Greetings From Ohio!

Sometimes I think we never stop moving. We are on the go again....this time we are in Ohio. My nephew, Christopher, is making his Confirmation on Sunday. I am Chris' godmother and I was honored to be asked to be his sponsor for Confirmation. This past week has been absolutely crazy for us - the reunion, house guests until Monday, Madeline's 2 yr. post placement visit from our social worker, our sump pump died.....yep, things have been hectic. But, it was nice, with all of that stuff behind us, to hit the road as a family and have some down time. We did decide that we were going to start out our trip by driving only part way and breaking up our trip in Sandusky, Ohio. We stayed overnight at the Great Wolf Lodge, where there is an indoor water park. I was not sure if there would be enough age appropriate water activities for Madeline but the place had TONS to do! Madeline had a blast! They had smaller sized water slides that emptied into shallow pools. This was perfect for Madeline's size and Madeline even went down a few times by herself. There were a few larger water slides. One of them, I was actually able to coax Madeline down with me on a double inner tube. Occasionally, David or I would take turns watching Madeline in the smaller pools while the other headed out to do a bigger water slide on our own. The good portion of water activities were appropriate for the Maddie-sized (or up to about 10 years old). Although there is a Great Wolf Lodge closer to our house, it is in Niagara Falls, Canada and therefore, because of the location, the prices are inflated. Our rate in Sandusky was very reasonable and I would make the trip again.

This morning, after another trip to the water park, we hit the road again and arrived at Margaret's house in the late afternoon. It is always nice to visit Margaret, her husband Mark, and their kids, Chris and Kate. Madeline, had an absolute BLAST playing with her cousins. Kate and Chris are older than Madeline but they were so patient playing with her. Madeline especially enjoyed playing with Kate because of the girly-girl aspect.....Kate even treated Madeline to putting on lip gloss!! The picture above is of Chris and Kate playing with Madeline. Below is a video of Kate and Madeline on the trampoline (sorry for the video quatility, it was taken on my crappy cell phone). Mama-Dirtyfoot even got on the trampoline and was having way too much fun!

After playing outside and working up a huge appetite, Margaret and Mark put out a gut-bustin' steak dinner. Yummy!!! And for dessert, Kate made a sinful chocolate-peanut butter pie. Double yum! Tonight, Margaret and I are just kind of hanging out and sipping on wine. David and Mark headed out to see the new Star Trek movie .....I just don't get the attraction of Sci-Fi.