Hocking Hills Vacation

At the beginning of July, we went to Hocking Hills for a family vacation with my entire family.  This vacation has been in the works since last fall, and I have been looking forward to it for a long time!  We rented a cabin with five bedrooms and three bathrooms for ten adults, three kids, and a dog.  I had a blast!  Traveling with little ones is always pretty stressful (would you really call it a vacation?), but at least vacationing with family reduces the stress because there are lots of eyes willing to look after the kids, allowing for some down time and napping.  Each family got their own room, so that meant the Bonds were upstairs in what I called the "Bond Suite."  The four of us shared one large bedroom, a bathroom, and a loft area with four twin beds.  William slept great in the bedroom in his pack n play.  The other three of us, however, bounce back and forth between beds in all different locations in the suite, sleeping very little.  My parents actually brought Eliana's toddler bed with them which was set up in the bedroom.  However, she wanted to sleep in the twin beds in the loft, where is was loud and bright, which meant she went to sleep very late and only with a lot of tears, threats, and bribery.  Why does she hate to sleep so much??  By the last night, she was so tired, she feel asleep in the twin bed fairly easily, and I was able to carry her to the toddler bed to sleep the rest of the night.

Besides not sleeping, we went on a couple of hikes in the state park, played in the creek that went through the property on which the cabin was located, did a little swimming, and ate lots and lots of food.  We also celebrated William's birthday with a piñata, per Eliana's request.  I got to cuddle with my beautiful niece, spend time with my siblings around the fire, and enjoy some beautiful scenery away from city life for a while.  All in all, it was a wonderful vacation.  I can't believe we all managed to get together at the same time!  Hopefully we can do this again next summer.  But then we might need more than one cabin...

First hike to Old Man's Cave - I think Mike and Ben slept through this hike.  My dad stayed behind to babysit William, who was napping.

She enjoyed this hike!

Claire's first hike!  Cute family.

Great looking bunch on that bridge.

Everything was so green!  We have gotten so much rain lately that there were moss and ferns everywhere!  It was really beautiful.

Eliana spent a lot of time hiking through the creek.  Here she is trying to skip rocks with Uncle Michael.

William stayed back at the cabin to do a little reading.

Since the kids couldn't jump in the hot tub, I brought a little pool for them.  The huge deck was a perfect place to have a pool party.

Later that afternoon... David holding Claire.  This is one of his expertise: getting a baby to nap in his arms.

It was a sleepy afternoon.  Ben thought that he needed a nap after sleeping in through the morning hike.

More to come. :)

Handsome cowboy

Once belonging to Eliana, this caballito is now the perfect size for our little cowboy.  And he loves it!

Our Big One Year Old!

William is one! That was so fast! Wasn't he just born? Oh he is such a sweet little boy and definitely more a little boy now than a baby.  He smiles so much and loves to play games.  When I put him to bed, he likes to pop his pacifier out of his mouth and try to put it in my mouth while I sing to him (do you think that is a judgement on my singing ability?), then he giggles and puts it back in his mouth.  He snuggles in so sweet while I rock him, and he plays a game where he tucks his head on each shoulder back and forth while smiling at me.  He gives kisses on command and will blow raspberries nonstop.  His favorite thing to do is walk.  As long as someone holds his hands, he would walk for miles on end.  I think he is the cutest (boy) baby ever (Eliana was pretty darn cute herself at that age).  Oh how time just flies by!  Where did my baby go?

We saw the pediatrician yesterday for his one year check up.  William weighed 21 lb 14 oz (56%) and was 30 in long (40%).  He got his shots, which were quite terrible.  He was giggling before and then wailing crying after.  I cried a little too because he was so upset.  Luckily that was short lived and by the evening he was fine.  We did find out that his iron level was low, so the pediatrician has recommended he start a vitamin supplement.  I have not had much luck so far with the liquid vitamin.  William gagged so hard on it this morning that he threw up out his nose.  I think I will try mixing it with applesauce tomorrow.  Maybe instead I should try mixing some steak with his applesauce... that might be a little tastier and more likely to be eaten.

Getting his one year photo was nearly impossible.  He is always trying to climb on things - this from a kid who barely crawls!  I got just a couple of good shots before he did is head dive trick again.

What a cheeseball.  This was the best I could do.

Hey mom, what are you doing?  Want me to come check it out?

For William's birthday, Eliana wanted to get him a balloon.  When we went to the store, Eliana picked the balloon out all by herself.  She insisted William would like a Frozen balloon best of all.  She was right, he really like it!  She is a pretty thoughtful girl.

