The rest of the summer

We have had such a busy summer! Besides the vacations posted previously, we also took time as a family to venture outside of our little comfort zone, otherwise known as our house. We did a little online research and found some fun activities around the area and took full advantage.


We went back to the Toledo Zoo on a not-so-hot day and had a blast. We've been a few times but this zoo is big enough that there are places there we hadn't yet visited. We visited the bird house, there are even parts where they let birds fly around in the rooms and the kids thought that was great - so did I as long as they didn't make any messes around me! We also visited the aquarium so we could see all the "Nemos" as Roman puts it. They had a ton of different kinds of fish, some really ugly ones (one looked like a floating brain!) and there was even a little dark room where you could look at flashlight fish, they let off these lights like a slow strobe light. We were going to visit the butterfly exhibit but it cost extra, and since we had no extra cash, we decided to make our own little butterflies:



The littlest butterfly, the Romanfly. It's a little ornery, seeks trouble, but super cute.

The Haydenfly is super intelligent, loves to be crazy silly, quite independent, but still super cute.

Antenaes appear on the mommyflies. Isn't she the prettiest mommyfly you've ever seen!?



We also visited the Taste of Maumee, a suburb of Toledo. We went there last year and decided to attend this year. Jeremiah tried some tacos from a Mexican place he'd never heard of, I went for a pulled pork sandwich, and the kids tried Donato's Pizza. The fun was really at the kid's carnival, they had these little 25-cent games they could play and no matter what, they won a prize, even if it was like a Tootsie Roll. They came home with a lot of silly little toys and candy but they had a blast. Hayden even got a shark painted on his face, which he loved.

Hayden's shark. At first I thought it was a whale (this was before she drew on the teeth) and Jeremiah was offended that I thought Hayden would choose a whale for his face painting.

Hayden hitting beanie frogs into a garbage pail. He and Roman both won blue blow-up swords which, surprisingly, ended up hidden in the closet after some fierce sword-fighting.

Roman showing off the bracelet he won in the penny toss. He also apparently loves Papa Murphys.

Hayden also finished his t-ball lessons, the YMCA had a little ceremony after his last game with snacks, juice, and a medal ceremony. Hayden felt so cool with a "gold medal" around his neck. Can you guess who enjoyed watching the Olympics as much as we did?

Hayden with Coach Chris and his gold medal.

We went up to Ann Arbor because I really wanted to visit Trader Joes up there (why oh why can't they open up one here?!). While we were up there, we visited the Children's Hands-On Museum. It was so much fun! Everything about the museum was interactive and the kids couldn't get enough of it. They could dress up like fire fighters and drive a fire truck, see a real ambulance, learn how houses and cars are built, how springs work, how our body works, and a ton more. My favorite part was when Roman rode this little bike and as he increased speed the wall next to him lit up to show a skeleton riding a bike, it was to show how our bones work to pedal a bike, but it freaked him out. It was hilarious. I tried to have him ride again to get it on tape but he refused to go near it. Even Jeremiah and I learned new things and had fun!

Roman playing at the water table. He could have stayed there all day.

Hayden in the ambulance. He got to play with all the buttons and then we talked to him about what ambulances are really for, showing him the back and all the first aid items there.

Roman loves anything that makes noise, especially things I might find obnoxious. Which is why I love that we don't have a floor piano and why Roman loved running on it for so long.

We finally broke down and took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. We were supposed to go for their birthdays but we never found a good night to take them. They were screaming with joy before we even got out of the car! It was a lot of fun watching them play all the little games and go on the rides. Their favorite was the air hockey game, even though Hayden won every time because Roman had no clue how to play the game. He loved it when Hayden would hit the puck into his goal because then Roman would get the puck out and hit it, he thought that was the best part, even if he lost the game because of it. It was a little ghetto, not as cool as I remember the Tacoma one being, but it was fun for the kids. Next time, though, we will not be eating there. Their pizza was worse than frozen pizza! But now that the kids have been, it's a great place to use as a bribe for good behavior!

Can you tell this was not Roman's favorite? I think it was a little high for him.

I think a ride like this is more up his alley.

Hayden, on the other hand, thought it was great and wanted another round of it.

Jeremiah was really excited to attend the German-American Festival. He had yet to have a great bratwurst this year, and knew that if was going to ever get one, this would be the place. I probably would have been just as excited if a) I liked bratwursts, which I don't, and b) the weather wasn't soaring into the high 90s, translating into pregnancy terms more like a million degrees. They had inflatable toys for the kids to jump around on, and Hayden got a soccer ball painted on his arm. Jeremiah got himself a great bratwurst, said it was delicious, I'll just take his word for it. Then the boys all got themselves some Toft's ice cream while I went for a cream puff which I guess is German but I always thought it more of a French thing.

Roman inside an inflatable maze. At the end he had to climb this little rock wall before he could go down the slide, he fell down the wall like ten times and giggled every time. Hayden was out of there in like 2 minutes, Roman took quite a bit longer but loved it.

Jeremiah eating his brat while Hayden works on the German potato salad. About this time a lady across the table spilled her beer and didn't bother to tell me that it was all over our stroller and, with my luck, on my new purse. After I realized this, I started to cry because I was afraid the beer had ruined my purse, which by the way smelled like beer and the lady gave me this look like "What are you going to do about it?" and I was like I'm doing it! I'm crying! Luckily a little water on a washcloth took away most of the stain. See why we don't drink?! It ruins other people's purses!

After our fiasco of a dinner, these girls were doing a dance on the roof of one of the beer stands. They had jackets on and then stripped them off (like stripped them off like strippers) and all the guys went wild, although I think the one on the right is a guy himself. The music was super loud but the kids liked watching them do their little dance. I made Jeremiah take the picture so it didn't look like I was loving the girl-stripper dance.

Other things we did that I didn't have our camera for:

• Attended a Mudhens game thanks to the judge that Jeremiah had his externship with. Hayden loved learning more about the game, Roman just loved that part of the dinner buffet included cookies, which ended up being most of his dinner.


• Went to the Northwest Ohio Rib-Off. I got a pulled pork sandwich (love these!) and Jeremiah got a brisket/rib combo and we got some fries. It wasn't the best pulled pork I've ever had (RJ's is still the best!) but it was fun to attend, there were a ton of people there and we were there long enough to see Weird Al Yancovich perform - not necessarily a dream of mine but it was entertaining.


• Found an outlet mall about an hour away that is run by the same company that owns the outlets in Park City. So it was a little bit of homesickness that drove me to choose these outlets over others, although it didn't help it also had Old Navy, Children's Place, and Gap.


• Went swimming at the YMCA, this was Jeremiah's first venture to the Y, the kids knew what they were doing more than he did! Roman is definately past any water shyness, he ran from the zero-entry pool and started to jump into the 5-foot pool, he made the lifeguard really nervous. Jeremiah worked on swimming technique with Hayden while I chased Roman around the pool. I think next time we'll try a life jacket just for safety.


• My brother Kory visited with his fiance Ana Lee. They were traveling back from Kory's job in Virginia to Utah. I'd met Ana Lee in April when I visited Utah, but did not know that they were that serious so I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention to her. I had a lot of fun getting to know her and talking to them about their wedding plans. She even brought Toblerone for us, which of course Jeremiah sort of took over but that's okay, I hid my share =)