National Park/Lennon

It has been a pretty rainy couple of weeks which means we haven’t been doing very much so today I thought I would just tell you about our fun trip to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and then a little about what Lennon’s been up to.

The national park is only a 30 minute drive from where we live, and it’s a really pretty drive and there are actually a couple ski resorts there! The hills are like bunny hills from what we could see, it was pretty funny.  Inside the park there’s a path that follows the old Erie Canal, this is the path the donkeys used to walk on while they pulled the boats down the canal (the tow path). We were planning to walk up the path about 4 miles and ride the Cuyahoga Valley railroad train back, but once we got there we found out that the train rides had been cancelled for the day because of all the rain, the bridges were flooding! We ended up just getting some ice cream and walking up the path a little ways so we could see the canal. It was really neat to see the canal and all the old houses and farms along the sides of it. We drove around the park after that and saw a cool covered bridge and Brandywine falls. The ranger said the falls has never had so much water coming down, it’s really crazy the amount of rain we’ve been getting out here.

Enough about all that, let’s talk about Lennon. My little guy is 16 months old!

He loves to read books, play with cars, and his giant lego set. He likes to watch all the bugs and birds he sees outside. He will spot an ant on the ground and follow it around saying “anch, anch” which is his version of “ant”. He likes to watch trucks, tractors, motorcycles, airplanes, anything that makes a sound. One of his favorite things to do is go on walks and just watch and point at all the cars he sees. He’s been really cute lately, he’s starting to really laugh hard. The other night he was laughing so hard in the bathtub he had tears rolling down his face. It’s so fun to see him become this little human with a real personality.  

Parade the Circle/Downtown

This week has been really fun! Saturday Taylor and I took the boys to an event called ‘Parade the Circle’ put on by the Cleveland Museum of Art. It was a huge parade and all of the entries were just local people who dressed up, played instruments, danced, wore stilts, decorated their wheel chairs, carried a trampoline with an acrobat on it, whatever they could create. It was awesome. I wish I could’ve got some better pictures but there were a ton of people and we were pretty far back. 

Girl on stilts riding a really tall tricycle 

Sunday the 3 of us went exploring downtown. We saw the Indian’s field, the Cavalier’s stadium, and the Brown’s stadium. One of the Cavaliers playoff games was on Sunday so the whole town was wearing maroon and there were Cavaliers flags and signs that said “ALL IN” everywhere. So, besides all the Cavs events going on, Cleveland itself is really cool. I bet we’ll go back and spend a little more time there if it ever stops raining.

(Don't mind my snapchat screen shots)

Indoor shopping center

"King James"

Playhouse Square

Last night Lennon and I were able to meet up with Aunt Dawn, Uncle Dick, and Margy’s cousin Diane. Dick and Dawn were travelling through on their way home from a wedding and Diane lives in Akron so we all met there for dinner. It was so fun to see some family!

Today we drove two and a half hours to Columbus where we will be staying until Saturday. Hopefully I have some fun Columbus things to talk about in my next post!

Nature Trail/Cedar Point

It’s been a couple weeks since my last update. Lennon and I have been keeping ourselves pretty busy. His friend Brixton got a little blow up pool and we have been over there a few times to swim.

We’ve spent a lot of time going for walks along the nature trail. Lennon especially likes to walk down to the river and throw rocks in. Every time he throws one he says “doh!” I think he’s trying to say “throw”. It’s pretty funny to see how excited he gets when he actually throws a rock far enough that it lands in the water and makes a sound. He points at every squirrel, bird, and deer that we see. He has a good eye for spotting them too, a lot of times he sees them before I do.

