The Ohio State Fair

We spent yesterday at the State Fair doing all sorts of state-fair kinds of things. We ate too much junk food; the kids had their first taste of funnel cake, which Sadie adored. The kids also got to eat icecream on a tractor. I think it was their favorite way to eat icecream. I can't believe I forgot to get a picture of the butter sculpture. There was plenty of animal touching. Eli even got into it. He likes to keep us on our toes. Here Sadie is petting the baby pigs, neither of them would get near the fattest boar.
We took in a few rides.
I'm surprised that Eli wanted to go on the rides by himself. He's just spent the whole day surprising the heck out of me!
Notice the band-aid on Eli's forehead. It's to cover up the large goose-egg that Eli is currently sporting. He was jumping into the pool on Saturday, slipped and fell. The result is what happens when you hit your head on the side of the pool.

Vacation--The Finale

Because I have nothing else to post, I'm going to finish up the last leg of our vacation. We went to Bemidji, MN to visit my brother and SIL, my friend Stacy and kids, and then we headed to Park Rapids for Dennis' brother Greg's and new SIL, Michele, wedding reception, which I don't have any pictures of. It seems like I can't go on a vacation for longer than 2 weeks without getting sick and I happened to be sick the day of the reception. I managed to make it to the reception, but Dennis was in charge of pictures, so there aren't any. Anyhoo, here's pictures from Uncle Darren's house.
A rare family photo:Aunt Talia, Uncle Darren and the gang. Notice how Darren, Dennis and I all have our feet crossed the same way. Aren't we too cute for words?!Uncle Darren just happens to have an ATV so we gave the kids rides. Slow rides because they weren't wearing helmets.Eli was more than a little skeptical:We went to some weird wildlife park outside of Bemidji called Paul Bunyan's Animal Land. The animals were all in very small cages right next to each other. I think it really ticked the tiger off that he could see small deer running around, but couldn't get to them. You were allowed to feed most of the animals. To feed the deer, you walked into a separate caged area so there was nothing between you and the deer. Sadie really got into it, Eli avoided most of the uncaged animals.Uncle Darren loved it too:You can see why Darren and Sadie became friends fast:

Camping Again

We took another last minute camping trip to Lake Hope State Park. It's in another "holler". This park is quite a bit bigger and has more hiking trails. The lake has lots of big lily pads with gorgeous pink flowers. Sadie enjoyed swimming:
Eli did some fishing:The park is apparently known for handfeeding hummingbirds. Neither of the kids actually fed a hummingbird. For some reason, hummingbirds weren't interested in eating from noisy, squirmy kids, but we did see a lot of hummingbirds eating from other people's feeders. That's one big log Sadie's sitting on. She thought it was a great place for a rest:We like to put the kids to work while camping. Here Eli is gathering kindling for the fire:

Vacation Part IV

Are you sick of our vacation yet? No? Good because there's one more installment after this one!!

We went back to Grandma and Grandpa Zs in Fargo and did lots of hanging out and played lots of monster trucks. Dennis and I even got to go on a date while grandma babysat.

Uncle Ron took us on his pontoon around Detroit Lakes. The kids loved the ride, but hated the life jackets. Eli walking in the lake with grandma:Eli playing his first game of pinball:Two of my auntie's were in town visiting. Here's Sadie playing with Auntie Lucy:Scheels, the local sporting goods store, has a ferris wheel inside of it. Eli wasn't so sure he wanted to go on it, but after hanging out in the store for an hour he decided that he wanted to try it. He and grandma made it around a couple of times before he decided he'd had enough. Luckily, they were the only ones on the ride so they ended the ride for him.Can you believe that Auntie Mia came all the way from California to see us? She just happened to be home visiting her family at the exact same time that we were home and she just happened to be flying into Fargo. We got to eat dinner with Mia and Nancy, her mom. The mall's playland:Swimming under the deck in the backyard. Here they are seen cleaning rocks. Grandpa is such a slave driver:

Camping!

Dennis had a few days off and the kids and I didn't have anything going on so we decided to go on a last minute camping trip. We went to Tar Hallow State Park in the southern part of Ohio in the foothills of the Appalachians. This is "Holler" country and it's quite beautiful.
It was in the mid-90s so it was great that there was a little lake with a great beach.
Towards the end of our stay Eli was brave enough to put his head under, crawl on his hands in the water, "dive" in, and chase other kids.A view of the "holler":Our camp site:Eli and I spent much of the trip looking for mushrooms. We found a lot of big beautiful perfect mushrooms:Although you can't tell from this picture, this beetle was actually about 2 inches long and it's mate just flew away:Who wants s'more? Eli and Sadie do

Gone Fishin'

We finally bought Eli his first fishing pole. We took him fishing at a local park's little fishing pond that they stock with plenty of fish. The fish are teeny-tiny, but you are pretty much guaranteed to catch a fish each and every time you drop your line in. We used corn for bait and the fish really liked it.
Here's Eli learning how to reel in the line:
His first catch of the day:
One happy fisherman:

Vacation Part III

The next part of the trip brought us to "the Farm" in Napoleon, ND. The kids loved "the farm" and all the family that came with it. There was one adventure after another including kite flying, looking into a hawk's nest, swimming at the Napoleon pool, going to a "polka mass", eating at the "Big D" and seeing the windmill that was in Dances With Wolves, trying on Auntie Paula's hats, playing in the "Moose Room" and many, many more things too exciting to mention here.
Enjoying grandma and the lovely weather that we had:
Playing with grandpa:Eli and dad slept in the tent, just for fun. Here they are seen playing the Sperle invented game "shoe kick". They are trying to kick their shoes over the clothes line:We were't going to make Eli nap when his cousins were visiting, but then we checked on him and we found him sleeping in the stuffed cow collection:What could be more fun than playing air hockey with the cousins?:You know you're a big kid when you get to eat on the stairs. Plus, this is a great shot of Eli's all-time favorite cousins, Emily and Ashley. From bottom to top: Eli, Emily, Ashley, Kyle, Kristen and Erin:No trip to Napoleon would be complete without a trip to the Logan County Museum. Grandpa is even in the Logan County "Hall of Fame" right next to Lawrence Welk and Georgia Becker-Moch (Miss ND 197?).It really is a cute museum. Here's Eli in the school house:

Vacation Part II

After arriving in North Dakota, we spent one day in Fargo with Grandma and Grandpa Z. before heading off to Napoleon to see Grandma and Grandpa S. (Don't worry, we came back to spend more time in Fargo).
Grandpa has a pick-up and Eli loves pick-ups so Grandpa took them for a spin:
We went to the Red River Valley Zoo. They have a very large petting zoo.
Eli enjoyed the snake:
Eli liked helping grandpa water the flowers, it was very serious business.
Grandma has been garage sale shopping. She has more Hot-Wheels cars at her house than we have at ours. She also has a lot of monster trucks. I can't believe I don't have any pictures of them playing trucks together because that's all they did. "Grandma, do you want to play trucks with me?" How could she refuse?