The first weekend in August the Owens and the Eddingtons came to visit after they went to a Cardinals game in Cincinnati. We had a wonderful time! The first day of their visit we spent the day boating at Delaware State Park reservoir. We got a new tube and it was not easy to flip or toss people out. Thus we could take a pretty adventurous ride without falling out. Matt did not hold back on trying to flip Kristen!
The next day the Eddingtons left to go back to Illinois and the rest of us went to the Ohio State Fair. We had a lot of fun seeing animals, exploring, watching jousting, and riding the rides.
Kristen gets credit for helping Eve overcome her fear of roller coaster type rides!
We had a wonderful weekend and are grateful that our friends came to visit!
The next week Catherine and Aaron came to visit. We had a lot of fun! We started by going bowling.
Then on Friday we drove up to Niagara Falls. It was so beautiful! The rushing water had such beautiful energy!
If I could have changed anything about this trip it would have been the hotel and the wait time to get off the boat dock. All in all, it was a very cool experience!
Saturday we also drove to Palmyra, NY. We went to the Hill Cumorah, the visitor's centers, the Joseph Smith home, and the Sacred Grove. It was all beautiful, but the Sacred Grove was difficult to appreciate since it was raining and getting dark when we walked through it.
We enjoyed talking on the late ride home and also enjoyed church the next day. On Monday we went to Cosi, a science museum. They had a special video games exhibit and Cat rocked it on the dance game. There were lots of cool things to see, but some exhibits were more fun than others. Cat and Aaron were pretty patient through it all.
Catherine and Aaron flew out on Tuesday. We had a great time with them. They are happy to do just about anything, and they are happy to have relaxation time. I am still working toward a happy balance of fun activities and down time. :) We are grateful they made the effort to come visit and spend time with us!
The following day was the first day of school. Eve started 7th grade, Sterling - 5th, Sheri - 3rd, and Christian started preschool (though he started a week after the rest).
I have to admit to feeling excited and sad dropping off my baby for his 2 1/2 hr class. He is getting so grown up! I am glad I still get so much time with him! He had a difficult drop off day only once or twice the second week, but he has really enjoyed learning and interacting with new people. I think he loves having all the new and interesting experiences. He is in a peer program at the kids' elementary school and so it has been very convenient for me to take them all the the same place in the morning.
I love my kids so much! They make me very joyful!
Here are some other happy things that have happened to us this month:
Christian and I made Alpha bread sticks.
Our gardens had lots of beautiful flowers.
And finally, we had more baby bunnies!
I truly love summer, my family and my friends!
