Older Brothers

Most of the time it is hard to have older brothers. (Thomas pushed him off a toy at the playground.)

But then every once in awhile, Donny is probably happy for the extra attention and love.

Columbus--The Best Family City Ever

For those of you who ever never been to Columbus. It has got to be one of the best family cities in America. First of all, their zoo is amazing. It has been rated number one in the country by many magazines, so people agree with me. But the habitats are designed so that you can view the animals in what would seem their natural environment. They have a lot of space and everything feels very real. I especially loved watching the manatees and cute baby elephant. They also have plenty of interactive and hands on exhibits. Amazing.

The other highlight of Columbus is the COSI science museum. You should see this thing. The most kid friendly place ever. Lots of water, creative toys, and places to run and explore. Every kid's dream.

And the last place I will mention, but certainly the list could go on and on, are the bunny fountains. Water shoots up out of the ground in different patterns and velocity. My kids obviously loved it.

Sadly, this is probably the last time I will visit Columbus for a long time. I used to have many family and friends here that I could visit, but now one of my best friends is finally moving after five years. She has been a life saver. I will miss my annual visits. Thanks Rachel for showing me around Columbus. It definitely has been a wonderful place to call a home away from home.

Camping in Canada

For our first real vacation as a family since Steve started residency, we decided to take Memorial Day weekend and go camping. I must admit that I was dreading the thought of sleeping three nights outdoors with my boys and/or one of them getting lost. Well, thank goodness all of my fears went unfounded, because we had a wonderful time. I like camping enough to go again. I think it will become a fun family tradition. That being said, I think it really helped to go camping with a family much more experienced then us. You should have seen her "miracle" bins. She was like Mary Poppins pulling out pans, utensils, seasonings, towels, tablecloths, tools, and any other random accessory. I began to think that we could live for a few weeks out of those things. Her preparedness definitely made our first camping experience a positive one.

It also helps that she has three older boys that Thomas followed around like a long lost puppy. They were good enough to pretend to involve him in all of their hikes, baseball games, and fire activities. They also made sure he didn't get hurt, which definitely was a real possibility. Hurray for the great outdoors and smores made with peanut butter. Bless you Julie for originating that new ingredient. I don't think I will ever go back. Thanks also for providing Bocci-ball and hours of fun. Speaking of smores, our friends like theirs burnt to a crisp. I tried it, but I still like mine perfectly brown and soft inside. I am not a huge charcoal flavor fan unless you include the stripes on a chicken when it comes off the bbq. Here our some of the pictures from the trip. We went to the Pinery on Lake Huron. It was my first time swimming in a great lake. Mind you, it was totally cold, but ten degrees warmer than the Puget Sound. Those lakes are absolutely huge. They looked like the Sound minus the salt water, rocky beaches, and jelly fish. Beautiful for swimming.



We went on a few hikes that were so much fun. We took pit stops at every cool natural monument we found. Thomas was really excited to climb this tree with the big boys.



We rented a canoe for an hour. Thomas peed off the side twice. Speaking of peeing, we didn't anticipate the long one hour wait to get back into the U.S. at the border. Apparently, Memorial Day is a busy crossing time. Thomas and Hewitt were forced to go pee in a bottle. Actually, they were quite thrilled and I'm surprised they haven't tried it again. Steve, on the other hand, got mad at me when Hewitt slipped out of his and barely missed hitting him in the face. He really was mad. Like I've ever held a water bottle to a peeing boy before. Who knows where those things will shoot. So regardless, cheers to camping.