Fall Trip 2007

Well, it's that time of year again. We took our 2nd annual Fall Trip up to Cincinnati. Kaylee had a couple of days off from school so we all piled in the car on Thursday afternoon and went on a road trip. The trip up was very good. We stopped and had a quick bite to eat at Krystal (fast food burgers for you out west). Then back in the car with the laptop hooked up to play a movie for the girls. This is the one thing that makes the 7 hour trip possible. When we arrived in Cincinnati around 10:30pm, the first thing we had to deal with was Chris and Brian's dog Ella. Kaylee is not a huge dog person, but Craig and I are her parents so you can understand. Ella is a fairly large dog (Golden Doodle) that is a year old. She is a cross between a Golden Retriever and Poodle. She was pretty worried about the dog for the first three days. We had to keep them in separate rooms most of the time. She did finally warm up and by the last day was able to be in the same room without freaking out. Morgan did good with the dog. She let her come up and lick her without too much fuss. They also have a cat, which Kaylee loves. Unfortunately, Craig is allergic to them and I think Kaylee might be too.

The next thing we encountered after the dog was one of my biggest fears. A storm came in and it was raining pretty hard and there was thunder and lightening. Then my worst fear comes true as the tornado sirens start up. We were trying to figure out what we needed to do, but then the sirens stopped so we were ok. The storm went on for a couple more hours while I lay in bed with my eyes wide open watching the lightening and freaking out over the thunder. I have to try to keep myself calm so I don't freak out the girls, but I am not happy about anything to do with these bad storms. I do try to remember that during the storm when I am in a house that is oaver 100 years old that it has probably seen a lot worse storms. Anyway we were all safe and the weekend continued without a hitch.

Friday we got to go and see Chris and Brian's new house. They bought a house built in 1910ish. It is a Prairie Style house. It is very big and beautiful. It has tons of the original charm. It has a main story, upstairs, third floor (maids quarters) and a basement. There is still a lot of work to be done to get it ready to move in, but the bones are there. I'm sure it will be amazing when it is done. The girls had a great time going through the swinging doors between the entry way and the formal dinning room. On Friday evening, we took the girls to meet a couple of Craig's friends from college. We had a great dinner with Dave Tingley and Andy and Molly Farler. It was really fun to see everyone. We had not seen Dave since our wedding in December of 1998! On Saturday we (Chris, Brian, Holly, Craig, Jill, Kaylee & Morgan) all went to the Cincinnati Zoo for Hallzooween! It was fun. The girls got to Trick or Treat and see the animals. It was a nice way to spend the day with family. Saturday night was a real treat as Holly offered to watch the girls so Craig and I could go out. We ended up going up to Oxford (Miami University) to go to a dinner with Andy and Molly and some of their friends. This group of friends gets together and does theme dinners. We were at the German themed dinner. We got to sample Sauerkraut Balls, Potato Pancakes, Goetta and something called Beer Soup. The Beer Soup was an expirement that did not go terribly well. I liked it, but most of the men threw theirs out. It was made with beer (obviously) and then it had cloves and cinnamon in it. Probably would have gone well with dessert instead of as an appetizers. Anyway, the fun part was meeting some new friends and spending time with old friends. Holly made it through the evening even with Morgan having a very messy diaper. When Kaylee tells the story the number of wipes used goes up every time! Sunday was a relaxing day of hanging out with family, playing Wii and watching the Bengals WIN! We spent most of Monday on the road and then we were back to our normal routine on Tuesday. We had a great trip, but I did not take hardly any pictures. I am counting on Chris to post all the pics that he took. I will put in a link to his website when he posts his pictures. He is in Europe on a business trip this week, so I'll keep you all posted.

Here are the pictures!!!