Spring Break 2012

Ryan was on Spring Break last week, and we managed to take FULL advantage of our week with no scheduled activities -- no preschool, no playgroup, no MOPS, no playdates. And although we really enjoy all of these activities each week, I think it is safe to say that the little boy and I had a lot of fun forgetting about our normal routine for a few days.

After our fun morning at the Georgia Governor's Mansion, David and I attended a friend's wedding in North Georgia on Saturday afternoon while Ryan spent the afternoon/evening with Pop.

Dressed and ready to go. What a good looking couple we are ;)

When we got back from the wedding that night, we dyed Easter eggs with Ryan before calling it a day. It was quite a busy Saturday! Ryan absolutely LOVED coloring eggs, and managed to dye his hands a variety of colors too. Turns out it is much easier to get the eggs out of the dye with your hands than a spoon, at least for a three year old little boy :) I was really glad that we didn't have anywhere important to be the next day. Luckily though, the dye came off his hands pretty quickly and easily. Baby wipes work wonders! And thanks to this fun night, Ryan now calls all eggs "Happy Easter Eggs." Love it!

We had one catastrophe :)

Pop helped us for a minute too.

The finished product. Ryan's eggs turned out the prettiest and he dunked each of them in about 6 different colors {at least}. I was amazed!

We spent all of Sunday morning and afternoon cleaning, doing laundry, and packing. Then we loaded up the van and headed to Kentucky with David for the night. We just left his car at my Dad's house since he was coming home again the next weekend. It was nice to be all together in the car. This was actually our first time driving to Kentucky together as we normally just meet each other there, here, or somewhere in between. We stopped and had dinner at Chez Guevara, a Mexican restaurant in Knoxville, and pulled into David's office a little before midnight.

Monday morning, Ryan and I got back in the car about 11 AM and drove to Canton {Ohio} for the week to visit Dave, my step-dad. We made a few stops along the way -- for coffee, gas, lunch, the bathroom, and tickets to Disney World {we are going in a few weeks and needed to get our tickets from an Army Leisure Travel Office before arriving}. We made it to Canton about 7 PM, and stopped by the bowling alley to see Dave. After stretching our legs for a few minutes, we headed to Giant Eagle to get a few groceries and then to Dave's house to unpack, relax, and get settled for the week. And when Dave got home, we had Pizza Oven pizza for dinner. I have a specific list of food I want when I visit town :)

Ryan loved Brie {although Brie didn't love him}. And he was convinced she was a baby even though she is 13 years old.

Ryan and I slept in on Tuesday and had a low key morning while Dave worked. When he got home, we went to lunch and then Milk and Honey for ice cream sundaes. I frequented this place often in high school. Yum! After lunch, we stopped by the Buick dealership where Dave works to drop off my van so he could wash and wax it the next morning. Ryan had a good time running around the shop and getting nice and dirty! We then headed to the meat market to get steaks for dinner, the vacuum repair store for a new vacuum belt, and to the Cordillo's {a few of my favorite people in Canton} house to finish up our taxes. I normally do them myself but since I don't have much of a tax background {despite having everything I need to get my CPA license}, I called on the only CPA I know that would help me for free since we had a bunch of tax related stuff in 2011 from selling our house. Tony and I finshed them up in about 20 minutes, and then he let Ryan race his slot cars before we left. He has quite the setup in his basement and Ryan had a ball! Then Tony and Joan joined us at Dave's house for dinner a little while later.

Orange juice is yummy, even with pulp!

At Milk and Honey

Ewww, gross!

Hi Mr. Service Manager!

Ryan drove the cars around the track at one speed ... FAST!

On Wednesday, we had breakfast at Samantha's Restaurant {another favorite} and then drove up to Kirtland {25 miles east of Cleveland} to go to the Lake Metroparks Farmpark, a working farm and learning center. It was ranked the 2011 Best of the Best Reader's Choice Award winner for Best Family Destination by a Northern Ohio daily newspaper. There were tons of farm animals including several newborns, horse- and tractor-drawn wagon rides, hand milking demonstrations, a science center, modern and antique tractors, and a playground area. Despite all the school groups there {who created chaos during the milking demonstration}, we had fun exploring the farm. The highlight was definitely all the animals though -- the pigs, sheep, goats, horses, and cows. Ryan even got to feed one of the baby sheep with a bottle. It was PRECIOUS!!

This litter {of piglets} was born on March 20 making them 15 days old.

Sooo sweet! This lamb was one of 52 born in March!

This calf was only 2 days old :)

Ryan wasn't too sure about milking the cow; Mama did it though!

We drove by Lake Erie on the way home, but Ryan was asleep in his carseat so he hasn't yet seen one of the Great Lakes. Maybe on our next trip. He did, however, get in a good nap on our drive back to Canton. When we got home, Dave built a bonfire in the backyard and we cooked hamburgers over the fire for dinner and roasted marshmallows for dessert. I love having fires! It's so relaxing, fun, warm, and nice to be outside. It was perfect bonfire weather too {although a little windy}, and much, much chillier than the temps we left in the good ol' south!

I seemed to attract the smoke.

We got our marshmallows a little too close to the flames :) Still yummy though!

Our last day in Canton -- Thursday, Ryan and I had another quiet morning while Dave worked. We then had lunch at Beyesly's Restaurant and went to Price Park in North Canton to feed the ducks and play on the playground, which Ryan loved although it was chilly. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping, doing some packing, blogging, and watching some of the opening round of the Masters golf tournament. That night we picked up Bill and Ruth {Dave's dad and step-mom} and headed to dinner at Angello's Restaurant {my favorite in Canton}. It was a nice way to end our visit. A big thanks to Dave for having us and treating us all week!!

A mama goose sitting on her eggs :)

We got up early on Good Friday, loaded up the van, and left Canton about 9 AM. We had a LONG day in the car. I knew Ryan would be ready to burn off some energy by lunchtime so I arranged for David's mom to meet us for lunch at a Chick-fil-A in Cincinnati on our way through. She and I ate and talked while Ryan played in the play area, occasionally coming out to visit and eat some food. We had a nice time!

Nana brought Ryan a cute little baseball Easter basket with some chocolates inside and treated him to an ice cream cone before we left :)

After spending about an hour and a half at Chick-fil-A, Ryan and I hit the road again. Our next stop ... Kentucky to pickup Daddy; however, he wasn't ready when we got there so after getting gas we walked around Walmart. I told Ryan he could get one thing to take back in the car with us and he impressively narrowed it down to a Curious George movie. After making our purchase and leaving Walmart, we walked around outside David's office and found tons of caterpillars until, finally, he was ready to go.

The remaining few hours of our trip were pretty uneventful. We sat in bad traffic north of Knoxville {one lane of I-75S is closed due to construction}, stopped at Steak 'n Shake for dinner, and pulled into the driveway at Pop's house around 12:15 AM. We were all glad to be home!