The Fourth with Family

So much to catch up on. Getting back from a vacation, no matter how small, always seems to throw off the schedule. But here's what you've missed.Last Thursday July 2nd, Smuckers had an employee appreciation lunch at their headquarters in Orrville. Family was invited so Morgan, Pepper and I headed over after Morgan's Little Gym class and had a very yummy lunch with Daddy. Morgan discovered soda this Memorial Day and now he's a bit of a fan...when he can get it!
He also never turns down a hamburger or a "happy cupcake". The kid knows what he likes!

On Friday morning we packed up the mini van and headed to Cody's brother Khan's house in Kentucky just across the river from Cincinnatti. It took us about 4 hrs and it was not the best trip. Pepper has decided she hates her car seat and hardly ever falls asleep in the car so she pretty much screamed the whole time unless I was holding her hand and her binky in her mouth. Then half way there Morgan choked on a cheese stick and threw up all over himself. Not pretty. Then to top it all off Pepper blew out just before we got there. Yep, pretty much the worst trip but luckily we were headed to family who had all the facilities neccessary for us to clean up and get back to normal.

That evening after much needed naps, we had a very nice bar-b-que with Khan's neighbors. They live in the perfect little suburban dream, nice house, big yard, wonderful neighbors, a garden, lots of trees...just what Cody and I will be looking for here in Akron. Khan and his neighbors pooled their money together and bought over $500 worth of fireworks. I'm talking serious fireworks! We had a pretty legit show once it got dark and before that the kids entertained themselves with endless sparklers and other assorted goodies.

Here's Theron showing off his sparkler skills.

We had a great time sitting and watching the fireworks on a nice comfy swing on their back porch. Morgan LOVED them and has not stopped talking about them since that day. Thanks Khan for the great show!

Morgan playing in the backyard with William while Khan and I chat in the background.

Only little people would want to play in water that cold!

One firecracker they had exploded little parachutes everywhere. The kids had a blast chasing them down. Morgan likes to tell me about this particular firework at least once a day. You can already see the low smoke cloud forming.

Cody instilling his love of fireworks to his son.

After a lovely 3rd, we woke up on the 4th and went to the Children's Museum. It was an amazing place filled with an endless supply of fun. Here Morgan is playing with a suction tube and balls.

They had a toddler/baby area that was gated off. The little guys could go everywhere but the big kids couldn't come in here.

Morgan and William are starting to look like twins. It took me a sec to figure out this wasn't Morgan. They had such a great time playing together the whole weekend. I'm so grateful we finally live close to family!

The water area was one of my favorites. They provide little raincoats, which Morgan of course refused to wear and therefore was soaked by the time we left. Oh well, all in the name of fun!

This is the main terminal of the original Cincinnatti train station. They have turned the entire complex into a huge museum station. The Children's Museum, Natural History Museum and others are located here. The whole place is decorated in Art Deco style. I felt like I was in a Hercule Poirot movie.

I've noticed that already we have taken way fewer pictures of Pepper than we did of Morgan at this age. We still take a ton of pictures of Morgan and then a pity picture of Pepper, as if to say "Oh yeah you were here too. This was your first 4th of July and first museum hope you will enjoy this one picture commemorating it!"

Luckily we did all our celebrating on the 3rd because once we left the museum it poured the rest of the day on Saturday. Here are the boys enjoying a restful Independance Day.

And the bigger boys showing off their bar-b-que rib skills.

And Cody managed to get Pepper to fall asleep in his arms...he was pretty excited about that as well. She only seems to hate him some of the time now!

Because of the horrible trip there I told Cody I was driving home on Sunday. Well wouldn't you know Pepper slept almost the entire way and Morgan had an uneventful trip. It just isn't fair for us moms! Altogether it was a wonderful weekend and we can't wait to go back and visit again! Especially Morgan who asks to go to William's house at least once a day as well. I can't say enough how grateful we are to be living so close to Khan and his wonderful family. Don't worry guys we'll be back to take over your basement very soon!

Here are some photos from Cameron, Nikki and John Henry's brief visit with us.

The Nikki, our family photographer, took a nice partial family photo for us. Morgan was in nursery. That kid is serious about his nursery time!

Week of Mesha and a Weekend of Guests

Last week we had the wonderful pleasure of my best good friend Mesha's company all week. Mesha and I have been best friends since kindergarten in New Jersey. Both of our fathers were in the ARMY and despite moving around we have never lost touch. We visited each other whenever we could growing up and were roommates at Ricks College. After I finished my BA from UCF, I moved out to Payson, UT to live with Mesha, her sister Chamaine and our other NJ friend Sharon. It was so fun to be together again, seriously we never get sick of each other! And I also have her to thank for setting me up with Cody on a blind date!

We loved having her visit and can't wait to see her and her family again!Mesha loves animals so we decided to go to the Akron Zoo on Friday.
Morgan loved having a zoo buddy.
He also loves having other fun people about the house so he is missing her as well.

