Seven Caves, Ohio

Love this place. Alex, Owen, John and I went to Seven Caves, about an hour from here. Gorgeous and full of plants I've never seen. Absolutely beautiful. As you can see from the pictures, John was a little anxious about the caves. Alex was very excited about the potential to find rocks, but we weren't allowed to take any! Owen was ready to jump off any available cliff and had to be watched, closely. Note to moms: they say the trail is paved, it isn't. Be prepared to carry your babies for 3 miles - no strollers allowed, they may ruin the natural vegetation. You know what else ruins it? Dropped babies.

Future Bob Jones University Students

Please don't laugh, Gerta bought us these shirts. In two colors.

Ah, Chicago. The hotels, the jellybean, the jump ropes!

Ikea

Know who's getting an Ikea down the street? We are! Doesn't it make all of you want to come visit? And pick up a Swedish futon/dining table/car?

We love the Madison Zoo - because it's free! No trains, roller coasters or dog sharks to pet but that's fine. Can anyone name the last animal - I think it attacked Wesley in the fire swamp.

Driving to Madison

On our way, we stopped at this gorgeous waterfront town for a break and let the boys stretch their legs a little!

Happy Birthday Uncle Terry!
We love you!

Our Trip To Madison, WI

Don't you love hotel beds? Owen does. Poor Johnny wouldn't know. He still has to sleep in his pack & play.

Here's the guys, at the Monument Circle after touring the museum inside. It was fairly interesting, and very cold, and a little creepy!

Owen makes a friend.

You may not be aware of this, but Owen adores anyone in any costume. We recently participated in a charity walk for the Cincinnati Children's Hospital at Coney Island and he hugged a giant M&M, stalked a female clown and kissed a parrot's beak.

Here he is at a festival in Downtown Indy.

Alex's Blog

Alex just started a blog, too. It's name is "megablogalex". It will be interesting to see what he posts there. We have had a nice, quiet evening with the little ones in bed by eight - yeah!

Alex has done really well with the move. I know it's hard when you're school-age, especially when you've attended the same school since Kindergarten, but he's doing great. He likes to go down to the pond and look for fossils (?) and would like to start a Destination Imagination club at school. I'm hoping to find a mom to swap nights with so I can coach it.

We ran into our neighbors during our walk tonight. It's so nice living next door to 2 little boys. Owen adores Christopher, who's 4, and they call each other "buddy". John and Adrian just play next to each other. We had them over with their parents for Owen's birthday dinner (a few days late, due to his scarlet fever) and it was a full house. 5 boys are very loud! At least we share a backyard - we meet out there several times a week before bedtime.

I have no new pics, yet so here are some older ones to look at - Alex and Owen at Gerta's, Harry Potter of Halloween past, Alex's first day of school!!, Johnny and Owen in the stroller at Gatlinburg.

Our first post!

Hi everyone! I'm going to need awhile to get the hang of this, but I thought this might be a good way to keep in touch out here in Ohio.

Aunt Laura was kind enough to send us a CD of the last pictures from Greentown, as well as some ultrasound photos!

On Saturday Alex, Owen, John and I participated in a walk for the Cincinnati Children's Hospital. The sponsors provided medals for everyone, pizza, drinks, clowns, music and flu shots, among other things. We had a great time.

It was at Coney Island, near the Kentucky Border so we crossed over the bridge and spent some time in Covington. After that, we picked up Ryan and went to Loveland to walk the trails a little.

As you can see, Johnny likes his Grandpa. He refuses to say "Momma" or "Mamaw" but has said "Dada" and "Papaw" for months! That's fine, he's sweet enough he can get by with it.