Sunday we got to go to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky. Kyle’s sales team won an incentive from corporate and they paid for all of us to go. The first ride we went on was the ferris wheel, it was huge and so windy at the top. It was neat because the park is at the end of a peninsula on Lake Erie so from up there you can see the huge lake on all sides of the park. Lennon wasn’t that impressed with that ride, he ate a peanut butter sandwich and waited to get down. The next ride we let him go on was the little airplanes, his first solo ride! When the worker said he was old enough to go alone I was pretty nervous, I wasn’t sure if he would try and stand up or if he would get scared but we buckled him in tight and he just sat still the entire time. After that he got to go on quite a few rides alone. Kyle and I got to go on a couple of rides. One of us would stay with Lennon while the other would go on a roller coaster and then we would switch. After the rides we took Lennon to the splash pad, his favorite part of the day. I have never seen him so excited over anything before. Kyle posted a video on Instagram and Facebook if you haven’t seen it already. It’s really cute. 

Here are just a couple of random pictures. 

Downtown Cleveland.

Playground at the mall.

Lennon loves playing in the shade tent in the living room.

 

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo/Anniversary

This week Kyle and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. We dropped Lennon off with a babysitter and the two of us went to the Cuyahoga County Rib Cook off. There were 14 different stands with ribs to try and vote on at the end. We couldn’t decide where to eat so we chose the one with the biggest and most trophies displayed out front. It was really fun!

On Sunday we went to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. It was awesome, at least 4 times the size of Hogle Zoo. Lennon got so excited looking at all the animals, he would wave at them and say “hi”. It was kid’s day at the zoo so they had all the big trucks and equipment out and were letting the kids look at them and pretend to drive. Lennon loved that.

This is a video of Lennon and Brixton playing at the little toddler play yard that we went to on Saturday. They are become such good little buddies, it's so cute to watch them play. 

Kirtland

Last week wasn’t too exciting; we spent most of our free time at the park or the playground at the mall. Lennon loves the swing, he gets so excited when he sees it and once he starts swinging he says “Yay! Yay! Yay!” over and over again. He has learned how to climb up the stairs and go down the slide by himself, although I usually stand next to him because it scares me. I’m not ready for him to be growing up so fast! When he gets tired of the playground he makes his way over to the grass where he sits and eats dandelions (the fluffy white ones). He used to just blow on them and smile but he has now moved onto shoving them in his mouth. I am constantly wiping white fluff off his face and tongue, I try to stop him but I guess he likes it.

It has been pretty rainy but most days it’s still been warm, and by warm I mean hot and muggy. I swear it’s more humid here than it was in Florida but that’s probably just because it’s been so long since we were there.

Sunday was Kyle’s day off and we went to the Kirtland Temple, Historic Visitor’s Center, and the cemetery next to the temple. We didn’t go into the temple but we did walk around, the grounds were really pretty with lots of big flower bushes and trees. At the Historic Visitor’s Center the Sister missionaries took us on a tour of the N.K. Whitney store and home, sawmill, and ashery. Lennon loved the sawmill, he sat at the rail and watched the water wheel go around while we learned about the history of the place. They said it was a reconstruction that the Amish helped to build since they still use sawmills today.

 

 

Lake Erie and Children's Museum

Lennon is back to his old self. His rash healed quicker than it came and things are back to normal. This week has been fun. We were able to go to the Cleveland Children’s Museum with our friends Taylor and Brixton. Taylor is the wife of one of the other sales reps and Brixton is her son who is just a month older than Lennon. It is so fun to have friends out here, I forgot how long the days and weeks can be while Kyle is working.

Back to the museum… we took a wrong exit and ended up driving through a pretty ghetto part of town. (Don’t worry Gram, we didn’t stop or talk to anyone) That was pretty interesting and made us realize how lucky we are to live where we do. We finally made it to the museum and it ended up being really fun for the boys. They had a water table that was fun and a little farm room that was just for little kids.

Mother’s day was really nice. Lennon woke us up at 6:00 am so we got up, Kyle made us breakfast, and then we all went back to sleep again until 9. Once we woke up for the 2nd time we packed up the car and headed to Lake Erie. It was awesome. We went to Huntington Beach where they had sandy beaches and giant rock pier type things that went out into the lake. That lake really is a “great lake”, it felt like we were at the ocean. Except less salty, which is wonderful. Lennon loved playing in the sand and the water. He would stand at the edge of the lake and just stomp and splash, it was so cute. After we left the lake we went to lunch and came home for nap #2. It was pretty much the perfect day.