Ohio Trip 2017

This summer we took our annual plane ride out to Ohio to visit Grammy, Pa, and Aunt Emma.  This year was a little different, though, since Dustin and I let the kids there for five days while we took our ten year anniversary trip to Paris.  I was nervous about how they'd do, but they did amazing (or so I was told)!  The kids were spoiled rotten and they loved every minute of it.  Highlights of the visit were:

• running around in swimsuits outside during a rain shower
• fishing (and catching fish! and eating them!)
• Build-A-Bear visit (Hank's first Build-A-Bear!)
• a trip to Newport Aquarium with our good family friends Jill and Hailey
• two movies - Despicable Me 3 and Captain Underpants
• touring through Toys R Us with Emma (and of course "buying stuff")
• eating fresh fruit and veggies from Pa's garden
• watching Aunt Emma coach volleyball
• looking at all of Pa's awesome flowers
• seeing the completed barn
• Grammy coloring the tips of Lyla's hair pink
• lots and lots of treats and snacks and fast food (UDF, Skyline, Graeter's, Sweet Frog...)
• new playgrounds to explore
• Lyla getting a manicure with Aunt Emma
• catching (and releasing) fireflies

We joined the kids again for the tail end of the visit.  I could tell Jack especially was wearing down and making us pay for being gone.  Overall, though, the kids vacationed like champs.  And everyone slept.  I can't understate how much that makes or breaks trips for me still!  The flight home was a little rough with Jack screaming from being overly tired and cranky, but he slept the majority of the flight and we made it back over half an hour early.  It went as smoothly as it possibly could (with fairly minimal crying from Lyla over leaving).  We are still missing Grammy, Pa, and Aunt Emma quite a bit, but Facetiming and phone calls have helped.  They are really leaning on us to get them back out there soon.  We'll have to see what we can do!