Eliana also made him a "Happy Birthday" sign.  She worked very hard on it for a long time, which I really appreciated.

For Eliana's first birthday, I had a fairly elaborate birthday party involving an ABC theme, crafts, and lots of people.  She didn't nap well with the party and felt pretty overwhelmed, so it was kind of a bust.  William, the ever short changed second child, had a much more sedate party.  His dad didn't even show up for it until the very end! (Poor David, he was really disappointed that he got stuck at work late).  Uncle Michael, Aunt Melissa, and Cousin Claire did come over for dinner and cake.  I made William's favorite - spaghetti and meatballs.  Then we had cupcakes.  Eliana helped me make them while William was napping.  My first attempt was using this recipe for a "healthy first birthday smash cake."  The recipe involved a lot of whole wheat, bananas, peaches, and no added sugar.  While I might have over baked them just a tad, I would definitely not call them a cake by any sense of the word.  They were like dry bread with a touch of banana.  They were so bad in fact that even Eliana, the ultimate lover of cupcakes, refused to eat them.  So I decided to make my own version based off of that recipe.  I switched half of the whole wheat for white flour, added 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and doubled the wet ingredients while keeping the dry amt the same.  I didn't have any peaches left, so I used applesauce instead.  The result was definitely better.  Still not a great tasting cupcake, but at least edible.  William loved them though!  I just used regular icing, which was way too sweet for the healthy "cupcake" but mostly I just wanted it for the pictures.  David made it home just in time to see William with icing all over his face.

The end result.  William knows how to blow on food when we say "hot" so he actually did a great job trying to blow out his candle.  Even though he couldn't actually blow it out, he had the right idea.

Trying to put the whole thing in his mouth.

Happy Birthday Will!

Time for a bath.  By the way, blue food coloring will dye your child AND your tub blue!

While his party wasn't as big as Eliana's first birthday, I think William had more fun.  He definitely cried less.  We celebrated his birthday several other times as well with different family members.  An added bonus of having a small party.  I love this sweet little boy so much.  Happy Birthday Big Willy!

Neighborhood Parks

"Why am I stuck in this stroller and not walking around?"

 When it is not raining, we have been trying to get outside and enjoy the great parks in our neighborhood.  These first pictures are at Fancyburg park.  There is an area along the path to the playground that has a short trail of large rocks.  I am not really sure what they are for, except for kids to explore.  Eliana and I really like checking it out.  William joined in with us one day.  He was pretty excited about it, but he is not quite up for the rugged terrain yet.  He doesn't want to be carried around, but when I let him cruise and explore, he tends to fall and cry.  So he is not usually invited on these special rock exploring trips. 

He so wishes he could walk.

She goes up and down the line of rocks.  What a cool part of the park!

 So to continue the exploration of more natural parts of local parks, we have also been visiting Reed Rd Park that has a little creek running along the side of it.  Eliana really loves this place.  Once again, the age difference with William and Eliana poses a challenge.  Eliana wants to be in the water checking everything out but William is not quite there yet.  He loves playing in the water, but it is hard to keep a hand on both kids on this uneven ground.  It makes me so happy though that these kids love nature.  All they need is some rocks and dirt, and they are entertained for hours.  We have come back to the creek several times with Eliana dressed in a swimsuit so she can really play.  The water level is pretty high this summer due to all the rain.  In one area, the water gets up to her waist, which she really likes to walk through, but she definitely gets nervous and wants me close by to hold her hand if necessary. 

Our first time visiting the creek, so we tried to stay dry.  Eliana likes to throw rocks in that deep area.

William is checking out a rock.  It was very difficult to keep him dry.  That's why we wore swimsuits the next time.

 This was a more recent trip to Fancyburg park along with some friends (it was unseasonably cold for July).  William was having a blast walking around, which he could actually do with the flatter ground. One of the cutest things was Amelia helping all of the younger girls.  Amelia is five, but she was still able to lift both Eliana and Adele up into the swings, and then proceeded to push them both!  She was so sweet!  Later, she helped Eliana up on the balance beam and held her hand so she could walk across.  She even cautioned Eliana on the bumpy part that is would be more difficult.  When did these babies turn into little responsible people?

Riding the bumble bee.  Similar to this photo.

I think he likes it.  This is William's face for just about everything.

Much to Eliana's annoyance, William loved throwing mulch onto the slide.

Mulch is the best

There's that face again.  And more mulch.

Perfect toy - William has something to hold onto and something to push around and play with.