Put In Bay Vacation
Family vacation #2, not as much fun as Disney but we still had a good time! We had to go up near Cleveland for a wedding in late July, so we figured we’d make a vacation out of it. We spent 2 days in Put In Bay, at the Put-in-Bay Resort and loved it! We had a huge, 3-story condo there and it was just the 5 of us.
We finished the trip at Cedar Point and it was so-so. We did a night pass, so only spent ~4 hours in the park. Park was fine, some of the new coasters look pretty cool (we were stuck on the tea cups!) but otherwise the experience sucked. The Hotel Breakers absolutely sucked! $250 for the night, and our room was very small with a 20″ piece-o-crap TV. The kids were zonked by 9:30, would have been nice to watch some TV…
Halloween, 2009
Lily picked out an awesome costume this year! The rest were recycled from previous years, it’s good to be the oldest! We had a good time as usual, just roamed around the neighborhood.
Pumpkin Patch
I really enjoyed the pumpkin patch last year, but Julie didn’t like that the pumpkins were already picked. She wants to pick them “in the field.” I looked into several, most were an hour or so away and we only had a couple hours between Cassie’s nap and Julie going into work. Plus, the “hayride” at Lobenstein is pretty weak but it’s only $0.50 per person versus $8-10 at other places.
In the end we decided to go back to Lobenstein Farm, and had a good time. I think they make up the hayride difference with pumpkin prices, we ended up spending $45!
Long Live Goldie, Goldie is Dead
Last weekend, we went up to the Brown County Fair to spend some quality time with the grandparents (and eat junk food). We had a great time, it’s been since HS that I went so it was fun to go back. Didn’t see many ppl I know, but the kids loved the rides and grandparents enjoyed spoiling them. They even let Ava throw the darts at the balloon game, which she nailed.
My parents then proceeded to break the cardinal rule of festivals, (Rule #1: No Goldfish) and “won” us a goldfish. So Julie bought a bowl, food and some rocks and we were nervous when we read that they can live up to 10 years! Ava named it Goldie, and Cassie was probably the most excited about the newest member of the family. She could spend a solid 5 minutes shouting and waving at Goldie, then come back and do it an hour later.
Unfortunately, Goldie did not make it ten years. He passed quietly this afternoon, and will be buried later tonight after the little ones are fast asleep. Goldie, it was fun while it lasted and you will be missed.
Dad’s Camping Trip
Did a camping trip to Carter Caves with a couple of friends this weekend, had a lot of fun! First time I’ve been camping in (at least) a couple decades and the girls had never been. We did a cave tour, short hike to a natural bridge and did some late night dancing!
Girls did great on the drive up and back, Google did not do so well. The directions took me through gravel roads, a creek bed (!!) and (pretty sure) where they filmed Deliverance. I took 64/75 back.
Labor Day Party
A long day & night of fun at Rock Bottom & the Reds game a couple weeks back led me to commit to a Labor Day party for friends. I think Julie liked it because it forced me to work non-stop to get the baseboards finished. Which I did, for the most part (2 bedrooms still to go).
Reason #1 for a new house: our yard is non-existant & more importantly doesn’t fit a bouncer! So we had to use part of our neighbors.
We had a full house on the deck & in the bouncer.
Germania
Julie’s sleeping off an all-nighter (working) so I took the kids to Germania.
36 hr Painting Marathon
We’re in the process of re-doing all of the baseboards and it seemed like a good time to re-paint the upstairs.
So we’ve painted the ceilings, kitchen & 2 coats in the living room in just over 36 hours. This is a pic of our kitchen, in the corner where the high chair has been off and on for the last 5+ years.If you look closely, you can see where I pulled off the border, and notice a distinct difference in cleanliness. VERY disgusting!
T-Ball All Star!
Lily missed the All Star game because of her surgery, and it took us a while to pick it up from the coach but it’s pretty cool.
Lily, Repaired (we hope)
Lily had her 2nd surgery of the year, this time to take the spleen out to correct the HS and so far so good. We really wish we had known back in January what we know now, that way they could have taken the spleen and the gall bladder all at once.
In any event, we’re just hoping that this turns out to be the right long-term answer. Her hemoglobin numbers are in the low 7’s at best and possibly in the 6’s. She struggles with any kind of sustained physical activities, which was apparent in T-ball. The downside is she’s probably (up to the doctor) going to be on a daily antibiotic until she’s 18 and there’s just not a lot known yet, with certainty, about long-term life w/o a spleen.
In 3-4 months, once the transfusions wear off, we’re all going in for genetic testing to get more details on what exactly the defect is and where it came from. It’ll be important for the girls to know, if at some point in the future they decide to have children.
Here she is a little less than 24 hours after surgery.
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