Road Trip

Just got back from a trip to Ohio to see family and a few dear friends. Checked the weather before we left and knew it would be cool at night with a few days of possible showers, but the temps were otherwise expected to be between 72 and 80º. It never hit 80º and the 70's felt like 60's. It was overcast and chilly. We brought jackets but had to buy a pair of pants for each of the kids. This is how the time played out;

• Tuesday
-made the 6 hour drive to Ohio, arriving there at nearly 11pm (in actuality, it takes us no less than 8 hours to get there, a la 4 kids in a van who need umpteen restroom breaks, food, a drink, a clean up of the drink, etc.)


• Wednesday
-a "slug" day after the long drive.
Made it to the bulk paper store to get scrapbook paper for me and my good pal Sniz.


• Thursday
-Went to the mall to watch Liv get her ears pierced for her 10th birthday. She nearly cried and definitely grouched. I asked if she was happy she did it after they finished. She coldly shot me a "No!" and some furrowed brows to go with, lol.


-Celebrated Liv's birthday with family. This is soooo important to Olivia. She would be heartbroken if her aunts, uncles and cousins didn't attend. I'm grateful to all of them for loving her with their presence each year (yes, I said presence, not presents, though they're all so generous to love her that way too.)
-Reece's birth sister and her family stopped by later in the evening. He lights up when he sees Kimberly and enjoyed her being at his Nana's house with him.
-Brandon began a 101º fever (Turns out he's cutting not one but FOUR molars and has a cold sore to boot. You tell me how happy he isn't.)


• Friday
-visited with our friends Dan and Nancy and their three children who are all close in age to ours. Had lunch with their family and the kids had quite a bit of fun together. Dan and I worked together for years at USAirways, where he still works part time. He is also a full time fire fighter in Cleveland, a job which I am truly in awe of him for. Nancy is a very talented working musician and SAHM (best of both worlds) and plays the instrument I wish I too would have learned to play, the violin.
-we let the kids venture into Lake Erie's frigid waters (67º) for a short time before heading back to my parents.
-Brandon's fever prevented him from our Friday activities. Since my mom was going to fireworks Friday night, we needed to stay home with him (in addition to his fever, he's going through a phase of crying in fear when he hears loud noises like fireworks or thunder.) Olivia wanted to see her Uncle Scot and Aunt Lori though, so she went with her Nana to the fireworks.


• Saturday
-spent some unscheduled, laid back time with my parents, rode bikes with Olivia, and tended to uncomfortable Brandon before going to dinner with them.
-off to the dinky festival and cool fireworks display. It's held in a little township way out in the country near where we lived. I can't tell you how nostalgic it always is for us to attend when home. It was a tradition we loved when we lived there, and it's a piece of the country I cling to every summer while home. Can you tell my heart will forever be in the open spaces of the country? ;)



• Sunday
-packed, cleaned up the traces of our family of 6 in my parents' home, and enjoyed some coffee and chatter on the porch with them before packing our van and making our looong way back home.

We took a new route this time. We like to take backroads because we love the country as I mentioned already, and because we also are very intrigued by small town America. Got to see some literal dots on the map like Trinity, Gaul, Republic, Bryant and more. Here are some of my favorite sights;

-a huge marker in the likeness of Chief Francois Godfroy of the Miami nation. A treaty was made to set aside nearly 4,000 acres of land for the Miami in 1818. Those lands were sold in 1827 and 1836.

-the Arcadia "superette" (surely the "ette" suggests small, seeing as it was a one-horse town. Not sure how it was decided that small should be paired with "super" in naming the business??? So naturally, I couldn't help thinking "ette" referred to female, a girly girl's grocery gig if you will.)


-Betty's Pie House. Nothin' like stopping by the pie house and filling your pie hole, eh?
-And this gem. A gas station was advertising its hotdogs on sale. But these were special hotdogs. Deep fried hotdogs. So instead of gradual plaque buildup in your arteries over time, these babies are more like mainlining. Might as well shove one of those babies right in a major artery. I need some nitro just thinking about it.
-Lake St. Marys. It was huge. Didn't realize we had such a big lake in a landlocked area. We let the kids wade on the shore, but the water was too algae ridden to consider actually swimming in it. Ewwww!


There was so much more to take in as we rolled along, but you get the gist. I'm glad to be back home and settling back into our own routine. Brandon's teeth are still causing fever and lots of crabbiness, so say a prayer for our little guy if you read this. And now, back to life as we know it.

Toni