Week with Rays and Ott Reunion

The week after The Color Run, we went back home and Austin and Mason came with us.  We took the boys on our favorite hike at Oglebay that leads to the waterfalls.  The kids decided to play IN the waterfall.  I don't usually mind, but I was not prepared that day.  We didn't have any towels or a change of clothes.  I had wanted to stop at the Nature Center on the way home, but obviously that had to be scratched.  I jokingly told Mason he was so wet I was going to tie him to the top of the car to drive home.  He was a little disappointed when I didn't really do that.

Another day we went to Barkcamp State Park to go swimming.  The park is on the Ohio side but less than 1/2 hour away.  We met our friends the Orbans there also.

Austin had a b-day while he was with us.  It was a special b-day too, he turned 8!  I made him Lasagna and Brownies per his request.  Mima and Pop-Pop were able to come down to celebrate his b-day with us.

His loot- he made out pretty good for being away from home.  Mason and I went shopping together which was interesting.  Mason kept trying to get me to buy things that I knew was more his interests than Austin's.  He would get very annoyed when I didn't fall for it.  It was still a fun shopping excursion though and I think Mason enjoyed being the only one who got to go with me.

(Notice the boogie board in the stash?  That gift from Aunt Terra was for a fun upcoming vacation!!)
The next day Uncle Martin and Kelten came into town.   The Ott Reunion was at Salt Fork State Park, also in Ohio but less than an hour away.  The ironic part is it was planned long before we moved here.  It worked out in our favor though.  Some family stayed in hotels not too far from us.  Our pavilion was right by the beach which made it convenient for the kids.  We had so much fun, I forgot to take pictures.  I did snap this one on the way home though.  Proof that we had a blast if they crashed that hard on under one hour drive!

Not sure who took this picture and why, but notice that Mima is about ready to collapse!

 

Color Run and family fun

The weekend after Philadelphia, Dustin brought Alexandra back up to us.   He also left Austin and Mason with us for a visit.  We were planning on leaving right after church on Sunday to go spend the week with Mima and Pop-Pop.  Sunday ended up being a very long and interesting day.  We did eventually make it to Mima's and Pop-pops but it was much later than planned.  We had gotten a call late in the week asking Jared and I to meet with Stake Leaders early on Sunday at the church.  Jared was given a call to serve as 1st Counselor in the Bishopric.  The kids and I have been travelling so much this summer that we really haven't noticed the impact of the change to his schedule.  The stake president offered to take group pictures.  He said someone took one of the first Bishopric he was in and he's enjoyed looking back at the picture.
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with the wives

 

We did end up making it to Ohio in time to stop by the farewell party for some friends of ours that were moving to Colorado.  And yes, I am the mean mom/aunt that had the kids doing workbook pages over the summer.

 

 The temperatures were not really warm enough for swimming the week we were in Ohio, but that did not stop the kids from swimming nonstop 24/7.

 We also went to a park about everyday.  Austin got tired of it and asked if we were on "somekind of a park tour or something".  Alexandra's friend, Abby came over after the park one day and swam for awhile.  They had identical swimsuits by coincidence.

We also took the kids to a nature center in Avon.  I had never been to it before but I think it is called Miller Nature Center.  The kids loved the carnivorous plant display they had.

 

One of the main reasons for our trip to Ohio was for The Color Run.  The girls had begged to do one and the nearest one at that time was Columbus or Cleveland.  Here we are nice and clean in our white shirts.

 

 

Katy took off running and left us in her dust.  She eventually found the older sisters of her friend Brooke and ran with them.  I stayed with the girls.  We all had a blast.  Bella's attitude was night and day different from the Superhero Run.  She was super excited and pumped but color and music are her "thing" .  It was funny because every time a color chute was approaching she would take off in a sprint.  We tried to get Jacob to run with us since under 5 was free but there were so many people there he was overwhelmed.  He choose to cling to Mima instead and cheer for us near the first color chute.  Pop-Pop took the Mason and Austin and went farther on the course to cheer us on. 
We did take Jacob into the color bomb at the end.  Although he wasn't fond of all the color dust that made it difficult to breathe and see.  The girls on the other hand couldn't get enough color and joined the color bombs a few times.

We did end up running into our friends the Franklins and the Chattertons after the race.  We knew they were running also but I didn't hold out much hope that we'd see them because there were so many people there.

