Zoo Trip

It was a beautiful fall day, so we took the kids to the zoo. Due to heavy traffic on the way to Cincinnati, we only got to spend a couple of hours there. But that is the beauty of having a pass...we spend as much or as little time as we want during each visit and don't feel like we are out anything. After the zoo, we met my sister, Katie, for dinner at Dewey's pizza. It's tradition that we meet her at Dewey's any time we come to Cincinnati and I'm going to miss that when she moves to Charlotte, NC in January. Dinner was followed up by dropping Jacob and Ellie at Aunt Katie's house for a sleepover. They love spending the night with her and I love having some alone time with Emmaline that doesn't consist of doctor or therapy visits.Standing with flamingoes

The Mexican Wolves are usually sleeping when we visit, but today, they were running and playing together. It was neat to watch how similar they are to our dog at home.

Sea Lions soaking up the fall sunshine

Catch me if you can!

Flour and Fruit

Every fall, we head to Cowan Lake to spend time with family. One of our staple breakfasts is Buckwheat Pancakes made using my Grandpa Jacob's recipe on a 100-yr.+ iron griddle. After several failed attempts at getting buckwheat flour from Clifton Mill, Mom decided we should take a road trip to Bear Creek Mill. It was a beautiful fall drive as we headed into the country. We took a tour of the mill, got the flour for our upcoming trip, and then headed to Brumbaugh Farm. Nothing says fall like apples, so we bought a bushel of Cortland apples to make applesauce, some cider to drink, and some apple fritters for a snack before we headed home. It was a fun and yummy fall day!Grinding flour with a mortar and pestle

Ellie loved this cast-iron mouse

Emmaline in the woods

Last Garden Harvest

We harvested our garden for the last time today. Square-foot gardening has been a fun learning experience for the whole family. The tomatoes were a huge success (literally!). I'm already trying to figure out what we should plant next year. Definitely more green beans...so yummy straight from the garden! What would you suggest we try?

Happy Birthday, Sophia!

Ellie's friend (and daughter of my UBAM buddy, Janine), Sophia, celebrated her fifth birthday today. It was Care Bear themed from the face painting (safer than tummy painting!) to the cupcake craft and cake. They even played musical clouds!Ellie made a cupcake magnet

The birthday girl makes a wish

Musical clouds

Playing Littlest Pet Shop with Wesley

Mr. Toad

Nathan and Jacob found a toad at the school where they practice martial arts. Of course, they had to bring him home for the girls to see. The kids had fun watching him hop through our yard and then we let him go in the back flower bed.

A Shooting We Will Go...

Today Jacob went with his daddy and Papaw Kevin to the shooting range. It was his first visit and he was so excited. With Nathan's profession, it is a necessity that our kids know gun safety, so I was glad that they had this fun opportunity.Hanging his target

Jacob and Papaw line up their shots

He had so much fun!

Usborne Regionals

Janine and I made a very harried trip to Kentucky today to attend our first Usborne Regional Convention. It wouldn't have been a bad drive except that we got 6 inches of snow last night. We could not be deterred though, so we left extra early and took our time. It was a little scary when a lady spun out on the highway right in front of us, but amazingly, she slid around and behind our car, so we continued on our merry way without incident.

The hotel where convention was being held was like stepping back in time. It's called "The Drawbridge Inn" and was decorated with armor, weapons, and other things from the Renaissance time period. The convention was really great. We got to meet some new people, and learned a few things to help us grow our businesses. After convention, we went to dinner at Montgomery Inn with our supervisor, Sherry, and her daughter, Jessica. My sister, Katie, who lives in Cincy and my brother Andy, and his fiance, drove across the river to eat with us too.

To help deter grafitti in the bathrooms at the hotel where convention was held, they had chalkboards hung on the wall of each stall. Janine left me a note in the bottom corner.