Our trip to the heartland!

We always have so much fun visiting my family in Ohio. We went to help my mom with a little day care thing that our family (my mom mostly) has been doing since I was in High school. There is a church group that has an annual conference and my mom takes care of all their children while they attend classes and such. I have done this with her since I was 14, so needless to say I have developed some real relationships with these sweet people and have loved watching all of their kids grow up and some now have babies of their own. Wow, nothing can make you feel older than that!

One of the things that my kids love the most about visiting my parents is their great backyard. Everything about my mom's house is very kid friendly of course(she's had her own day care there for 30 plus years now) and my children think of it as a play paradise. For a few of the days they even had some other kids to play with, which they loved! Lincoln also said his favorite thing about grandma's is Maggie. Maggie is this adorable dog that actually used to belong to us. Right before we had Lincoln we were having a really hard time finding a rental in the Salt Lake area that allowed dogs and was also in our price range, and met our cleanliness standards. My parents offered to keep her for a year or so, and when we were finally ready to take her back had fallen so in love with her that they refused. She is an amazing dog and every time we visit were reminded of how great she is, I'm glad she's been such a great companion for my parents.

Oliver spent most of his time playing the sandbox. I think he looks a lot like Rozario(his cousin) in this photo!

Lincoln loved all the water guns and the pool. He and my mom got into a huge water gun fight the first day we were there. It inevitably progressed into Lincoln pushing mom into the pool(with her clothes on non the less).

I love his face in this shot!

and then my mom throwing him into the pool

They had so much fun and were just really enjoying each other.

Calling a truce in the end!

Oliver getting into the action and trying to shoot me.

These are some of my favorite pictures of Oliver ever. He's been into super heroes lately. Lincoln had been using these goggles in the pool, and when Oliver found them and put them on he immediately started posing and flexing his muscles. We were laughing so hard and then of course I helped him to make a cape to really complete the look. What a funny kid!

Fun Fun Times!

Lincoln also had the chance to go shooting with his dad and grandpa Roger. You have to know I'm totally not a gun person so I can't say that this didn't make me completely nervous, but shooting is kind of my dad's favorite thing to do, so I couldn't deny him the bonding experience. Dad was completely amazed at Lincoln's natural ability, as of course I am too! I guess he shot and exploded a water bottle target all by himself which is pretty impressive for a 5 year old. When they got home my dad said he would know longer ever worry about my safety, knowing I had two dead on shooters in my family. Not a huge comfort to me, but I know it means a lot to my dad to know I'm in good hands. They had a ball together, shooting is the surest way to my father's heart, so I'm glad they got the opportunity.

Mom took us to the Columbus zoo while we were there. Mom has this sweet little girl she watches named Brinn. She and Lincoln got along so well that we thought it might be fun for her and Lincoln if she came to the zoo with us. They got along famously! The zoo was quite a sight, I can't believe how big it's gotten. They've added so much to it and I guess it's now ranked the best zoo in the country, I can totally see why. We really needed a view days to see it all but tried to hit a few of our most favorite spots.

Our boys love aquariums, and they have an impressive one.

Climbing on the manatee statue. Funny thing that happened, well funny to me. While we were taking these pictures another family was waiting for a turn and the mom said " Come on guys let's take your picture by these hippos." I don't know why that is so funny to me, maybe because they're not even close to looking similar to me and the fact that we were at an aquarium. I kept chuckling all day about it.

They got to touch a few underwater animals like sea stars, hermit crabs, sea urchins, ect..

They also had a diver feeding all the fish while we were there. Lincoln is so into scuba diving he could of stayed there all day. He has a little snorkel set that we bought in Florida when we went to visit the McCanns. He uses all the time and has since that trip, anytime we get the pool out, during baths. He's gotten so good at it. Josh even makes waves for him in our little pool so he feels like he's really in the ocean, he can't get enough. Needless to say I think the scuba man was his favorite thing.

On our last night there I did get to spend and evening visiting with some of my dear friends from high school who live right in Mt. Vernon. Haylee and Steph it was so fun, I love getting to see you and your sweet and adorable kiddos. I love being able to get together with you and feel just as comfortable as I did when we were 17. You are both amazing women and mothers, I only wish we lived closer.

Every time we visit I never feel like we have enough time to do all the things I would like to do. We always have so much fun, but there's never enough time to squeeze more stuff into. I wanted to say to my dear Ohio friends that I wish we had more time to work with, but we just didn't. I would have loved getting together with you ( Robin and Carrie) and I'm sorry it didn't work out. Luckily my parents aren't going anywhere anytime soon so hopefully we'll have some more chances to get together.