Cousins!

For Thanksgiving this year we were able to go to my parents place in Ohio. My sister Sara and her family were also able to attend. Katie and Sara both posed with their creations for the year and attested to the fact that childbirth is a fantastic weight loss tool! With a month's advantage, Derek had the size advantage, but Jared made up for it with voluminous amounts of hair.

Cousins Derek and Jared with their Moms

 

Fourth of July 2007

We spent a wonderful forth of july in Ohio this year with Grandpa and Grandma Johns. It was a great time as Will and Andria and their four kids along with Sara and Mark and their two(+) kids were there as well. Talk about a full house. Sadie and Mason loved spending time with thier cousins and Farmor and Farfar put on quite a party!! We had a blast playing on the trampoline, the waterslide, going to the waterpark, discovery museum, a reptile show in the garage, plus wonderful food virtually nonstop!! What fun. Great-grandma was also able to make it out as well so the kids got to enjoy playing with her too.

You can see full size pictures by clicking on the above slideshow - enjoy!

Ohio Snow Daze

With the Federal government choosing to not go to work on Monday, and a couple of days off from working an alternate work schedule, I decided to take the kids out to visit Farmor and Farfar. They had received a bunch of snow in the last week and I wanted to give the kids a chance to play in it since we haven't had much to speak of here. So off we went and we were not dissapointed. The snow was great and the sled hills were fantastic. The kids only came in because it got dark. I built a snow fort around the trampoline that they loved playing in as well and pretending to be groundhogs. We also made a small slide off the fort that they enjoyed. It was wonderful to be able to enjoy the snow and have fun with grandma and grandpa in the process. Dad and I got to spend some time together at the movies as well. We enjoyed Night at the museum, which was pretty funny and Ghost Rider, which was ok but a little over the top. All in all I call this a great weekend!

Mason climbing out of the snow fort

Mason and Sadie sledding with Grandma

Sadie the groundhog - in the snow fort

Sadie sledding down the snow fort

Thanksgiving visits in Ohio

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday at Grandma and Grandpa Johns's house in Ohio. The kids loved playing with their cousins Ryan and Rachel and Linus was there also, Chris' cousin Ritchie's little boy. We had great weather the whole time we were there and so we did a lot of outdoor activities. The first day we went to a park and some went for a lengthy walk along the river while others exercised. We went canoeing on Thanksgiving day at the scout camp which was a lot of fun. The camp dog came to visit and wanted to go on the water with us. We also tried our lot at the archery station. Mason and Sadie were getting really good at it and sure had a lot of fun. Mason loved the trampoline at Grandma's and didn't ever want to get off of it.







Sadie was excited about a fire in the backyard, so for two nights we had a fire going in the pit. One night we roasted marshmellows and told stories around the fire. Sadie loved getting her stick glowing from the coals.







This is the clan! We had such a great time with family and the kids were sad to go. Chris and I were too. We hope everyone had a great holiday.


Sadie lost her first top tooth! She was pretty excited about the tooth fairy coming again and went to the dollar store to purchase an ornament for the tree.

Ohio Visit

For Labor day weekend, Chris and the Kids went to visit his parents. Katie was in Alaska attending the funeral of an uncle. She enjoyed visiting again with all of her family and that put a positive twist to an otherwise sad event.

Chris and kids enjoyed their time with the grandparents and we had some major milestones. For example, Sadie learned how to ride a bike without training wheels for the first time. She hadn't even tried before but grandma brought out a bike she got from a neighbor and she jumped right on and in a few minutes she was riding all over the place!


Nearby is a farm that was hosting the National Plowing Competition! I didn't even know they had things like this - but they do! We got to watch them practicing for the big event and wander around the farm. A nice guy in a horse drawn wagon gave us a private tour around the entire farm - even taking us through some streams! The kids loved that.


Chris' sister came out from Illinios as well for the weekend and it was a great chance to catch up with cousins. Sadie and Mason loved playing with them and meeting their newest cousin Rachel for the first time.