Thursday, September 29, 2011

Naomi's 1st Family Holiday

After 5 months of visitors and getting used to a new member in the family, we took a well-deserved family holiday up at Lake Erie, our first proper break together since coming to America 2 years ago. Thanks to the sister of a good friend we were able to 'borrow' their cottage up at Lakeside a gated-community right on the lake. As you can see 'cottage' isn't quite the word a Brit would use to describe it ... it was huge but lovely and only two and half hours drive from home!

Our holiday 'cottage'!
The lake side at Lakeside!
We had lots of time to relax and also explore the local area, it was somewhere we'd never been before. There were little shops and cafes within Lakeside itself and cute little unique cottages to look at, as well as other places a short drive away. Although it was just out of season most things were still open and we got to visit the places we wanted to. Below are a couple photos from our little drive out to Marblehead lighthouse.


Abigail loved that everyday brought a new adventure ... and enjoyed every new experience ... as you can see Naomi often slept through a lot of the fun but seemed happy to tag along wherever we went!


Abigail celebrated her birthday while we were away. That day one of the things we got up to was a visit to East Harbor State Park for a walk and a paddle!


Another adventure was hopping on the car ferry and taking a trip to Put-in-Bay Island just 20 minutes away. We drove around the island when we got there, which took all of about 12 minutes ... and then had some fun visiting Perry Caves, playing crazy golf and visiting the Butterfly House there too! The most popular form of transport on the island was golf cart/buggy ... it was hilarious to see hundreds of them all over the place!!

Out to lunch on the Island

Friendly butterflies


The Car Ferry

Our car looked out of place with all the golf carts!

We also spent a day in Sandusky, doing a little shopping, visiting the Merry-go-round museum there and hugging many of the brightly decorated lighthouses dotted around (it's the new alternative to tree-hugging!).


Whether we relaxed at the house and played games (Scrabble being one of Abigail's new favourites just as long as she can lay the tiles out in alphabetical order) ... or went for walks with the buggy it was all lots of fun ... and like a lot people at the end of the holiday we didn't want to come home!


The girlies enjoying the swing on the front porch in the cottage
A big thank you to Moore family for letting us use their cottage for the week!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

More Cuddles with Nana!

When Naomi was born, Jenny's mum had less than 48 hours left of her Easter visit with us left before she had to fly back to the UK! So, to finish off her summer break from school, she came back to catch up on her cuddles with both of the girlies and spent two weeks with us at the end of August/beginning of September!


The temperatures had dropped a little by the time Nana had arrived (only in the 80's, hitting the 90's just for a couple of days!) but we did make two last trips to the pool which Abigail loved and one Sunday all but Jenny and Naomi took a bike ride! We also did a lot of pottering around with visits to the library, Roscoe village and Walmart (an experience in itself!!) to name but a few!!



Mark took one day off and we visited 'The Wilds', 10,000 acres of wildlife, the largest safari park in North America! We took the bus up to the welcome centre and then boarded an open-air safari vehicle to see all the animals in the park! As you can see Nana was catching up with some of her cuddles even on safari!



The Wilds is a beautiful place and we only got to experience some of it as we did the child-friendly tour which was a bit shorter. Before the end of the ride we stopped at the educational centre and got to touch some of the animals ... including a madagascan hissing cockroach, a corn snake and a grey fox. Sadly we forgot to take photos at that point ... especially as Abigail stroked the snake having been scared of little bunny rabbits just a month or two earlier!



First Friday is a Coshocton phenomenon on the first Friday of each month in the summer ... the shops on Main Street stay open ... there are stalls, games, charities, exhibits ... and more ... each month it's slightly different! We went down for the final one of the year and Abigail and Nana got to ride the wiggly magic train. Abigail bumped into her best buddy too ... so she was even more excited about the evening, doing the chicken dance and having fun in the bounce house (Bouncy castle to the Brit readers!).



As you saw in our last blog we celebrated Abigail and Mark's birthday a little early ... Jenny's mum took us out for a birthday dinner one night too ... and then we celebrated both their birthday's on the actual days as well last week ... multiple fun spread over about 3 or 4 weeks!


Another good visit from another family member ... since Jenny's mum arrived in April we've had a different visitor each month with her returning to finishing of the run! There is nothing more booked for the time being!

Friday, September 09, 2011

Early Birthday Celebrations!

Although both Abigail and Mark don't celebrate their birthdays for another few days ... we started the celebrations a little early! We'll be away for their actual birthday's but thought while Jenny's mum was still here from the UK, we would have some pre-birthday fun the week before and stretch out the celebrations!!

We had been talking about birthday cakes with Abigail several months ago and although she is a big 'princess' fan ... also LOVES anything to do with Toy Story ... and so was adamant that she wanted a Buzz Lightyear cake ... and has been talking about it regularly ever since. We didn't want to disappoint ... so Buzz it was. However Jenny got a little heavy handed with the red food colouring and so Buzz looked a bit sun-burnt (it was 95+ degrees the day we made it!) ... and in the photos he looks even more pink!!!


Abigail was so pleased when she saw it ... and didn't even notice the 'pinkness' ... it's her favourite colour anyway so it was unlikely she'd complain!! Her Buzz was also very impressed and took the opportunity to pose with the cake too!


She positioned the candles herself and successfully blew them all out after we sang to her ... twice!! She has been asking ever since ... 'Am I three yet?!' ... almost!


We had a few pressies to open which she was very excited about and there will be some more while we're away and we'll save some for when we get back ... making her birthday last 3 weeks, one week for every year of her life!! (Does that mean we have to make Mark's last for 38 weeks?!!!)


We did let Mark open one of his pressies that day too! We're big fans of the TV show Cake Boss ... part of the reason we love to get creative with our birthday cakes ... so Abigail and Naomi bought their Daddy a Cake Boss chef coat. Now when he does baking with them he doesn't have to wear one of Jenny's aprons anymore!!