Ohio

Well its been FOREVER since I blogged. Everybody has gotten on my case to do it, but lets face it...life gets busy sometimes. My parents came for a month starting the end of January, then the kids got sick for a week, then we had a unexpected death of my favorite cousin which then took us to Ohio this past week. So...I am going to play catch up and do it from the most recent backwards. So..here it goes. Our trip to Ohio!

First off, if we were going to pay a high price for tickets to ohio...then I wanted to stay at LEAST one week. So with things busy at work, Joshua decided to stay home. Originally I planned on only taking Theodore since he is still free to fly, but everybody in Ohio was anxious to see how much Charlene had grown, so the next day we booked her also.

First day - Amish Farm. My cousin's girlfriend had a Amish worker so when I said I wanted to visit an Amish farm, she took me to her workers farm. Of course with Amish you aren't allowed to take pictures, so I have very few at the farm. He toured us his home and just the front part of his farm. I met his family and 9 kids!!! The kids were too cute. Of course they don't start to speak english until they go to school at age 6, so they didn't understand a thing we said. The father milks 13 cows by HAND!!! and cuts the Sheep's hair by hand! They had a bunch of other things they did, but that was just a few that stood out. :)

Charlene had fun petting the goat...until it head butted her....then that was the end of our visit to the farm. :(

Next morning we woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground. Of course with time change and kids = hardly any sleep, so this was taken EARLY in the morning.

Theodore had fun playing in the upper part of the barn in the hay.

Theodore also loved Roxie. If we were big dog people or ever have a farm....I would want a Saint Barnard. :) Not only are they the #1 kid friendly dog...but they look cool also. :)

I took the kids out to see how milking is done. We taught Charlene how to milk a cow by hand, which she had fun. Her and Brenda were trying to squirt me too!

We then gathered milk for the baby cows. Theodore kept looking in at all the milk and looking at me like "where is my milk" :)

Charlene ready to feed the baby cow.

The bottle was a little too heavy so I ended up feeding the baby cow.

So on Valentine's day there were two twin baby cows born and each had a HEART marking on them! Charlene was so excited to get her picture with at least one. I will have to admit...it is kind of cool that they were born on valentines day and BOTH have a heart marking.

The baby cows were too cute that I just wanted to kiss them all.

After feeding the baby cows, a day later I found Charlene and Theodore like this! Cracks me up!!!

With paying off our CRAZY amount of money from child birth of Theodore, we decided to buy a couple tablets for us. Charlene got the Nook and while in Ohio, Theodore figured out Charlene's pretty well. Of course if Charlene were to find these pictures...she would probably hide it! LOL

One of the #1 stops while in Ohio was Lehman's. Its a store for Amish families. Everything in it is quality..including toys and household. I LOVE going there since we love things that last. A little expensive...but well worth the lifetime of the things.

Outside across the street was a place for auction. I found these cool Amish farm machinery.

Have you ever seen Amish parking? Pretty cool eh? :)

At a local store I found a Mama cow and a baby cow for the kids to play with. They were playing just fine until.......

Theodore wanted to play with the Mama cow...and then this happens. Glad to know my kids are normal. LOL

Charlene even though it was only in the 20's out...she kept wanting to play outside. She wanted to chase the cats or dogs, or this....play with sticks! She is our little tom boy.

Though it was FREEZING there compared to our perfect 80 degree weather we left behind, the snow would come and go. It would snow 5-6" then a half hour be melted, snow...then melt...snow then melt. drove me crazy. if its going to be cold...just let it snow! Everybody told me this time of year they usually have a couple feet on the ground so they were excited for the warmth. Me on the other hand...I prefer the hot I guess. :)

We went out for dinner with all my second cousins one night.

While in Ohio, Joshua called and told me that the Kirtland temple was only a hour in a half a way. So on Saturday I packed up the kids and drove to see the Kirtland Temple. Though its not affiliated with our church (community of christ owns it), it is still a part of the Mormon history.

Saturday night we went to the annual Dairy Banquet. Theodore helped Brenda do the announcing of the awards UNTIL...He figured out the microphone. LOL silly boy.

Sunday after going to church with Brenda, we headed over to this nice restaurant over looking a christmas tree farm on a lake. Didn't realize it was a fancy place until we got inside. LOL My kids were so good, Brenda thought they would be angels in there. I was a little worried since Theodore is at a stage that at restaurants he is more like a wild animal...but turned out they were angels! Thank goodness we got a window seat and the kids were watching snow fall.

Sunday night we went over to Brenda's best friends house. She had two boys and a lot of toys, so my kids were happy. :)

Theodore found this tonka truck and LOVED it! We might need to invest in one for his next birthday.

We flew out Monday night. On the way to the airport we stopped at the Columbus temple to get pictures. The wind was blowing and when it is only 20 degrees outside...you FREEZE, we we didn't even walk the grounds, just ran, took pictures than ran back to the car. LOL

After the 2 hour car ride to get to the airport, Theodore was happy to be out of his car seat and was pushing his little lunch box all over the place and smiling at people.

On the way to the gate, Charlene got to carry both the lunch boxes. People would stop and make comments like "look at her carry her little luggage" or "one for lunch and one for toys I bet" So by our layover in Dallas and the same comments, I decided to get a quick picture of Charlene.

Theodore...my little good travel bug (16th flight by the way), was a good traveler the whole time. Here He is reading a magazine on the plane.