(we sprayed our shirts with vinegar per instructions to set the color but were disappointed that the majority of the color washed out)

While we were in Ohio we inducted the girls into the Buchkovich Dairy Treat run.  Pop-Pop and I always run when we are going there and try to rope as many others into it as we can.  For many years it was the only ice cream place in Avon.  But in the last few years that has changed but we have remained loyal customers.  However, the girls were not amused that we passed at least 4 other ice cream places on the way.  Mima and the boys drove and met us there.  There wasn't room for all of us in the car going home so I volunteered to run back.  Austin decided to join me.  It was uh....interesting.  Pop-Pop ended up having to pick him up so we wouldn't run out of daylight.  He had no interest in running the 3 miles back.  He was more interested in a slow stroll stopping to look at this and at that.  He cracks me up!

Valley Forge and Fligh 93 Memorial

Sunday afternoon we went to Valley Forge with the Sass Family, Grandma, and Jacob and Brittany.  Afterwards we had a barbeque at the Sass's.  Then my family drove back to Grandma's house to spend the night.  Alexandra had left and driven home with Aunt Christy and Todd so she could spend the week in Tennessee at Tonya's house.  Tonya had flown into Philadelphia for a work function that happened to coincide with the graduation.

Jacob and Jacob

 (My cousin Jacob who I believe was also named after my great-grandfather Jacob Ott)

 Bella's pose fits her personality to a "T"

 Funny Faces

 Can you tell how much little Jacob loves big Jacob?

 

Monday morning (memorial day) we went on a hike on a trail near Grandma's house.  After that we went to the Flight 93 memorial.  It is less than 1/2 hr from my Grandma's house.  There were special events going on all day in honor of Memorial Day.  We actually found out afterwards that the Vice-President was there later that day.  I must say I was not nearly as disappointed to miss the current VP as I would have been some of the previous ones.  The memorial was neat to see.  I would recommend waiting a few year and then going to see it.  There are some incredible additions planned.  I think it will be amazing when it is all completed.

 This park ranger gave a wonderful presentation on the lives of the passengers and crew.  He also retold the events regarding Flight 93.  All these years later and I still cry every time.

 The white wall shows the line of sight from the cockpit as it crashed

The wall of names.  The girls were very upset when they saw that one of the passengers had been pregnant when it crashed.

 

Philadelphia

The week after Katy's trip we headed to Philadelphia.  Its hard to believe that so many years have passed since my graduation that this little guy

 

 

was graduating himself



 

There was some confusion at first as to whether or not tickets were needed for the actual graduation. We didn't think we would be able to take all the kids so we made plans to take them sightseeing. A few days before, we found out we could all go to the graduation but we decided to stick with our original plan.  We met Nicholas's family and Tonya at a train station and drove in together.  Since Nicholas's family lived there for a few years it was nice to have our own personal tour guides. 

Our first stop was the Art Museum.., or rather, the steps to the art Museum.  Yes, we ran up them and I may or may not having been playing the Rocky song on my phone while we ran up them.  We even did a shuffle with fist pump when we reached the top.  There actually aren't near as many steps as I'd imagined.

 View of Philadelphia from top of the Art Museum stairs

 Me, Natalie, and Tonya

Our next stop was to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  Unfortunately, the Independence  Hall was sold out of tours for the day. 

 I liked the view of the Hall behind the bell

Afterwards we ate lunch at the Reading Terminal which is an adventure in and of itself.  The place is crazy but we somehow managed to find seats all together.  Our cousins were there at the same time and we had no idea because the place is so large and crazy.  Super fun though!  At some point on our adventure we accidently drove straight through China Town.  I loved it though and was very glad we did.  I wished we'd had time to get out and explore

We price lined our hotel rooms and called immediately after booking to request two doubles or queens. The hotel assured us that was not a problem but when we showed up we had two king suites and there were no extra rooms. Two king suites doesn't work very well with 5 adults and 4 kids.  They did bring in roll away beds for us which helped some.

Marcus's graduation party was at a restaurant.  And no Buchkovich party would be complete without dancing!

Weston and Xandy dancing along with Jacob and Katy

 Tonya and I dancing

 Grandma and my cousin Todd dancing

 Jacob was really getting down on the dance floor.  He had everyone in stitches.  I tried to get video but he would stop everytime I tried.  Natalie brought Weston's old Scooby Doo for Jacob.  He loves it!