Ohio Vacation

Where do I even start?? The kids and I had planned a 10 day vacation to Ohio to celebrate OU Homecoming and Eli's first birthday! I decided that I would head home a few days before Lou, but I was terrified to fly home with two kids by myself so I talked my mom into flying out to Denver so she could fly back to Ohio with me and help! I am not sure she knew what she was getting herself into :)

With that all being said I thought the trip went really well, there was no crying just one 2 year old playing the iPad in her car seat and one rambunctious 1 year old who decided not to sleep so he was passed back and forth between grandma and myself.  He decided to finally close his eyes on the shuttle to get mom's car. Oh Well!

The first few days home we enjoyed time with Ninny and Grandma. Mia took daily walks to see the cows down the street, we took a scary Rhino ride with the crazy next door neighbor, Mia LOVED playing with Grandmas cat and by the end of the trip she had declared one of Ninny's dogs as "my dog." The girl has a special love for animals! Lou joined us on Friday the 11th because he didn't want to miss spending the Eli's special day with him.  We weren't sure he was going to make it, but with a few flight changes he arrived late Thursday night.

Life is ROUGH!! Mia and "her dog"

Eli's LAST night asleep as a baby :(

Friday morning Eli was treated to special birthday breakfast pancakes and signing.  His ninny took his special day off of work and we all just relaxed and enjoyed Eli.  Eli had a few special guests on his birthday! Sophia, Jill and Noah came to play and Mia loved playing in the big sandbox with Sophia and I cuddled the baby for awhile.

Saturday morning rolled around and the BIG OU festivities got started.  Of course neither of the kids were sleeping very well since they were in a different place, a different time zone and out of their routine.  So I think Mia was up at 5 am and Lou and I both thought that meant the day would be a disaster, but she fell asleep on the way to the parade and really pulled it together! Everyone had a great time at the parade and a Mia was super excited to find out that they gave her candy! She was putting more suckers in her mouth than in her bag.  After the parade we made our way to tailgate and then to the game.  Overall, I think everyone had a great time!

Sunday morning was Eli's birthday celebration and an evening of relaxation! The whole nest week we just hung out and did some fun things with the kids.  We went to a small pumpkin patch, jumped in leaves, had their first bonfire and just enjoyed being with family.


One day Papa was able to take the day off and of course it was the one day that it decided to rain. That didn't stop us from getting the mini 4-wheeler out and letting Mia and Eli have a little fun.  We had full intentions of letting Mia try it herself and Lou did briefly but let's just say she had the throttle on full force and he cut the engine RIGHT away or she was going to go flying off!! :) I think it even made Papa jump out of his seat!

Asleep before we even hit the highway home from Papa's