Cousins

Savannah is always telling me how much she wants a sister...so I'm always telling her that she sure is lucky that she has fabulous female cousins; they can be her sisters. One of the best things about our visits to Cincinnati is that my sister Heidi is usually visiting at the same time. Savannah and Xander love their cousin McKenna so much and they always have the best time together. Noah and Ashlyn really got along well with each other as well. While the big kids ran off to play, Ashlyn and Noah would hold hands and trail after them. I got to drive in the car several times with Ashlyn and Noah together and got the biggest kick out of Ashlyn telling him what to do (and what not to do). "Noah, don't pick your nose." "Noah, don't spit at me." "Noah, it's your turn to sing." When we were driving home from the Aquarium, Ashlyn must have sung the ABC song about 20 times. As she started singing it once again, Noah started yelling, "NO, NO, NO!!" Every time she tried to start, he would just start shouting "No!" But the best happened a few minutes after Ashlyn had stopped singing and it got pretty quiet. My dad and I were enjoying the silence when I noticed the horrible farm smell. I plugged my nose and started to turn around to tell the kids that we were passing a stinky farm. Noah started shouting, "Stinky shoe, stinky shoe." I looked back at them and sure enough, Ashlyn had taken off her shoe and boy, was it smelly. She's lucky she's so dang cute! The two of them were just so hilarious together.




Hopefully one day we'll live closer to each other; I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The Aquarium

The Aquarium was the last of the "big three" that we always go to when we visit. Like the Children's Museum and the zoo, Cincinnati has a really great aquarium. There are tons of fascinating exhibits, including one of my favorites - the jellyfish - plus several interactive stations where the kids can do some touching and feeding.
We got to the aquarium a little early so the kids could see the penguins that they march onto the plaza. Turns out that it wasn't that exciting but the kids did get to meet Mr. Penguin.



A picture of me just to show that I really do attend these places with my kids.

The whole gang in front of the piranha tank. I really wanted to make it back to this exhibit for feeding time but it was just too crowded.



The kids LOVE feeding the birds the nectar although we all had to be careful...some of the birds like to bite!



Petting the sharks.

The Cincinnati Zoo is also a "must-see" when we visit.

We all have our favorites: mine is the gorilla exhibit which is absolutely fabulous at this zoo; Savannah loves the big cats, Xander always wants to see the alligators and giraffes, and Noah seemed to really like the elephants.

This snow leopard plopped down in front of the window which was exciting for all of us to see him so up close. As soon as we walked away, he got up and went back to his mountain perch. It's almost like he came down just to get a better look at us...we're all so interesting to look at, ya know.

Of course the kids always have to ride the carousel.


It was so fun to see the 4 little tigers cubs.

And what trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the train...it's the kids' favorite thing to do.

The Children's Museum

Cincinnati has a fabulous Children's Museum so every time we come out, we make sure we spend a day there. The kids always have a great time playing, exploring, running around, and participating in all the many stations they have there.
Playing with water


Shopping at the grocery store...who knew it could be so fun?

The kids always love the ball area

Some construction work

My mom and Heidi took the younger ones home while my Dad, the 3 older kids, and I stayed to watch the IMAX movie on dinosaurs.

NASCAR Weekend!

Nascar Trivia:

• What state has earned the nickname NASCAR Valley?
• Where was the first NASCAR race held?
• In what year was NASCAR founded?
• What do you and all Nascar drivers have in common?

Okay, if you can answer any of those questions you're probably a huge Nascar fan...David and I are most definitely NOT! So, how did we end up at a huge Nascar race? Easy...David won a contest through work and voila! David and I got an all expense paid weekend away. So it involved attending the Allstate 400. No problem! We had a blast, just the two of us!
We dropped the kids off in Cincinnati with my parents, jumped on a plane for 20 minutes, and landed in Indianapolis. Our first evening there was a special dinner with extremely good food plus an opportunity to meet some of the drivers. I don't know any Nascar drivers but when they announced them I did recognize the name Jeff Gordon (I watch a lot of ESPN!). The other guy, Jimmie Johnson...I thought he was a NFL football coach. Apparently there's a famous Nascar driver with the same name. Well, here I am pictured with Jimmie Johnson...and guess what? He's the one who ended up winning the race!

Of course, this is Jeff Gordon...even I knew who he was. David is still working on mastering his photography. I keep telling him to wait until BOTH people are looking.

We got to explore downtown Indianapolis which didn't take much time because it's not that big. The one thing I will remember about the city is the funky smell.

The day of the race was absolutely gorgeous...not too hot and NO humidity. We got a police escort to the Brickyard which made us all feel so important. On the way there we played a game of Chance...each person paid $5 and got to pick a driver's name out of a bag. Lucky me...I picked Jimmie Johnson. Of course at the time I didn't know that he would be the winner but it helped make the race more exciting for me because I now had someone to root for.

Because David works for Goodyear, everything about the weekend was top-notch...the hotel, the little goodies we received, the dinners, the police escort to the race...and those seats right at the finish line...they weren't too shabby either.

The pageantry before the race was awesome and I couldn't get over the amount of people that were there. Did you all know they say a prayer before the race? I loved that. And the noise...I had to wear earplugs the entire time! I couldn't even hear David shouting things at me during the race. As the cars would drive by, the stands would shake! It was quite an amazing experience.

The actual race was a little boring; they do 160 laps. But Jimmie Johnson moved into first place with about 15 laps to go so it got a little exciting there at the end. I won $125 for his victory!

So, despite the shirtless men, the half-naked women who really should have covered up, and enough second-hand smoke to give me lung cancer several times, I really enjoyed myself. David and I love any opportunity to get away together and having it paid for was even better. It was definitely hard to come home.

Summer Reading

Every summer the kids participate in the Summer Reading Program at our library. This year was the first year that Savannah was a part of the "I Can Read" group. To earn her free book she had to read 10 books...that was nothing to her. She quickly accomplished that goal and off we headed to the library for her certificate and book.

For Xander it took a week longer to get the 25 books read to him in order for him to get his free book.

Noah didn't participate this year although, as you can see from the picture below, he is a reader as well. He loves to look through stacks of books and does bring a book to lunch from time to time.

Soccer Camp

This summer was the first time that Savannah could attend soccer camp and boy, did she have a great time! The humidity has been very low this summer which was lucky for her since the kids were outside from 8:30 - 2:30 each day. She had a fabulous time and she definitely improved her soccer skills. The camp she attended is run by a guy in our ward who is a soccer genius as well as a fabulous instructor. He asked if I would be one of the counselors next summer which I would LOVE to do. Hopefully I'll be able to pawn off Noah for a few weeks next summer.


Savannah won this jersey in one of the many contests the kids had. She won this by scoring the most goals in her age group!