Tyler and I are back from a crazy, hectic nearly two week tour of Ohio, and I think we need a vacation from our vacation! I'm TIRED. We covered most of the state, put over 1000 miles on the rental car in a week, and saw lots of friends and family.
We started off our visit by flying into Cincinnati, where Grandma Lois was ecstatic to see Tyler. She was so happy to see him that she (and Aunt Amy) let him climb in the pool in his pajamas! We also got to visit with Grandpa Paul and Judy where Tyler had a ton of fun feeding the fish (and trying to climb in the pond) and playing catch. I was thoroughly disgusted by the cicadas that are currently having an emergence in Cincinnati...what disgusting bugs! Creepy, beady orange eyed, squawking, nasty creatures...I was plenty ready to get away from them. Yuck!
Our next stop on the grand tour was Aunt Amy and Uncle Dan's house near Columbus. Unfortunately, on our way out of Cincinnati, not 5 minutes from Grandma Lois's house (hadn't even gotten on the highway yet!), we got rear-ended in our rental car. What a headache! Fortunately, the damage was pretty minor, and other than a few days of headaches for me (and a slight mental breakdown), we were fine. After getting a police report filed, we were able to continue on our way with only a slight delay.
Amy and I took Tyler and Kallie to get their pictures taken together at JCPenney, and they were somewhat cooperative. Or at least as cooperative, as you can expect two toddlers to be, I guess. We also took them to see the Blooms and Butterflies exhibit at the Franklin Park Conservatory. We were just in time to see them release the newly hatched butterflies. Tyler was fascinated. He had a great time running around and exploring, checking out the waterfalls, and pointing out the "Flies!" everywhere. I had fun testing out some of the features of my new camera!
The main purpose of this trip was that my mom was throwing a surprise 75th birthday party for Jim (my stepfather) in Cleveland, so up the highway we went. The plan was to surprise him in front of the Great Lakes Science Center, so we were all standing there waiting for them to arrive. When we saw them starting to walk toward us (Jim hadn't seen us yet), I (half-jokingly) told Tyler to "Go get Grandpa!", not expecting him to do it for a second. Much to my surprise and delight, off he ran, straight up to Grandpa, even letting him pick him up! Grandpa was very surprised, he had no idea that we were coming to visit. We spent the rest of the day first taking a tour of the steamship William G. Mather, then back to the hotel to celebrate Jim's birthday. Cousin Cole and Tyler had a fabulous time playing together! Cole was so disappointed when Tyler and Kallie had to take a nap that he kept asking if he could go wake Tyler up yet. :-) Sunday was spent watching the Indians play the Padres, Tyler's second major league baseball game. The game was during naptime, so we had some crankiness, but he liked watching the ball get thrown and hit around, and he really liked clapping with the crowd. I think his favorite parts of the game, though, were trying to get past Grandpa in the tunnel, and having a waterfight with Grandpa!
No trip to Ohio would be complete without a Fancher (my mom's family) get-together. We got to spend an evening at my cousin Sarah and her husband Nick's house with the whole family. Sarah's little girl, Laura, is just about 2 months younger than Tyler, so we had a 2 year old, a 22 month old, and a 17 month old, all together! Just TRY to get them to sit still for a picture. And to try and get a picture with Great Grandma? Forget about it! Nick taught Tyler how to bump knuckles, an important part of every little boy's development, and Tyler tried his best to give himself a concussion falling and tripping on things!
And of course, we can't take a summertime trip to NW Ohio without a visit to a car show with Grandma and Grandpa's popcorn business, Popcorn on Wheels. Tyler is absolutely fascinated by the popcorn popper! I also got one of my favorite photos from the whole trip, Tyler with Grandpa. I think it would look fantastic in Black and White.
With the northern portion of our journey concluded, it was time to head back to Cincinnati for a few more days with the Beckman/Fehr portion of the family. Thank goodness the cicadas were starting to die off a little bit! Tyler took his first ride on a John Deere with Great Uncle Jim. I got a much-needed girls' day out with my friend Laurie...pedicures, lunch, and shopping. Ahhh...heaven! We spent our last full day in Ohio at Uncle Kevin's new (to him) house. We had fun grilling out (and moving the grill to the garage when a thunderstorm moved in). Tyler had a blast getting good and muddy after the storm! I think his toenails may still have some dirt in them. We finished off the day with a trip to Graeter's for some ice cream (which of course, Tyler wouldn't even try). Speaking of Graeter's, by the way, those of you in Denver can now get some of Cincinnati's favorite ice cream at King Sooper's! I was so excited to see it when I went to the grocery store yesterday (and I now have a pint in my freezer)!
It was a fun, but busy, trip. We're so glad that we got to spend some time with all of our loved ones, just wish it could have been a little longer. We're trying to get settled back in to the routine of being at home, and I'm hoping Tyler gets totally adjusted back to Mountain Time soon! Waking up at 6 am is unacceptable! ;-p
All the pictures from our trip are up in the Ohio Trip '08 album. I will try to get the ones of just Tyler up in his 24-30 month album soon (so you don't have to look at everything from our trip if you don't want to), but Brian tells me that he's going to try to upgrade the website this weekend, so I'll probably wait until after that. Hope you enjoy the pictures!