Ohio, Part 2

While the kids were having so much fun in the backyard with Oma, the parents opted to go for a hike in Hocking Hills with Papa.  It was a little disappointing when Owen turned down the hike, but it was actually very nice to hike at an adult pace, with no cumbersome backpacks, snack load, extra potty stops, or whining (at least not much). 

Specifically, we hiked to Old Man's Cave.  Us and half of southeastern Ohio.  We are spoiled by Idaho's lack of people, and Old Man's Cave had a close proximity to the parking lot, and it was undoubtedly the last Saturday before school for some families. Anywho, the scenery was very Tolkien and worth fighting the crowds.  The cave is more of a huge sandstone shelf, but impressive nonetheless.

The CCC did some good work here with these charming bridges over the creek and tunnels through the rock on either side of the cave.

A little ways downstream of the cave was supposed to be a waterfall and a swimming hole.  I guess the water dries up at the end of summer.  :(

You can almost imagine the waterfall...

Once we headed further downstream, the crowd thinned out a bit, and you could actually hear some nature.  How cool is this picture?  I love the light coming through the leaves and the huge mossy boulder with the quaint path between the trees.

Some trees' roots were desperately trying to find some soil to grab onto.  Makes you wonder how it came to grow where it did.  Tenacious roots!  Unfortunately, we had a limited time, so our hike was cut short before we reached Cedar Falls and we had to U-turn back to the car.  Might be worth a return though!

Our last dinner in Athens was at Lake Hope Lodge (sorry, no pictures captured!), but no trip to A-town is complete without a stop at Larry's Dawg House, for reasons unknown.

Our last morning in Athens was spent at a familiar playground.

Flashback 3.5 years ago...  Not much changes!  At least with the boy.

But now he has a playmate.  :)

Then it was time to pack up and head back to Cincinnati for our flight the next day. Luckily, some of Oma and Papa's friends lent them their minivan, so we could have moments like this together.  Road trip!

We did have a detour to the Newport Aquarium, which was on the river just across from Cincinnati, in Kentucky.

There were plenty of interesting animals and fish to see, so we spent about two hours taking it all in.  Owen is standing by Mighty Mike, an enormous alligator that was completely submerged and motionless for as long as we stood there ~10 minutes.  Maybe he was fake...

Owen still remembers the spider crabs we saw at an aquarium over two years ago, so he has a soft spot for them, although he thinks they are creepy. I'll agree they are pretty fascinating to watch.

Newport aquarium was very kid-friendly with a few different touch exhibits and a playscape. This wall had jellyfish projected on it that responded to touch.  When H jumped to touch one, it would change direction away from her.  Pretty neat!  I think they could have spent half an hour here jumping and slapping the wall.

The penguins were especially active, darting and zipping through the water.  It looked like they were having a lot more fun than our local penguins do.  I happened to capture these two penguins on either side of Owen.  It seemed like they were looking through the glass for audience reactions to their antics.  So cute!

Our favorite part of the aquarium is usually the shark tunnel, if there is one.  Sure enough, Newport had one!  They even had fish under the tunnel.

Watch out for the sharks, Oma!  Hadley will defend you.

Owen pretending to be a sea turtle before we saw the real one!  The divers were sifting through the sand for something, but they were very friendly to the kids waving to H and fist bumping to O through the glass.  They thought that was pretty cool!

One of the last things was crossing the shark bridge, which is a 75-ft long suspended rope bridge over the shark tank.  It was optional, and Owen was not going to do it, but Hadley was definitely doing it!  She led the way fearlessly, and Owen could not be shown up by his little sis, so the whole family went across.  :)

Afterward, we walked to the Hoffbrauhaus for dinner, where someone drank a personal bucket o' beer.  But I'm not naming names...

Love this moment of my three thirsty companions imbibing together.

Besides drinks, there was lots of delicious German food and love shared.

That was a pretty fast week!  We had a great time. The travel back was smooth; it helps to gain a couple of hours. Our layover in Chicago was apparently even long enough for a little yoga workout. Until next time...

