Our Weekend Vacation

Hello?  Anyone still out there?  Sorry about the long silence.  Sometimes life just simply gets the better of me and certain things fall off the radar.  I'm back now, though, and in full Christmas-season swing.  It has been so fun around here ever since Thanksgiving.  We've been celebrating Advent every Sunday, making cards and crafts for people (I think Bella painted on herself more than on any cards, though), listening to Christmas music, reading Christmas books, etc.  I've loved it.  And all my Christmas shopping is done!  Yay!

With the end of the year also comes the last of the vacation days, so Kelly took a day off and we took a trip to the glorious metropolis of Toledo, OH.  ;)  After our 23 hour drive to Yellowstone, we decided we wanted something a little closer to home.  The one hour to Toledo was perfect.  The first day we visited the Toledo Zoo and saw their "Lights Before Christmas" display. That was lots of fun. Like Temple Square at night and the Zoo in one.  We got to pet snakes, ride the train and the carousel, get right up to a snow leopard and a bear (through glass, thank goodness), and watch some fun light shows too.  Of course, as usual, the kids also loved jumping on every statue they could find.  By the end, they were all quite tired, especially Benjamin.

That night we stayed in a hotel of which we only required two things - be close to the zoo and have a pool.  Luckily they didn't change their location on us at the last minute but they did decide to drain and completely refill their pool hours before we got there, so that pool was COLD!  Reminded me of a time I was in a contest to see who could stand in a near freezing river the longest and I won because I simply stayed in until my feet went numb.  Benjamin was a trooper and swam quite a bit, but Bella, Christian, and I mostly hung out in the knee deep parts and then spent most of the time playing around in the exercise room.

The second day we went to Toledo's children's museum - the Imagination Station.  A really great place with tons to do.  We liked the live science demonstrations the best.  Every hour someone would come on stage and do 20 minutes of science demos.  Those were amazing.  The kids also loved being able to make gingerbread houses because I'm a mean mom and have never let them make one at home. :)  There were a bunch of other really fun things there too like a bike up on a high wire, a giant mouse wheel, and a house that was built to look slanted on the inside so as you entered, you had the constant feeling that you were falling over.  It was so crazy to know that you're not falling and have seen the outside as stable, but no matter how hard you tell yourself that it's only an illusion, you can't get your body to stop feeling like it's falling.  People were crashing against the walls and screaming and straining to escape.  It was the wildest thing.  I was nauseous for a long time after I finally got out.

The whole trip took just over 24 hours and yet it felt like much longer.  It was fabulous.  The kids had a blast and want to go back.  The cool thing is that we can!  Nearly anytime! :)

The other day as we were making Christmas cards, Christian came to me asking me to put the CD case on his back.  I couldn't figure out why he wanted it, but asking a 2 year old why he's doing something is such a waste of time, so I just strapped it onto him.  "I'm CD boy!" he exclaimed and started dashing around like a super-hero.  Cracked us all up.  (And much better than "naked boy" which is his alter ego who fights crime every morning in our house.)