Trip to Ohio

On July 29th, I took the girls to Ohio for a week to visit Grandma and Grandpa and to see the sights. We crammed in soooo many fun things - Toledo Mud Hens game, library, park, Lake Erie, gardens, Cedar Point, Pennsylvania, and ice cream almost every night! It was an awesome vacation!


We went to a Toledo Mud Hens game, and got to meet one of the mascots, Muddona. Jessi wasn't that scared! Usually she is scared to death of people dressed up as scary things. I think it helped that she was safe in her Grandpa's arms!



Here we are in our seats, ready for the game to start.



We took the girls on a walk around the ballpark, and spent lots of time in the outfield, watching the game, and playing on the playground:

We stayed for the whole game, despite "the incident where Jessi barfed all over me." The fireworks at the end of the game were awesome! I'm glad we stayed, even though I smelled awful.



The next day, Mom & I took the girls to Maumee State Park on Lake Erie. First we went to the Lake Erie side of the park, to let the girls find shells. This is where we walked out on the ice when we visited the park last winter.

Isn't this the most beautiful picture of Jessi ever?! She looks so grown up, yet so little, at the same time. She was a great shell hunter.

Here's Mom C watching the girls run around. Katie is the speck in the background.

And here's, ummm, stereotypical Lake Erie. Megan found a huge dead carp (there were several). And there was a bad algae bloom that turned the lake pea soup green. In the pics above, the water looks a pretty turquoise color, but it's actually green as green can be. This pic shows it off perfectly.


So....we obviously didn't let the girls go swimming at all. After they had filled their jars with shells, we walked over to the "lagoon" beach area, which had fresh, clean, clear water. The girls did tons of swimming and spent lots of time playing in the sand and mud.

Megan the dirty bird.

Katie loved the "clay," and made many creations. We stayed all afternoon, playing in the mud, and hopping in the water whenever we got too hot.

Friday night, we had eggplant parmesan for dinner. Grandma took the girls out to the garden to pick these eggplants for dinner - aren't they beautiful! They were delicious, too!