Ohio, Part 1

We were home for about a week, and then took off on another adventure, this time to Ohio to see Oma and Papa.  Getting there was a bit of a journey: driving 3 hours to Salt Lake City and flying to Cincinnati by way of Chicago.  I did enjoy the aerial view of Chicago from the plane though!

The kids were troopers and traveled very well.  The secret is the iPad; if only we had two! By the time we got to Cincinnati, the kids were so excited to see Oma and Papa! We actually stayed two nights there at the Great Wolf Lodge, which was so fun.  It's an indoor water park/resort, and they gave the kids wolf ears at check-in.  Hooooowwwll!

After a good night's sleep, we peeked in on the water park from the window at breakfast.

And then the fun really began!  It was difficult to get many pictures because water and cameras don't mix while supervising young children, and the lighting wasn't favorable. But, here's what I did capture of the wave pool, lazy river, slides, and splash park.

It was wonderful to see the kids get more confident and bolder in what they wanted to try as the day progressed.  At first, H was hesitant about any of the slides, but she got into a loop on the medium-level slides by the end.  Owen was hesitant about the mediums, but even went on the giant slides with his dad later in the day (here they are hiking up the slide tower with their tube).  It's fun to play with the kids on things that are actually fun for the adults, too.

We were there for 4-5 hours with pretty much non-stop activity.  By the end, we were all a little pooped and ready to call it a day.

We could have returned for a second day of water play, but we were a little shocked when the kids said they were done with that and ready to see Oma and Papa's house! So, we checked out of the hotel and drove a couple of hours to do just that. Owen was very excited to meet Luke.  (Actually re-meet, since they met 3 years ago.)

The weather was very pleasant, so we spent much of our time outdoors, especially in the shady backyard.  It was nice that the kids were happy with just a few toys, sticks, and dirt.

There is a slope to the backyard and maybe by accident (Oma?) the kids created a game where one rolled a ball off the porch and the other had to stop the ball before it rolled into the brush at the end of the yard. Then the goalie had to run the ball back up to the porch to repeat.  Tiring, yes? It was comical (maybe we shouldn't have laughed), but Hadley started crying whenever the ball made it past her, and she would chase after the ball down the hill crying more and running faster until the ball stopped.  Hmm... maybe you had to be there to see the humor.

Anyway, this game became their favorite pastime, and Owen proudly engineered a wall along the brush to stop the balls from going any further.  It was quite a project, consisting of mostly cardboard propped up by sticks, folding chairs, baby gates, etc. Lovely, isn't it?

One hot afternoon, Dad and O ventured over to the neighbor's pool where O practiced a little bit of real swimming. But just a smidge...

And H got to meet Aunt Kathy for the first time.  (Uncle Todd was there too, just didn't get a picture.) Can't wait to wear our new pink cowgirl boots!!

Coeur D'Alene, Day 3

We spent our last day in CDA at the main beach.  We intended to do that the first day, but we found the other beach off our hike that served us just as well.  Keeping with our early starts, we pretty much had the place to ourselves for an hour, which was awesome though a little chilly.

We did bring some sand toys with us on the trip, so the kids tried to find the secret to building sandcastles without much luck.  

But as we learned in Oregon, the sand castle master is in our midst.

I don't recall exactly how long we were there, but it was probably 3-4 hours.  The kids had a blast, and the parents were set up with food, drinks, and even some beach reading under our big sunbrella!  When Owen started behaving like a puppy, and Hadley was his bossy owner bathing him in a sand pit, we knew it was getting close to time to go.

It began to get pretty hot and crowded around lunch time anyway, so we opted to trade in our prime spot on the beach for one in an air-conditioned Greek restaurant. But first, we had to check out the amazing wooden playground adjacent to the beach.

It was huge! And according to the sign, kids helped design it, so it was full of lots of fun pretend-play objects, levels, and moving floors, along with the usual swings and slides.  O and H had a great time exploring and playing hide and seek!

We also found another Mudgy Moose statue!

And that about did it for Coeur D'Alene.  We really enjoyed the picturesque water, towering evergreen forests, charming neighborhoods, tasty micro-breweries, quaint downtowns, and laid-back normalcy in the area.  Our long day back in the car was pretty uneventful, but we did meet up with my old elementary school friend, Stacy, who now resides in Missoula with her family!