went there to see.  I again did not want to carry my camera, not knowing if it would rain, if I’d fall in the creek, or if I’d drop it in the mud so I went with only my cell.  If you have time or ever consider a day trip to the area though, please look up photos online.  Pictures can’t come close to standing there in the magical natural wonder of Hocking Hills.  Swear.

It was truly magnificent.  My opinion of our trip went from hum-drum/so-so to over-the-top-wonderful in the 3+ hrs we spent hiking there.  I would have done more if I thought my legs would hold out!  It was pretty rugged (and dangerous even) in spots with lots of climbing.  I’m sore today but it was so worth it.  
Can’t wait to take the boys when they get a little older. I thought of them so many times and how much they would love exploring the beauty of this place. We got home Saturday evening and picked up the boys first thing Sunday morning.  Oh, did it feel good to get them in my arms again!  What a fantastic break from work and reality for just a few short days.  So, was it anything like Hawaii?  Not a chance, and I’m okay with that.  
Having fun at Nana and Pop Pop’s.
xo,
A lady who’s been married for over 10 years

father’s day weekend 2013

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest
Saturday we traveled to Richmond to visit some of my relatives and celebrate my grandmother’s 79th birthday at a surprise party.  My uncle Joe & aunt Sandy have an alpaca farm so we went there first to meet their newest baby, Annapolis aka “Annie.” 
The boys love feeding the alpacas.

Annie!

All I could think was that poor mama! Can you imagine giving birth to this large of a baby?  Two weeks old! That’s the mother, standing right beside me.  I could only hold this strong girl for about 60 seconds.

No worries, these animals would scatter every time the boys took a step in their direction. They’re very docile animals.

Dexter loved this barn cat, Louie.

We hung out at the farm until we received word that the party planners were ready for their special guest of honor.

Time to go, boys!

Yes, Grandma had her hair up in bobby pin curls like she does every Saturday.  Gotta look pretty for church on Sunday.  Grandma has looked like this for as many Saturdays as I’ve known her, unless she was aware of a special occasion.  I don’t think she cared at all that she came to her party with a kerchief on her head!  I think she looks beautiful! 

It’s funny…the grandkids my age call her Grandma and the little grandkids and great grandkids call her Mamaw.  Not sure when the switch happened… Some people call her Barsie – no clue where that came from.  (She had a sister named Elizabeth who was only known as Tootie, so who knows?)  Hardly anyone calls her by her lovely given name, Arizona.  I always told Ryan if we’d had a girl, I wanted to name her Arizona and call her Zoey.

Lots of fun things for the boys to do at my uncle Kerry’s gorgeous, huge property.  They enjoyed a nice, sloooow go-kart ride (at least while mom was watching).

The birthday cutie opening cards and gifts.  She was so surprised, she just kept saying “I’ve never been surprised in my life!”  Can you believe this was her first ever birthday party?  I guess when you have 7 kids, 14 grandkids, and 7 great grandkids, the attention is always focused somewhere else.  

It was a little too breezy and cloudy for me to get in the pool, but the boys did not hesitate!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

On Father’s Day morning, I surprised Ryan by taking him to First Watch downtown for breakfast.  Oh. So. Yummy.  Afterwards, we went over to the Indiana State Museum for a short IMAX film about butterflies.  We were a few minutes early so we walked around outside for a bit.

Waiting for the show to start. 
Somehow, I abandoned my camera after the movie, but Sunday afternoon, Ryan’s parents came up and I fixed dinner for Ryan, the boys, and Nana and Pop-Pop.  It was a wonderful weekend.  Father’s Day is always bittersweet as I’m missing my own dad, but this weekend was full of family and gentle reminders that I am so very lucky to have all these special people in my life.  
xo,
~C~