Finally....

I have finally decided to write a blog and update you all on everything that's been going on in the last few weeks. I'll start with our trip to Ohio, which was amazing! We had so much fun, and the vacation was much needed.

The first day of our vacation we drove. Well really Tyler drove. I read, slept, took pictures, and did all those things passengers do. We realized on the way there that we were making such good time that we'd end up arriving much sooner than we said we would, so we stopped in Beckley for a sit down lunch at Cracker Barrel. Tyler had never had Cracker Barrel before, and I just love Cracker Barrel, so it worked. We got to Grandma's at about five. We were greeted with a hug and a home cooked spaghetti dinner! It was delicious! I don't even like spaghetti sauce, but I loved hers.

Us on the drive up

Day two of our vacation we really didn't do much of anything. We just sat around and read. Day three we went to Paul's for lunch and had some of their amazing food and ice cream. After lunch we went to the mall and went shopping.

In front of Paul's. Tyler's eating a chip around.

Day four Grandma took us out to Amish country so I could try and get a picture of an Amish person. I was not successful, but we did get a pretty good picture of one of their horses. And I was able to get a picture of an Amish person on my way home. We also went to this produce place and everything there was so cheap. In Ohio you pay about $3.99 for a watermelon! Here you pay like $6.99. All the produce was that way. It's like twice as expensive at home. Needless to say, we bought some produce on our way out to bring home with us.

This is the picture of the Amish person I got on the way home from Ohio

Day five we migrated to Grandpa's house. We had decided before we got to Ohio that we would spend half the time at Grandma Dekins and the other half at Grandpa Cole's. I was sad to leave Grandma's. But before we left she taught us how to make her indescribably delicious sugar cookies! I'm sure we won't be able to make them as good as she does, but at least we know the secrets now! I also learned how to husk corn while I was at Grandma's. lol, I know it's sad that I'd never done it before.

Day six Grandpa insisted on taking us shopping. He said that we weren't allowed to leave before he bought us something. He said he doesn't have anyone to spend money on these days. Plus he said he never gets to buy us stuff so we had to get something. Well we went to the Buckeye store and I got a wallet and Tyler got a sweater vest tshirt. I also got an OSU jersey while I was there, but I refused to allow Grandpa to pay for it. Then we went to a sports store and Tyler got a Cleveland Browns hat to go with the hoodie I got him last Christmas. After that we went to aeropostale and I got a shirt and two camis. The shirt was on clearance and Grandpa fussed at me for that, but that was really the only shirt I wanted.

Day seven we went to the Columbus zoo with Grandma Dekin. And seriously I had so much fun! They had Kangaroos and Koalas there. Did you know koalas sleep 22 hours a day? Needless to say, they were sleeping when we saw them. They also had penguins and two different kind of otters! Otters are my favorite! They had so many animals. The zoo was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. We were definitely worn out by the end of the day. We went back to Grandpa's house, and he made corn and BLTs, which really for me just translated into corn and a salad.

Day eight we were going to either go canoeing or go to Cedar Point, but the river was too low and it was raining, so that didn't work out to well. Tyler, Grandpa, Uncle Andy, Rob, and I ended up renting some movies and playing hand and foot. By the way, I have decided that hand and foot is the best card game ever! It's so much fun! Plus I won two out of three nights, so that makes me awesome! It ended up being a nice relaxing day.

Day nine was leaving day. I was sad to leave everybody, but I was also ready to get home. We took pictures and hugged and cried and all that kind of stuff. Believe it or not, I actually drove half of the way home. I figured Tyler deserved a break from driving. Unfortunately, there was like a two hour detour on 77 due to road construction, and the trip home ended up taking us about ten and a half hours. It felt weird and good to be home. And we were so happy to sleep in our own bed once again. It was a really awesome trip! I'm so glad we got to actually spend some quality time with everyone, and as Grandma said, we all got a chance to "bond". Sunday we spent all day unpacking and visiting family to drop of things we had gotten for them. Corn, dip, and pickled eggs for Tyler's family and dolls for my nieces. And of course we watched football. I'm glad for it to be that time of year once again. Yesterday and today have been pretty much catch up days at work. I'll be glad when things slow down again :)