Baby Jaguars. The last time Mesha took a Mexican cruise she got to hold a baby Jaguar. I'm pretty sure that is her idea of heaven!

Can you find the Snow Leopard?

Morgan's in the yellow train car with all the other short haired blond boys that look just like him.

Who knew fish could be this captivating?!

Our apartment complex pool finally opened up and we took advantage of it on Friday afternoon. These young girls asked Mesha how old she was...I think they were expecting her to say something a little closer to their age. Too funny!

Pepper enjoying the pool. She fell asleep a few moments later.

Late Friday night our good friend Sharon and her hubby Ben drove up from the Cinncinatti area to play with us on Saturday. We decided to go up to a state park between us and Cleveland for a picnic and a hike. It was a beautiful day and fantastic company. Can't ask for more than that!

Pepper airing out in the great outdoors.

Morgan takes off to explore the woods with his stroller. It actually off-roaded pretty good!

A really cool nature center in the middle of the woods. It was really old and had a very chatty pregnant woman inside. Good times.

Sharon and Ben left Saturday early evening. About an hour later our dear friends Cameron, Nikki and their little man John Henry stopped over for the night on their way from NYC to Michigan. We had a very yummy dinner together courtesy of Cody and they came to church with us before heading on their way. They took some pics that I will post as soon as I get them. We all had a great time catching up, including Mesha since we were all friends together at Ricks.

When I was cleaning up on Monday I discovered this lovely note. Thanks guys for visiting us and bringing a little of the city to us here in Ohio. We miss you guys!

It was a busy but fun weekend. We just love having visitors...hint hint to all our friends!

Here are some random shots from our week.

Pepper supporting her brother the rockstar!

I just love the way her toes peek out of her blanket in the swing. I probably spend too much time obsessing over her cute toes!

And here's a video of Pepper becoming more aware of her toys and arms and legs. I'm sure only her grandmothers will find this interesting but if you have a couple minutes to kill and like to look at cute babies enjoy:

Well, that's our life last week. We are looking forward to visiting Cody's brother for the long weekend.

Stay tuned, more to come!

Smuckers Family Day at Cedar Point

On Saturday the 20th the Smuckers company hosted a family day for the employees at Cedar Point amusemant park. We had never been there before so we were pretty excited to see all the big roller coasters. Unfortunately with two small children we were not able to ride any of the grown up rides but we still had a great time taking Morgan to all the kiddie rides. Smuckers hosted a dinner and raffle. We didn't win anything but we got a free day at Cedar Point and free dinner so I guess we still won! Morgan was in heaven with all the rides made just for him. He still gets so excited to see the pictures and talks about all the cars and train rides.
He never quite managed to pull the bar back so he could go up in the air but he enjoyed the helicopter ride.

I barely fit into the truck and we only went around once so I wondered if it was really worth it. Morgan's delight told me differently.

Such a serious driver.

Morgan is very into tigers right now. At the end of the day when Morgan was having a tough time saying good-bye to the train I bought a toy tiger that was on clearance for a couple bucks. Cody gave me the evil eye for buying a non essential but we got out of the park with no tears and had a pleasant ride home. I would say it was well worth it!

Me about to get sick on a balloon ride. I was surprised at how fast some of these kid rides went. Here's a sideways video for you courtesy of Cody:

Not quite Cody's size.

At the end of the day we took the train around the park. We parked our stroller, which meant we had to ride the train all the way to the back of the park where we left it and walk out through the whole thing. Not the best planning move on our part but we got a nice tour of the whole park. We can't wait to go again...maybe without kids!

This is how Pepper saw the park. She was one sweaty little girl but this is how she sleeps with the blanket up around her face. Whatever works right?!

This is Morgan having a hard time tearing himself away from the train. He never threw a tantrum, I think he was too tired, he just stood there until it finally went away. And then he got his tiger and life was good. We are so grateful to be part of the Smuckers "family" now. Any job would have been a blessing in our situation but we really hit the jackpot with this one!

I have lots to blog about since this day but my camera and computer are not on speaking terms at the moment. So there's lots more to come from our weekend with Mesha and our weekend of guests.

Peppermint Aged 2 Months

Our little lady had her two month check up today.

She weighed in at 12 lbs 9 ozs and 23 1/4 ins.

I was actually surprised that she was in the 90 % for weight because I was thinking she looked much skinnier than Morgan at this age. I guess it is all relative!

Last Sunday I thought she looked mighty pretty in her lavender outfit so I thought I'd take a couple pictures. She didn't appreciate my delay in feeding her but obliged a couple profile shots.

A small glimpse of her pretty smile.
I can't believe two months have already come and gone. She is a great baby. Pepper has her fussy moments but pretty much sleeps through the night so that makes up for a lot!

We did some more strawberry picking this Monday afternoon with my great friend Mesha who is visiting for the week. We had a very yummy salad with homemade bread for dinner. I didn't take any pictures of our bounty but here are some shots from my pie making from last week.

Yes it was as good as it looks!

I love berry season and local farms!