Little of This, Little of That

September has been a pretty busy month for us.  Besides school starting and adjusting to new schedules, we've had baby showers, ward activities, birthday parties, and lots of other fun, random things.  We had Richard's birthday on the 11th, which caused me quite a bit of stress :)  I thought he wasn't going to get home until 6:00 so I had just planned on going out to eat and then watching his new movie when we got home.  But he told me the day before that he would be home about 3:30!! So all of the sudden I had to come up with a fun way to spend the day. To make a long story short, let's just say I tried to plan a bunch of things and none of them really worked out. But it ended up being nice anyway, even if not the most exciting day ever.  We went out to eat and then walked along the Scioto Mile, which is basically a pathway that follows the Scioto River that runs through downtown Columbus.  It is GORGEOUS.  Besides looking over the beautiful river with a bunch of cool bridges, 

there is a huge splash pad, a replica of the Santa Maria, 

and the largest outdoor climbing wall in America. Honestly, my favorite part was sitting and talking to Richard on these benches that swing. 

Even though I tease him all the time about being old, I can't believe he's 30 now!!!! He didn't want a party or to make a big deal about it so hopefully this birthday was exactly what he needed. 

We have also been out exploring Columbus even more.  We visited some Indian caves that the kids were super bored in :)  (I forgot my camera so you'll just have to imagine how cool they were).

And we also found a gorgeous metro park that was not kid-friendly at all but at least it was very pretty!  You weren't supposed to eat, drink, or jog in the park and we got in trouble for letting the kids take off their shoes and walk in the little stream... 

What kind of park doesn't let kids run around??  Other than that, it was a super fun day and the kids had fun collecting little leaves and petals to show their daddies when we got home. 

 

 Kaylee with her best buddy Jude

 It seems like life just keeps getting busier but we are having tons of fun!  If only someone could teach me the trick to get McKenna to stay in her bed so we can all get some sleep...life would be just about perfect!

Preschool Redo

Kaylee got to have ANOTHER first day of preschool this week, at a new school!  We were very unhappy with our try at Headstart and I could tell that Kaylee was also very unhappy there.  I definitely did not want her first experience with preschool to be something she dreaded going to every day!  So we found a new preschool at a church that is not too far from our house.  Although it is much more expensive for us, it has been worth every penny to see the HUGE smile on her face when I pick her up every day.  She is loving her teachers and can't wait to tell me what they did that day.  It was a big difference for us and one that I am very happy about.  I don't hate dropping her off anymore and don't go home feeling like I am a horrible mother for leaving her there so sad.  Win win!  Of course we had to take new first day of school pictures and she got really into these ones.  

 

 She chose all of her own poses and where she wanted them taken.  But you won't hear any complaints from me!  I never get tired of this face, could you??

A Little Piece of My Heart

A little piece of my heart was broken today as I dropped Kaylee off for her first day of preschool. I have gone through so many emotions as we got ready for her to go that I wasn't sure how I would feel when the time actually came. When we first started talking about it, I was really nervous because it is four days a week for 3 hrs, which seems like a lot for the 1st year.  Sometimes I would get excited thinking about all of the things I would get done while McKenna is napping.  And other times I would be sad and swear I wasn't going to send her because I would miss her too much.  But what I felt as I dropped her off was completely unexpected.  

The whole morning Kaylee was SO excited she could hardly stand it. She had her backpack on most of the day and kept asking if it was time to go.  Her excitement was contagious and we were both yelling "woo hoo!" when we pulled up to the school. Kaylee is very social and loves new things so I was happy to see she was excited about this too.  However, the second we stepped into the school she got VERY quiet and even asked me to stay an extra minute, which she has NEVER done before. It was not easy at all for me to walk away and I could feel my heart getting heavier with each step.  When I got in the car I was trying to figure out my feelings and decided that what I felt most of all was fear.  Fear that nobody would take care of her as good as I do.  That nobody would see her special little spirit and know how sweet she is.  Fear that the other kids wouldn't say nice things or exclude her. And most of all, fear that I am going to be missing out on so much from now on.  I won't get to see the things that make her happy at school or the things that make her nervous.  I won't get to see how she makes new friends or what she chooses to play with at recess.  And that breaks my heart! (oh dang it, now I really am crying). Kaylee has been my little buddy from day one and there wasn't anything I did without her.  I am going to miss seeing her sweet face all day, every day.  Can't I just keep her in a bubble for the rest of our lives??

I meant to just get one "first day of school shot" but she's so adorable, I couldn't pick just one!

Apple Picking

Another new adventure in Columbus! We went apple picking with our friends to kick off the beginning of fall. Although it was definitely hot enough to still feel like summer!  The trees were little so the girls could pick their own apples and thought that was so fun.

Besides the apples you buy, it is also all-you-can-eat so the girls loved taking a few bites of an apple and then venturing off to find another one :) 

We had a little picnic right there in the shade of the apple trees and ended by visiting the farmer's market and also getting some delicious nectarines. What better way could we say goodbye to summer??

Utah Whirlwind

I can't believe we are already back from our Utah trip.  The time went by so fast!  But we are very glad to be home and need a week long break to recover from everything we crammed into 2 1/2 weeks!  Since there is no way I am going to blog about every detail, I thought I would just do a gigantic photo dump to show just a small part of how much fun we had;

Quick stop in Indiana

Scheels

Hiking

Peace Gardens

Liberty Park

Church History Museum

City Creek/Splash Pad/ Trax

Meeting my beautiful new niece

Dan's Wedding

 Swimming/ BBQ's 

And lots and lots of cousin fun!

 It was a lot to pack in but we are so glad we got to see everyone multiple times.  Now we are just working on bribing people to come out next year since Utah is not in our plans. Start saving now everyone!!!!! :)

Packing in the Fun

We have suddenly realized that we don't have much summer left to do all of the fun things we want to do and so we've been trying to pack in as many things as we can.  We went back to see the butterflies,

went to the best splash pad, AKA the bunny fountains, 

 went to a Summer Fest,

and went to tour a chocolate factory (which was actually a disaster...but that's another story).  

This is a 235 lb chocolate buckeye. And it can be yours for only $3500!!  What a steal.

We've been having so much fun- I don't want to go back to real life!  Luckily, tomorrow we start our vacation to Indiana & Utah!  Can't wait to see everyone!!!!!

Alum Creek

My friend invited me and the girls to go to Alum Creek Beach with her on Friday.  I admit, I was really nervous about taking both girls by myself by deep water and so I convinced Richard to come with us and work later that night (have I mentioned yet that I LOVE his flexible schedule?  Hmmm, maybe if I say it enough, it will stay that way??).  It was quite an adventure to get there because of getting lost and then the beach being closed due to flooding, (we had 22 days of rain in a row!!!  We are so happy to see the sun finally come out) but once we found somewhere to go it was a blast! 

 There was a little dock for the kids to play on and it was beautiful with all of the sailboats there. 

 This was the most brave I have ever seen Kenna with water, other than the bathtub of course.  It was really fun to watch her actually having a good time IN the water instead of avoiding it the whole time. 

 There wasn't any sand at this part of the lake, but that was probably better for the kids because they spent half the time just throwing rocks into the water.  

We also met a very nice family who was fishing and they let all the kids touch the fish and even takes turns holding the fishing poles. Every time they caught a fish, the kids would all crowd around the bucket like it was the most exciting thing they had ever seen. So cute!

McKenna even caught her very first fish!  

The day was perfect, it was only about 75 degrees but the water was warm and we were with awesome people. We are INCREDIBLY lucky to know all of the friends we've gotten to meet out here in Ohio. What more could we ask for?