On the road again

We just took a lovely trip up to see my relatives in Cincinnati.  My mother in law had a class up near my mom, so she took the girls and me with her. 

Monday we spent the day getting presents ready to bring on the trip with us.  Salsa Verde and Chocolate chip cookies... well chocolate cookies without the chips and a chocolate glaze on top.  We were out of chips and yeah... but they were delicious so it worked out in the end.  If I can remember we'll share our recipe on here soon.

Ro-bear had her own bowl of ingredients and kept stopping to taste hers.

L-bug made a smiley face with the eggs and vanilla in the batter.

 

 

Tuesday we went up to Cinci and visited a bit, everyone was pretty tired and cranky at that point. We did stay up and try to see the meteors... no luck, but we took a picture of the moon....

I felt bad for L-bug because she was really looking forward to the meteors, but we'll try again next shower.

Wednesday was a nice day, we went to a park with Great Grandma and Grandpa and played on the playground and took a walk around a lake.  The girls had fun until Ro-bear got tired and passed out. I carried her the rest of the way. Let's say 26 lbs gets heavy fast :). 

 

 

Thursday we got to go to the aquarium.  I felt really bad because Grandma and Great Grandma couldn't come with us, but we all had a blast.  Boo the least because no one would let her pet anything lol, but L-bug and Ro-bear got to pet some different things like sea urchins and a crab, star fish an horseshoe crabs. Then later they got to pet sharks.  Silly me had misplaced my camera at this point in the trip and borrowed Great Grandma's camera which I forgot to recharge between the park and the aquarium and it died before the shark petting, but that's okay, its easier to help kids pet sharks without a camera around your wrist to worry about.  All in all we took a million pictures, here are some highlights....

 L-bug really liked this statue of a whale so we got a picture for her.

 

 Ro-bear had to say hi to all the fish for the first hmmm 15 mins of the trip.

 ...and wave to many of them too.

 This is where they could pet the star fish, sea urchin, horseshoe crabs etc.  The only bad thing was that they had just fed the critters that morning and there were still pieces of fish heads staring up at us (ew). Ro-bear wondered for a little bit if she was supposed to pet the dead fish or not, thankfully I was with her and steered her away.

 These are the shark rays which we learned are neither sharks or rays, but a type of guitar fish... they were really pretty either way.

 We learned that the otters play with ice.  They were so cute showing off, swimming around and playing.

Everyone had to take a turn on the giant frogs... let me tell you though they were slicker than they look.  I slid off of it the first time. And that little girl who's blurry kept kicking Boo... grr. I didn't say anything because she's so little herself, but it irked me. Each girl picked out a stuffy at the gift shop and Ro-bear learned how to say Hamma-head shark. So cute, Ro-bear saying anything is cute she is getting the hang of the talking thing.   



 

 

Friday morning we sat around the kitchen island and read about the 'new' animal the olinguito.  L-bug was curious and so we read about it, very interesting stuff.  If you haven't read up on the animal yet here's a link to visit.  Olinguito  Then we visited with a friend for a while our babies weren't too sure about each other, but they the end of the visit they were doing the baby thing where they play nearby each other.  For two kids around one that's saying a lot. Overall it was a nice visit.   We found my camera at this point (I'd hidden it in my mom's present to keep it safe- yes, safe- and she found it for me) so the girls had to take cheesy pics in the hotel. I have three cheeseballs who are always up for cheesy pics.

Ro-bear kept yelling TEEESE and then posing, so I guess it was mostly one cheeseball, but what mama can say no to a face like that... well, I do have to on some things, but not pictures.

 

 

Saturday was the long trip back home. The girls were mostly good, they got tired of traveling of course, but we took breaks and walked about and got such cute pictures as these.

And yes, I did say no to most all of the things Ro-bear was carrying around the stores. 

The girls missed daddy the whole week, we had to call him at random intervals to have him say hi.  It was mostly Boo and Ro-bear, neither really wanted to talk with him  (well, Boo can't talk and Ro-bear doesn't much) they just wanted to make sure he was okay. I can't imagine the families who have to send their daddy away for long periods of time!  I admire those families even more now after having a short week of the stress that puts on the wee ones. 

 

Today we planted some plants that we got from hobby lobby on our trip, though I'm not sure why I let L-bug talk me into them on the trip, we have a Hobby Lobby here, so we could have gotten them anytime.  L-bug wanted a cactus and Ro-bear got a polka dot plant, and Boo got a sunflower because L-bug said Boo is like a ray of sunshine and needed a sunflower.  Sometimes that kid can be so sweet. 

 

 

Oh and least I forget.... L-bug lost another tooth today. She is very proud of her lost tooth. Me, on the other hand, can't stand teeth, ew.  Yet, I have to act all happy for her :).

 

Well, that was our week off school in a nutshell.  I must say it still felt fairly educational for being a week off.  Just goes to show, learning is a way of life.  Daddy is taking a week off this coming week, hopefully we'll be getting a new dishwasher and doing a few odd things around the house while getting back in the groove of school and cleaning.  Our cleaning schedule is good, but not great for us, I need to find something that takes it up to great. I know nothing will be perfect, but great will suffice.