Ashville Day 2: Columbus Metropolitan Library

On our second day in Ashville, the weather was rainy, so after some bacon and eggs, we drove downtown to explore the newly renovated Columbus Metropolitan Library and the adjacent topiary garden. They had a great children's area with a bus that Simon loved, and Alice enjoyed having Grandma read her a dozen books!

 

During a break in the rain, we headed out to explore the garden. Alice loved looking at the topiary bushes, while Simon had loads of fun shaking branches and "making it rain!"

Back at home after naps, Alice enjoyed being swung in the hammock!

Ashville Day 1: Creek, presents, relaxing

We arrived at Grandma Cam's at lunchtime, the kids having briefly napped in the van. After lunch, we went to Slate Run Metro Park, and played on the playground for a while before heading down to the creek. Simon had an epic tantrum/meltdown because Zac removed him from the slides for not letting another kid go down. It was probably 20 minutes before Simon was sane again. Travelling was taking it's toll--something about the 10pm bedtimes and only a 30 minute nap probably. At any rate, with the help of some gummies, Simon finally came around and enjoyed playing in the creek.

Zac took Simon on a creek walk and they spotted this owl.

Back at the house, the kids had fun playing in the yard, and Simon was quite happy about the little toy 4-wheeler.

The kids helped Cam open her birthday presents. Ok, really they just fought over who got to open the next present, and barely waited for Cam to see what she was getting.

For bedtime snack, we sat outside and watched the sunset over the field. It was lovely.

Goodbye Mansfield: Porch Portraits and "Little bunny foo-foo, I don't want to see you!"

On Thursday morning, we packed up and prepared to leave. We had the presence of mind to get some group pictures for once, and the lighting on the porch was perfect (although the backdrop needs improvement).

The kids did pretty well during this stay, but one funny thing was that Simon was completely terrified of the upstairs bunny rabbit doorstops the whole time. His explanation was he didn't like their eyes. He would cling tightly in terror whenever we passed them, so that we had to banish the whole herd to Tener's bedroom (which is also the toy and game storage area, so toy retrievals required bouts of courage and bravery). If Simon woke up in the morning or after a nap and came downstairs all by himself, he would gleefully declare that the bunnies didn't get him. The lush Ohio grasses were abundant with real rabbits, but Simon said he liked the real ones and that their eyes were OK.

Mansfield Day 4: Beach, bikes, bubbles, boat

July 4th was our fourth and final full day in Mansfield, and it was chock full of activities. The kids opened their birthday presents (cool flashlights) in the morning.

Then we took a boat ride to the beach again.

Crackers

The weather for our Ohio trip so far had been absolutely beautiful, and this day was no exception. Blue sky, low eighties, low humidity.

After the beach, baths, and naps, we had pizza for supper. Alice was a great help.

Simon even helped set the table and carry out the pudding cups.

After supper, we took a bike ride down the trail the crayfish point.

Simon opted for another wagon ride (he usually talked himself into receiving two or three wagon rides a day during our stay).

Crayfish point was flooded--even more fun for these kids!

The extra fun part of the trail was a forest tunnel.

Then it was bubbles by the fire.

When suddenly Sera realized, "Wait, we haven't been on a canoe ride yet!" So off we went, for a little jaunt around the islands before bed. Alice paddled some, while Simon mainly dragged his paddle.  On the canoe ride, we saw a hot air balloon.

Good times!

Mansfield Day 3: Kites, beach, sparklers

On our third day in Mansfield, the kids started the day off right with a healthy breakfast of fresh-picked spinach.

Then we took the pontoon boat to the beach, flying the kites along the way.

At the beach, the kids had fun playing in the water and the sand.

That evening, the kids experienced sparklers for the first time ever. It took them a while to believe that it was really actually safe to hold a flaming stick shooting fiery sparks (for some reason).

We finished off the evening with a campfire and some extra stale marshmallows.

Mansfield Day 2: Fishing, family, swimming and cycling

On our second day in Mansfield, the kids were raring to go. In the morning, they dug for worms then went fishing. We put them down for early naps since we were out so late the night before and we were having a family gathering that afternoon with the cousins.

Simon and Rowan discuss bugs, while Amelia takes a dip and Todd and Heidi lifeguard.

After everybody left and after supper, Stana and I took Simon for a wagon ride (which he loved) while Zac, Nelson and Alice rode bikes.

Drive to Ohio & Mansfield Day 1: Fireworks!

On the first of July we began our great journey north to the motherland. We embarked around 10am (it always takes way longer to finalize packing up and get out the door in the morning than it should). Fireworks on the lake were at 10 pm that night, and since the drive time was only eight and a half hours, I thought we'd get there with plenty of time. But since this was one of the premier travel days of the year, we lost a lot of time in traffic jams and the total trip ended up taking eleven hours. Alice did pretty good, but Simon asked "How many more minutes?" about a thousand times and frequently registered his distress at being contained for that long.

Exercising at a rest stop.

We got to Mansfield around 9pm, ate a quick spaghetti dinner and hopped on a pontoon boat that the neighbors had generously lent us to go across the lake to see the fireworks. It was beautiful, and extra fun because Simon loves fireworks so much.

And we got the kids in bed before midnight. Win!